The Completed Chicago Quilt... Only two months later!

Despite my failure to post about it in a relatively timely fashion, I did in fact finish the Chicago quilt in time to gift it to my cousin at her baby shower the first weekend in June. That said, now seemed like a good time to show off the finished product as her son was born this past weekend as per the photos, mother and baby both seem to be doing well!

So here is the finished product, conveniently posed in front of color coordinated balloons.

When I last posted, I had finished piecing the front and back and was trying to figure out the whole "quilting" thing.  I ultimately decided to quilt around the shore and skyline to outline the image and try free form quilting for the lake and sky. Given this plan, I started at the straight shoreline to assure that the colored blocks on the back would line up with the image on the front. I also didn't have a lot of space so I had to roll up most of the quilt as I worked (as seen above) and quilt small sections.

The free form quilting was HARD!  I had no idea it would be such a challenge, or so fun! I get it now guys, I really do.  It didn't turn out perfectly, but it is solid and shouldn't fall apart, which was my real concern.

This image of the back provides a good sample of the quilting.

Once the quilting was complete, I finished the edges with wide bias binding.  Finally, I ran it through the wash several times to make sure that none of the threads would come loose (and tied off the few that did) because... Baby.

Then all that was left to do was attend the party!

One advantage of blogging several months after the fact is that the frustration of the learning curve and the many hours of picking out and redoing badly done stitches have faded from memory. Because honestly, this was probably a more ambitious project than a first time quilter should have attempted. It turned out as I pictured, I am pleased with the results, but this was a humbling experience.  That said, I may need to repeat this exercise, perhaps with a different skyline... Golden Gate Bridge anyone?