Quilt 4: "Sandwich and Pin" (and Happy New Year)

Here we are!  2013 already!  I wonder how long it will take for me to get used to writing "13" as the year. Probably about a month.

Quilt 4 is still my focus I haven't decided whether to continue working on it a while or just box it up and take it out next year when Christmas time rolls around. For the moment, I'm continuing to work on it. These photos are from just before Christmas; I did the assembly I'm showing you then and have been working on the hand quilting since.

Here's my backing fabric (below).

I prefer to back my quilts with a print, but for a queen-size bedspread, well... it's awfully expensive to do that - and as it's a spread and not just a "throw" (where you'd see the back) it just doesn't seem worth the cost. So, as I've done with my other bedspread size quilts, I'm backing it with plain "homespun" cotton. 

I moved all the furniture out the the way - had to because of the size of this monster! Then I smoothed and smoothed as much as I could. Next I put the batting down (king size batting, as this quilt is almost that size - I had about 18" of excess on one side after the sandwiching,which I trimmed and will use for placemats and/or table runners later).

And here it is: All spread out and ready to pin:

I used every pin I've got  and just barely managed to get the whole thing pinned. I'd have liked the pins to be closer together, but hopefully I'll be OK with them as they are. I'm planning to do mostly straight-line stitching, so it should be OK.

I've been thinking what colour thread to use for the hand quilting. I was really on the fence about it, so I contacted Pauline, my quilt guru. She quickly suggested dark green. At first I wasn't sure, but I took some small scraps with me to the store when I went to buy the thread and... well.. she sure was right! So dark green it is!  A nice bonus is that the dark green will show up beautifully on the back (with the cream backing), so the back will look interesting when it's flipped over.