cheery (easter) quilt, a finish

my eternal spring break handstitching project, which has accompanied me on the last five spring break trips, is actually finished!

the quilt adorned the couch in the bedroom i stayed in, which is also where i stitched on it. there was a full wall of windows looking out on the view of the costa rican jungle and ocean in the distance. i think the brightly-colored boxes of the quilt looked right at home in the modern decor with the tropical view.

i actually finished off the handquilting about halfway through the trip this year, for once underestimating how much i would be able to complete, and was left twiddling my thumbs during downtime when i'd have been happy to be stitching and had none to do. 

here i am, about to complete the last box of handstitching. on this extra-thick blue section i decided to do two sets of stitches on the inner and outer borders of the frame. i considered doing several rounds to fill the frame width completely, but liked the look of just two on each side.

another design switch i made was i opted not to handquilt the hot pink frames. i've never been happy with the thread color i got for this color, so i decided to leave them unstitched. i feel like this was a good choice.

the sun was going down as i finished up. what a spectacular setting to be handquilting in!

after being taken on five international trips. this quilt was ready for a wash. at the beginning of the trip i was a little anxious i wouldn't finish it this time because i knew it shouldn't go any longer without getting cleaned up and i didn't want to wash it before i finished the stitching because that would definitely affect the look of the stiches that came after washing. but i got it done and all is well. as soon as we got home after more than 10 hours of travel, i threw it in the washer, and put it in the dryer just before going to bed.

just look at how fabulous the handstitching looks after being washed! it takes the quilt to the next level, in my opinion, and i love it so much. i'm one very pleased quilter. sticking it out over five years to complete all the stitching was absolutely the right choice. i've been rather ambivalent about the quilt for a long time, but now it's done and washed, i truly love it.

now we're home, i've had it casually draped on the bed in this window so i can frequently look at the crinkle and smile.

this is how the double rows of stitching on the big blue section looked. love it. there were two other frames in different blocks that were also wide that i would have added the second row to, as well, but i didn't have the other colors with me on the trip because i'd already completed those sections. oh, well. this one corner is extra nice.

the back shows off the handquilting really well. again, i'm just so pleased with how this turned out. i thought all the different colored threads would show up against the mostly solid curry backing, but the stitches are so small on the back that the colors don't show as i imagined. however, the look of all the stitches is quite impressive, so i'm happy with the outcome.

this has me excited to do my next color box quilt when i get my wips finished and get back to starting new projects. all in good time!

the binding is a darker cinnamon brown from the top. i think it frames the bright colors well. the post-wash crinkle on it is another textural hit.

i did a beach photo shoot with this quilt in mexico, where we normally spend our spring breaks, a couple of years ago when i got the sun stitched into the top. too bad the crinkle isn't in those photos; these will have to do for crinkle and those show the full quilt.

that's a wrap! the cheery quilt that d4 told me looks like easter colors is now ready for easter season, spreading its sushine in my heart if nowhere else.