But first, here is more info on “the turtle”–learned from my family who live nearby. The turtle is likely VERY old. Three generations of the family who own her have taken care of this turtle: the grandmother passed the turtle to her daughter, who passed the turtle eventually to her daughter, the current owner. The turtle IS… VERY BIG. And, obviously, long-lived.
“Happy” is now basted and ready for hand quilting. Here she is on the longarm.
Below you can see the big basting stitches I can do on the longarm. And, this time I covered the quilt more densely than I did on Traverse. It is very easy to clip these threads when I need to do that.
The backing is this lovely Ruby Star Society fabric–which is in keeping with the Cotton+Steel/Ruby Star Society fabrics I used in the centers of the blocks on the front.
And here she is all done.
It is really hard to get enough light on a quilt in this room. But my longarm light bar gives me plenty of light.
I’m thinking I’ll need a dark solid for binding. I had wondered about the backing fabric for binding, but… I don’t think so. But I’m not sure about that yet.
Now I’ll put Big Red on the longarm. Meanwhile, I think I’ve stopped moving around blocks on the “Summer Camp” mystery quilt from the Modern. Quilt Studio. Maybe it needs to be called “Summer Camp.”
Louisa Enright's Blog 
“Happy” is stunning!!!!!
My hats off to you lady. This quilt is a true masterpiece!!!
Beautiful quilt! A lotta work!!! 😊 Leigh
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That’s lovely! I’m 19 and I just finished basting my first real quilt. I’ve done several small quilts where you tie them. I really want to do something a little more complex than a 3” square patchwork, which is what I’m doing. I love your blog! Do you have any recommendations for patterns for a beginner quilter who wants to keep this beautiful art alive?
-Grace from Texas
Hello Grace! Thanks for reading my blog. And I’m very excited that you are learning quilt. For a recommendation: what about a rail fence pattern? But you can go to quilter Bonnie Hunter’s blog (quiltville.com) and at the top you will see a link to her free patterns. You might find some inspiration there. Bonnie is an awesome teacher and her blog has a lot of free tips and videos. If you are headed more toward an “improv” type of quilting, try A Quilter’s Table blog. If you like the graphic–made with solids–take a look at designer Tara Faughnan’s web site and gallery. And to see lots of different quilts and how they look quilted, go look at longarm quilter wendy’s-quilting.ca. She lives in Thunder Bay, Ontario. For foundation piecing work, look at Amy Friend’s blog. I think you’ll find lots of inspiration from these folks. Let us know when you launch into your next project. Smaller projects are a great idea at first too–until you see what you like.
Hi! Thanks so much for the recommendations! I’ll definitely look at all of those blogs and when I get started on my quilt I’ll leave a comment and share what I’ve picked out to do!
Great. I’m looking forward to seeing what you do next. Good luck. Have fun.