Finished Deer Quilt

I have finished Bailey's deer quilt.  It is soooo soft and heavy.  It'll be really really warm.  I have to roll it with Mr. Sticky to get the fuzz, threads, and dog hair off, and I have to wipe it with a wet cloth to remove any residual chalk, but otherwise, put it in a box and wrap it up!

Bailey's Deer Quilt

I have to say a couple of things about using fleece as a backing. It is fabulous to use, so easy to quilt.  It stayed put and I didn't have to repin as I went along.  However, in the dryness of our winter house, it is also a magnet for every stray hair, piece of thread, lint, dust...  And it all shows up against that black sashing.  But the quilt pattern shows up really nicely on the back, so all in all, I'd recommend fleece as a backing.  It IS more expensive by far, but so nice to work with.

There was ONE major problem with this quilt, and a lesson learned.  I bought the backing before I finished the piecing, estimating how much backing I would need.   I bought 5 yards of fleece (did I mention that it was expensive?)  Cut that in half, sew the 2 panels together -- it gave me a backing that was 2 1/2 yards long (90").  When I finished piecing the quilt, and put on the final border, my quilt length was 88".  This only gave me 2 inches to spare, an inch on top, an inch on the bottom. It was enough, but so, so close.)  When I laid out the quilt and pinned it, I was very very careful, and kept checking, and when I finished pinning, I had backing showing on all 4 sides.  Whew.  I proceeded with the quilting and it went along so well.  But as is sometimes the case, after you remove the pins and smooth things out, the quilt top shifts outward, and as a result of this, I lost about an inch or two on the bottom.  I didn't notice this happening as I quilted, the pins didn't have puckering around them as I removed them.  So when I was finished quilting and trimmed the quilt, there it was!  A gap on the back with no backing!  It was a full inch or more in the corner, tapering down to a point where the backing started again.  A long skinny wedge, about 30 inches long.  YIKES!  Some of that wedge would fit under the binding, but I was left then with a gap about 15 inches.  I sewed a piece of fleece to the edge and trimmed it to the quilt length.  It looked horrible.  I ripped it out.  I could have trimmed off 1 inch of border all around, but that would have cut off all the points of my quilted triangles.  Racking my brain, I came up with the perfect solution.  The Label!!  I don't usually put labels on my quilts. (I know, I know, I'm bad....)  I embroidered Bailey's full name (I needed a LONG label!) and 2014 in larger letters on a leftover strip on black sashing, aligned it with the quilt edge in the corner, centered it, cut the ends, and pinned it.  I sewed it in with the binding, then hand sewed the inner part (so the stitches wouldn't show on the front.)  It completely covered the gap and doesn't look out of place at all!  I think it even ADDS to the beauty of the quilt!  Here it is:  You can't tell this was a huge mistake, can you!?