Slow Finishing

I generally have several projects going at the same time...flipping back and forth leaving many of them partly done for months...or years.  I like the variety....but it's nice to finish something once in a while.

I settled in last evening for several hours of slow stitching....or maybe I should say....slow finishing. 

This post is about my process....so if the details make your head spin....move on and enjoy your day.  

Once I got my mug rug the size to hold a small plate...I was ready for backing and binding. This is what the back looked like once I took out all the paper pieces.

I didn't want to machine stitch on a binding and lose some of the border squares in the seam allowance. But I did want a binding because I like how it frames a quilt....I had to think this through.

If I do another one I will leave the edges of the squares along the outside unfolded so I can machine sew on a binding. 

To solve the issue on this one I cut a piece of stiff batting a little bit bigger than the quilt to create a border that the binding would wrap around.

I auditioned several fabrics for the border...and liked this black and white stripe the best.  It seemed to give it a little whimsy and was a nice contrast to all the colors.

I pressed one edge of the binding and hand stitched it onto the quilt with little whip stitches just like I attached the squares. I mitered the corners as I stitched.  Then I basted it on the batting and fabric backing.

I liked the addition of the black and white...so decided to hand quilt it by stitching in the ditch along each seam with black thread.  I couldn't rock my needle because the batting was too stiff...so it was up then down for each stitch....true slow stitching. I'm not all that great at hand quilting....but it worked out OK.

My binding was a little wide...but I just went with it and folded and stitched it to the back.

My apple with cinnamon snack was the test drive this afternoon. 

And this evening with a cup of tea....I officially got "below the fold" and can flip my paper over for the below the fold 1/2 of the puzzle.  

I will do a few things differently the next time around...but this tiny first English paper pieced project is finished and I enjoyed every slow stitching minute.

Gayle, a blog reader and quitler, contacted me a few days ago to cheer me on.  She's made two twin size English paper pieced quilts and has enough hexagon squares done for 1 or 2 more.  One can dream!