February Finished...under the wire!

Once again, loving the whole Lovely Year of Finishes challenge. And possibly cursing the fact that February only has 28 days. But it's still February as I write this, and my snowman quilt is D.O.N.E.!

And the only part I had to do today was hand stitch the binding to the back side. The pattern is called "Jingles" from The Cotton Shop. I bought it at least five years ago, and then purchased fabric four years ago while pregnant with my oldest son. Finally started sewing it this year!

It's been a while since I've made a flannel quilt. It's a glorious thing to have in winter; I'm currently snuggled up under it while I type. Oh, and one of my kids already spilled milk on it, so it's feeling quite loved at the moment.

Here's a close-up of the center panel. I created the faces using varying widths of zigzag stitches. The center panel is quilted in a wavy, meandering all-over type of pattern, around the snowmen and trees. The rest is straight line quilted. I can't wait to wash it to help hide my imperfect quilting stitches get that wonderful crinkled look.

Second only to the outer border fabric (a Woolies flannel from Maywood that looks like a blue tweed sweater), I love this backing stripe! It reminds me of a pair of pajamas my dad had when I was a kid.

 If it looks like there's not much quilting on the back, there isn't. I used a quilt-as-you-go method just through the batting. Then I layered the quilt top/batting with the backing and did minimal stitching.

I think this little bird is so cute too!

I've got my March project in mind--a wedding gift 6 months overdue! Watch for a post on it (and hopefully progress as well) shortly, because I recently found out that they'll be needing a baby quilt at the end of summer. I'd better get the wedding gift done before then! What's the latest you've ever given a handmade quilt?