Whit's End..

So I'm back to an end of the month rush to finish a quilt.  That can only mean that Sinta and Sherri have started Another Year of Schnibbles again.  I have so much fun making these little quilts, but I always seem to be working up to the last minute.  This month though I was determined to not only make it, but also get it quilted.  No more Schnibble UFO's!

Sinta and Sherri picked the Little Bite pattern 'Whit' by Miss Rosie's Quilt Co. this time.  It's like a Schnibbles quilt except that it uses 2 mini charm packs instead of the regular charm packs.  (For those of you not up on the lingo, a mini charm pack is made up of 2 1/2" squares while a charm pack has 5" squares.)  Unless they're really on sale, I tend not to buy mini charm packs.  Because for about the price of two of them, I can get a regular charm pack and cut it down myself which nets me the equivalent of 4 mini charm packs.  Despite having a drawer full of charm packs I could have used for this  (          bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb            b <- my cat just typed this), I ended up going shopping.  I bought a charm pack of Best Day Ever by April Rosenthal.  She's a new to me designer, but I just love this line of fabric.  So bright and cheerful!

I used a charm pack of Best Day Ever and cut it into 4 mini charm packs.

I had trouble deciding which version of Whit to make, but settled on the top version initially.  After making all those flying geese (that finish at 1" x 2"), the quilt went together very quickly.

Although I like this version, I thought it needed more.  So I added some more flying geese, around 100 or so.

I have to share this candid of Sam I got while trying to photograph the quilt...

I thought I could quilt it fairly quickly.  I was only planning to do some straight line quilting.  But as usual, once I started, I kept adding to it.  Instead of just quilting around each block, I ended up quilting around each of the flying geese.  Then I decided the sashing needed something.  Then the borders needed more, etc, etc...

It's almost impossible to see the quilting in the pictures because of the white background.  It's only slightly more visible on the backing.  However, it shows up really well in person so I'm feeling like it's worth the extra effort.

I came very close to finishing this quilt this month, the only thing remaining is the binding.  I'll get that done in the next day or two.  Although the number of tiny flying geese in this quilt seemed daunting, once they were made, the rest of the quilt went together very quickly.  And now that the weather is turning colder, looking at this cheerful quilt just makes me smile.  My husband says the colors remind him of Christmas.  I completely disagree.  To me, they remind me of spring.  Is it crazy to be so looking forward to spring before winter has even come? 'Cause I really am.

“God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.” 

Ephesians 2:8-9 (NLT)