Second 365 Block of the Day Quilt is Finished!

The quilt is in the washer as I type.  What a wonderful feeling!   The blocks came from a challenge that started January 1, 2015.  All the blocks were completed be the end of December that year.  The idea was to put all the blocks into one quilt.  But that was way too busy.  So a second centre was pieced and two quilts were made.

The centres of both tops were quilted on my mid arm.  And that's where the projects stopped.  For over a year.   Finally time to experiment.  To one top centre,  the backing was added to, four strips of bat joined to the centre bat, and then the wide border was stitched on.  The borders were pin basted and then free motion quilted using my Janome.   Puckers, pleats and stress galore!   Lots of ripping out stitches and blue air.  Finally that border was quilted.  And the top put aside. 

Then the second top was pulled out to be worked on.  This time the three borders were stitched together for each of the four sides.  Then they were quilted on the long arm.  The backing trimmed 2" beyond the borders.  The borders stitched to the centre.  The backing folded over an inch, then hand stitched closed.  Just a bit of free motion quilting over the space where the top and quilted borders were joined.  Add the binding and the first 365 was completed.  Much easier than the first experiment.  Little puckering and almost no blue air.

Now to finish the earlier experimental top.  Only 2 rows of borders needed to be joined for each side of the quilt.   Instead of quilting it under the domestic machine, these were quilted on the frame.  A bit of backing fabric was wasted, but this was so much easier.   Then add the quilted borders the same as before.  So much easier with the borders having been quilted.  Plus having had some practice with this method in the previous top probably helped.

Using the quilting suspension system made things so much easier.  Both for the free motion under the Janome, and for stitching on the binding. 

Here's the second 365 quilt....

Here's the first 365 for comparison....

Similar, but not identical!   Here's hoping they survive the washing machine and dryer!