Almost there!

Well, after devoting much of my weekend to it, my Double Irish Chains quilt is all but finished. Phew! All I have to do, as you can see from the pic below, is hand sew the binding - the perfect project for those lazy days of my New Hampshire holiday next week.

A rare spot of sunshine demanded that I take this photo in the front 'garden'.

There were a few miscalculations along the way, as well as a couple of unfortunate fabric mis-cuts due to sheer exhaustion, but eventually, I got there. I briefly contemplated free machine quilting when I'd gotten the quilt sandwich put together, but I quickly ruled that out in respect for my sanity. Instead, I followed the chains themselves, quilting diagonal lines in an unobtrusive cream thread. The effect, I think, is perfect, as the diagonals emphasise and draw attention to the chains while still giving the eye a little something to work with in the large cream-coloured patches of fabric.

A glimpse of the back 

For the backing, I used an extra-wide cotton in a light tan print that perfectly matches the small flowers in the dark blue squares and complements the writing on the light blue squares. Finally, for the binding, I sewed together strips of each of the featured fabrics on the quilt top. I mostly had the cream cotton left over, so the binding is predominantly cream with a few splashes of brightness added by occasional strips of light and dark blue print. 

A label without a name

I also threw together a label to be hand sewn onto the backing. The only problem is, I'm not quite sure what to call this little quilt. Since it's meant as a wedding present, any mention of 'chains' must be handled delicately, but, of course, all I can think of are the usual jokes about 'balls and chains', etc. Any suggestions for a more suitable name?