The Loveliest of All was the Unicorn

Well, I could barely wait to get back to the Unicorn yesterday morning. In a flash, I had the final two seams sewn and the Unicorn quilt was a finished flimsy.

Of course, I still had the happy task of removing all the paper from the back. I think that took longer than sewing the whole thing together. When the paper was removed, I took another picture.

It looks pretty much the same, only now, with less crunch!

I picked out several different fabrics as potential backings. The Resident Engineer helped me decide on this one.

If you've been reading along for quite some time, you might recall that I used it in this doll quilt for the granddaughter of yet another friend. I had just enough left over for the backing of the unicorn.

Once I had it sandwiched, I kept the quilting pretty simple. It was quilted on my domestic machine. It was hard to decide what to do for the horse, and so I kept to a simple stipple. For this, I used white thread, both front and back.

Continuing with white thread on the back, I switched to an invisible monofilament for the horse's mane. I used long flowing lines, trying to make it look like the long flowing hairs of a horse's mane.

With that swoopiness in the background fabric, I switched off to blue thread on top and did the "Double C" motif used in the Solstice quilt.

And then it was finished. Here's how it looks from the back.

And then, it was an easy choice for the binding.

After dinner, I had some time to hand-stitch it down, and the quilt was finished. Phew! That must be some kind of world record, don't you think? It finished up at 17 x 17 inches.

Here's how it looks from the back.

And now it's packaged up and ready to drop in the mail to my friend. This will come as a surprise to her, and so I'm excited for her to receive it.

All during the day, I had this song going through my head. If, like me, you were born during the 14th Century, you might remember this hit song from the Irish Rovers. And if you're not old enough, please give it a listen and put a smile on your face. If you can't see the video, then click right here.

The next week is going to be a busy one. I need to do some canning, and I have some projects mapped out for myself. This morning, I'm heading over to pick up a pile of cherry tomatoes from Mae so that I can make the Moroccan-Spiced Sweet and Hot Cherry Tomato Preserves. Here's a picture of the jars from last year.

I think this year, I'll do it in half-pint jars. Also on my canning agenda, more Spicy Dilled Carrot Spears. I currently have more than four pounds of carrots sitting in the fridge from our CSA shares. I can't use them fast enough, and so canning is the fastest way to lay waste to them. Tomorrow, I'm picking up two boxes of peaches from a local grower for peach chutney and peach barbecue sauce. Finally, the zucchini is piling up, and so it's time for some zucchini relish. I expect all of that to take the better part of the upcoming week, but I'm still hoping to get some quilt blocks made.

And with all of that, there's not a minute to waste. Of course, any canning agenda begins with a trip to the grocery store, and so it's time to get going. I hope you have a good day planned for yourself.