Year of the Snake Quilt - Finishing

So finally, here's how I finished up my Year of the Snake quilt!  See the last two weeks' posts for how I got to here.

After all the appliques were attached and zigzagged around, I sandwiched the quilt - back, quilt batting, and then the top.  I pinned it about every six inches with curved quilting safety pins to hold everything in place.

Then the fun began!  I really do love free motion quilting - it's kind of a Zen thing, giving me lots of time to think.  For this quilt, I used large curls to give a general idea of lots of snakes.  And I also stitched around each applique.

For the quilting, I used this variegated black/white/gray thread from Sulkey.

After I finished the quilting, I trimmed the edges and rounded the corners.  I just like the look of rounded corners and it does make binding a lot easier!

I made bias tape for the binding, in the same color as the backing.  See this past post for how to do bias tape.

I've begun adding one last step - printing off the name of the quilt, my name, and the year onto printer fabric ....

.... turning the edges under and machine stitching to hem, and then hand sewing into place.

 Happy Creating!  Deborah