After almost exactly two years - which actually isn't a bad record for me - Dog Sled is a finished quilt!
This was a quilt kit, purchased in Alaska (duh), after my mother-in-law and I got slightly-less-than-sober at a cruise shore excursion. We were blowing glass at Jewell Gardens (our instructor now has his own shop in Skagway, if you're visiting) and wine was included with the after-snacks. And then they dropped us off downtown.
So clearly I recommend tipsy shopping with a fabric enabler.
The kit was easy to follow. The only problem I had was that there wasn't enough of the border fabric to do mitered corners. I tried making them out of HSTs, but it was not really that great. So no looking closely at the corners.
And yes, I know the black fabric is going in the wrong direction. They're ahead of everyone else and already turned around to go back. It was a deliberate design decision...as opposed to my usual oopsie design decisions!
The backing is this utterly fantastic Connecting Threads flannel that one of my Instagram friends named "the Patronus fabric."
It's not the best match, color-wise. But it's the best match, Alaska-wise, so I'm quite happy with it. (Although it made picking a binding a little harder!)
And yes, I had to do some creative piecing to get the backing the right size. Directional backings are not my strong suit!
The quilting is swirls to mimic snow, with some secret hearts in there. I haven't quilted those in a while - not since I bought my own machine - so that was fun!
I debated a few names - Dog Sled, First Place, Don't Shop Tipsy - but finally settled on a classic Alaska name. And I'm quite pleased with the finish - it'll be the one thing I make for me this quarter!
I made some pillows and a table runner out of the scraps last year for both my mother and mother-in-law, since they both cruised with us. And now that I'm officially done, the rest of the scraps will be worked into my MIL's next commission, as well as in a strip quilt for the Dude.
