First finish of the Year

This is my first finish of the year. It was started way back in 2012, as a leader/ender project. The top was finished about a year ago, and then it sat and waited to be quilted.  I finished the quilting a couple of weeks ago, and then it patiently sat, yet again, and waited for its binding. I finished the binding on Monday. I have decided to name this one Four Square. I had a lot of fun with the quilting. I saw a pantograph that was done with a version of these shapes, and thought that I could probably do something similar to it, but free hand, using the squares as a guide for size and direction. I had to work it out on graph paper first, and kept the drawing as a guide for which direction to go.

I did the binding, as usual, with a diagonal striped fabric, and a faux piped technique. I love the look and the little bit of colour that piping gives. The fact that the piping also acts as a guide for machine sewing in the ditch to finish the binding is a wonderful bonus. I know lots of people who really enjoy the process of hand sewing their bindings, but that has always been the part of making a quilt that I've liked the least. So this is my go-to binding technique. There's a tutorial here if you are interested in trying it.

I pieced the backing out of some light green fabrics that have lived in my stash for quite some time. I'm liking the look of pieced backings more and more as time goes by. It also does wonderful things for the stash report. Rather than buying new yardage for a backing, I can use what I've got. The challenge is to come up with a combination that looks like it all works together.
The final size of this quilt is 72x88. It used up a ton of my scrap 2 1/2 inch squares. However the box of those is no where even close to empty, so it's time to start thinking of another project for them. I have one in mind, but it will involve some cutting of yardage for the constant fabric background, so it's going to have to continue to knock around in my head for a while yet. I'm linking this up to a couple of finish parties: Sarah's at Can I get a Whoop whoop and finish it Friday over at Crazy Mom Quilts.