Suddenly spring finish

And suddenly, it's spring!  Yay! I know it isn't spring for everyone, but heck, I am so thrilled to open the windows and put away the heavy coat and maybe start to think about possibly someday having breakfast on the deck again.  Of course, it's also the time of the year when I pull out the stored spring clothes and say "ugh, why did I save this?" Long story short, I'll be shopping this weekend.

This is also the time of year when the light is weird for taking quilty pictures because the sun is out but the trees don't have leaves yet, so there are strange shadows and lots of over exposure.  But we'll get through it because today I have a finish to show, and darned if I didn't manage to get some decent pictures.  There are a lot of shadows from the quilting texture, but it will be fine! Here's my newly-finished quilt:

This is Misfit Toys. The top was my last finish for 2017, and now it is all finished and is a cuddly quilt!  For those of you seeing it for the first time, this is kind of a "cleanout" quilt-- it's made of orphan blocks, leftovers, a few failed experiments, and a few leftover parts and pieces to fill in some spaces.  All of the sashing and the borders are strings from the string jar.  It was a lot of fun to make and was all done on the fly, with no plan until I put the blocks on the wall and started arranging them.

I am actually amazed at how much I like this quilt.  I never would have expected it, but it's lovely.  I'm surprised that all the blocks and leftovers go together so well.  I'm also surprised that there is so much to look at here.  From a distance the light strings kind of blend together and fade into the background, but up close there is a lot of variety:

It's not just whites and creams!  There are pinks, yellows, greens, pale blues, and a few prints in there, and every time I look at it I find another reminder of a previous quilt.  I don't remember where I used a particular white on white, but the prints bring it back every time.

This quilt has a lot of really pretty texture.  It was quilted by my friend Diane Minkley in a pattern called Popcorn, which works great on this quilt.  (Diane could quilt one for you, too!)  An allover quilting pattern was really the best way to go to tie everything together.

I used some yardage of a Moda print for the backing.  It's not "leftover," like the rest of the materials in the quilt, but I mostly use neutrals for backings and I had this yardage, so I used it.  For the binding, I joined together some shorter pieces from my basket of bindings, pieces that were 60-70 inches long, which isn't really long enough for a quilt of any size.  Put a few of those together, though, and you've got something.  I've been using machine bindings for many things lately, but this time I hand-stitched it to the back, mostly because the evenings have been kind of chilly and it's nice to have a quilt on your lap.

So there we are--another happy finish!  I hope you have had some happy stitching this week, too, and some spring.  It's wonderful to have the warm temperatures back, isn't it?  I understand they'll be going away again next week, but I'm enjoying them now.

Everybody have a good weekend!  I do have to get some clothes, and I'm also planning to do some yard work.  After this week, that will be a chore, but for now I plan to enjoy it.  I've got a new garden fork, and I'm ready to use it!

Sharing at crazymomquilts, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Finished or Not Friday, and Oh Scrap!