Basting away the days...

When I go away on holidays, I love to take a quilt or two to bind with me.  There is something so gentle, satisfying and relaxing about that last step in quilt making, and to take it on holidays so that I can stitch away with a beautiful sea view is bliss for me.

Back in reality land, that means quilting a quilt so I can be ready to bind!  I am off to Port Macdonnell in a little over a week's time for a few days of sun, sea, swimming and fishing.  And binding I hope!  I have one quilt top finished, and one almost finished, and the race is on to get at least one of them quilted and ready to go.

This is my zig zag quilt top.  I had fallen in love with Jane Dixon's Garden Party line quite some months ago and had it sitting in my shopping cart on Fat Quarter Shop for weeks, when I got a Facebook notification from them offering it at half price!  So I zoomed over there and paid for it quicksticks.  When the parcel arrived, I realised that it is even more gorgeous.  However, because it is quite pared back in colour I really didn't have anything much in the stash to go with it.  I rarely use a fabric collection on it's own to make a quilt, but I think it really worked with this one.  I added white linen, and a couple of rows of a brown 'natural' toned linen, and set to it.

I'd wanted to make this zig zag quilt for years, it looks so simple but it so effective.  And no pesky triangles and their bias edges!  It was, for me, a rare case of cut, sew, quilt top within a couple of days.  Very quick to make, and would have been quicker if I hadn't sewn in one row upside down and had to unpick it right at the end!  Anyway, today I am basting it and hope to start quilting later on as well.  I've got four days off work between now and when I go away - can I get this quilt top quilted in that time?  Probably, (it's only a largish lap sized quilt) but can I finish my other almost-done quilt and get it quilted too?  I really hope so!