Cottage CQ...Finishing and Finished!

The last few days have been spent doing all the detailed steps of finishing my crazy quilt.
I did my very best to keep things square and true...I still have a ways to go to get this all perfect, but I'll keep trying on my next quilt.

Meanwhile, here are the steps I took, once the embellishment on the front was totally completed....

First I appliqued a narrow border onto the front.
Sharon Schamber's great technique for ironing my folded edge helped me prepare my border pieces: I cut a piece of freezer paper 1/4" narrower than the border, ironed it to the back of the fabric, and then had a perfect edge for ironing exactly 1/4" at the fold. Then I simply removed the freezer paper and re-ironed my fold.
***Note***Sharon Schamber has a superlative set of free video tutorials on all aspects of quilt construction here. Any level of quilter will improve from watching these, I promise you.


Next I used all my rulers to make sure my borders were pinned on straight, had good 90 degree corners, that my quilt measured the same top and bottom, and left and right.
This is a good time NOT to be rushed.


Once the border was hand appliqued on, I couched on the row of cording along the inner edge.


Now to the "false back". Normally I use drapery lining--a spongey, somewhat loosely woven flannel--for my batting and a piece of muslin over it, basting those layers into place. This time I just used a piece of cotton quilt batting. I wanted something with slightly more body, and didn't feel I needed the muslin layer.
Here I am basting it into place, being careful not to let my stitches show through on the front. The extra basting you see in that one area is where all the rocks and lucky glass are on the front of the quilt. This extra basting will give that area needed extra support.


The "fancy back" is a lovely silk brocade...I am attaching it with buttons right over the "false back".


Next I basted the edges of all the layers together, before adding my French facing. I didn't want the various edges of the layers sliding around under my presser foot while I was machine stitching on my facing.

This is not a binding...once the facing is sewn on, it gets turned to the back of the quilt, so none of it shows from the front.
I forgot to photograph that, but did write a comprehensive article about the French facing technique for CQMagOnline a few years ago. You can read it here.


Once my facing was sewn on, I had to trim that inner seam so there wouldn't be a huge long lump under my turned facing.

I turned the facing toward the back, ironed it, and pinned some lace along the edge, which is being sewn in at the same time the facing is being tacked to the back.

For my label, I used Barbara Curiel's fantastic idea of using Tshirt transfer paper on a vintage hankie. "Cottage CQ" has been my working title, but "Bryant Family Cottage" is the quilt's formal name.

The finished back doesn't have its sleeve sewn on yet. I can procrastinate on that!

And here quilt from the front, finished.

"Bryant Family Cottage"
32 3/4" X 35 1/4"

I left this image pretty big, so if you click on it you can see some detail.

Thank you all so much for traveling along with me during this long ride...I've appreciated your interest, feedback, and empathy, too. ;-)

I feel I did achieve my goal of combining landscape quilting with crazy quilting. Now to just get the technical aspects refined on the next "place portrait" CQ. I wonder where it will be???......