A Checkerboard Finish

 Here is the finished "checkerboard" quilt, completed last week.  This is the one with the "greenish" alternate blocks that are so hard (for me) to photograph accurately!  

I used a lovely variegated thread for the quilting, though the colors are not immediately visible in some of the photos.  Serpentine stitching in vertical rows about two inches apart for the entire quilt.

The quilting went fairly quickly, a couple hours a day until the wrists got tired and sore.  Not hurrying these things anymore!

I love the serpentine rows of quilting as they leave a nice loft and ripples throughout the quilt, even before washing.  I actually did not wash the quilt before putting it in the donation bin at our quilt ministry.  Finished size is about 72 inches square.  Here's a peek at the reverse - the darker green is used along each side with a length of the pale green striped fabric in the center back.  

The bulk of my scrappy 2-1/2 inch squares were used up in this quilt (656 squares to be exact) and the remainder will appear in the encore (smaller) quilt, maybe in the next post.  

Simple piecing, simple quilting, slow and easy seems to be my current pace.  Next up for the weekend, the state taxes, having finished the federal forms this morning.  I'll be VERY happy to have that chore off my desk for another year! 

A sneak peek at the "encore" quilt top:

And that's a wrap for today.  I'm slowly, slowly, advancing in hand quilting my Bramble Blooms I quilt, and looking wistfully at the unfinished Bramble Blooms II top hanging in the closet awaiting a decision on final border(s). At this point I'm planning on keeping both of those quilts when they are eventually completed, hopefully at least one of them will be in the finished column later this year.  

March is the season of Lent and the month for pruning back many shrubs and our overgrown blueberry bushes are in need.  The deer always help out during winter though their reach doesn't extend much over 5 feet.  Our bushes have grown to an unwieldy 6 or 7 feet high and equally wide.  I've always been nervous about this chore, not having anyone personally show me how or what truly needs cutting back.  Words in a book certainly are not always a good substitute for practical in-person lessons in these things are they?  

P.S.  Blogger is no longer sending comments to my gmail account for reply.  Has anyone else experienced this issue recently, and have you found a fix for the issue?  I attempted to fix it in my blog settings to no avail.   So, if you are commenting for the first time and I don't already have your email, kindly include that with your comment if you would like a reply.  Thanks!!