Row by Row 2015 - Finish and a Win

I decided to see if I could get a quilt completed for the Row by Row experience this year. I had picked up a cute row pattern with cabanas on a beach from the Quilt Patch and made it over the next few days after work.  I then had time to get to a bunch of other local stores and over the past two weeks have worked diligently on them in the evenings after work.

I machine pieced the rows and used fusible applique. Some "firsts" for me during this process:

• Applique by machine using hte buttonhole stitch - not as difficult as I thought - need to work on turning those corners
• Fusible applique - tried several different types and found one I like - now I need to figure out which type that one is!
• Used the Quilt as You Go technique between the rows to practice longer seams before I put the rows together on my Dear Jane quilts
• Attached binding by machine rather than hand-stitching the back - if I am going to do this, I need to make my binding strips smaller since I like a nice tight binding.
• Machine quilting the entire thing - yes, you really should tape the backing down before pinning - I'll say no more

All in all, I had a lot of fun. I was the first to bring a completed top to Kelly Ann's Quilting in Warrenton, VA so I got to pick out 25 fat quarters. In addition, since I used the row from KAQ in the quilt, I received a gift certificate...which I promptly spent!!

Here is the result of my labor, which will be hung at Kelly Ann's for the duration of the Row by Row - through September, I think.

In order to keep myself from obsessing over what order to put the rows in, I chose to put them in alphabetical order by shop name, as listed on the label. (Yes, hand-written - I was in a hurry and it was 2am!)