My sister's Canada Day Quilt is done..

The quilt I'm making for my sister is done.  It's on its way to Nova Scotia with us today.

See the backing folded over on
itself.  Gesh...

I'll share a couple of lessons I learned while machine quilting it.     The first lesson is that I should always pin excess backing to the front of the quilt while machine quilting.    It's hard to see, but the line line where where the backing got folded under and I didn't realize it.   I didn't bother to pick it out.  It's quilted in quite nicely!!  This is not the first time it's happened to me.

Second,  I should have known better, but I thought I would save time by using a slightly faster binding method.   I usually always use my tried and true method using my Pfaff bi-level foot.    But yesterday I thought to save time, I'll use another method where you sew the binding on the front of the quilt, fold it over, pin and stitch in the ditch, and hope that the edge of the binding catches in the seam on the back.    Well, even after pinning very carefully, I had 15 small sections in the back where the binding was not stitched down.  I ended up spending a half an hour, re-pinning and re-stitching.    So, I spent more time at the binding after all.

A  one inch star block among the swirls.
Can you draw this without going over a line twice?

I won't show you the front of the quilt right now for two reasons.  It looks the same as the one made for myself and I posted last July 1st and I want my sister to see it first.   I'll show you a couple of pictures of the whimzy quilting on the back though.  

I've added a few little  quilted I spy motifs for my sister.    I wonder if she will be able to find them.

A swirly heart

All folded and ready for the little boler trailer.