Scrappy Mountains - A Finished Quilt

Here's my first finish of 2016!

It's technically a January finish.  I've put the last stitch on this baby last Sunday on my flight back from Montreal, as evidenced below...

... but a dark and rainy week made it impossible to take decent pictures.  Snow + Sun today made for a good photo shoot, though the wind was a challenge.

This quilt has been one year in the making.  Inspired by the bee blocks  requested by my Canadians Quilt Bee 2015 bee mate Shena of Apple Pie Patchwork, I set out to make 100 blocks (they are made in sets of 2). There are different tutorials for that block.  I used Shena's tutorial found here.

My MMQG pals helped me decide how to quilt it and provided encouragement as I started quilting during a Sew-in...  Man, that thing was a beast to quilt!

I went with outline quilting of the bright mountains and meandering in the low volume reversed mountains, all with a light beige Aurifil thread.

For the binding, I requested opinions in an earlier post.  Lorna, of Sew Fresh Quilt, was the only  commenter who broke from rank and did not pick one of the choices I gave.  Instead, she suggested a low volume binding, which I thought was brilliant.  Of course, I had to put my own little twist on it, so I included a small red section.  Can you spot it?

The backing is a giant scrappy mountain to which I added a few extra strips.  I used the same method as for the blocks - which was a mistake.  Because of the large size, it was awkward to work as a single block.  It would have been less time consuming to just use strips and sew them at an angle.  Regardless, the result is the same, and kind of fun.

I have yet to decide where this quilt is going to live.  I love it so part of me wants to keep it, but I am wondering if I should save it for a gift.  I have a couple quilt-worthy people I can think of.  So while I ponder this question, here are a few more pictures:

Quilt roll before wash...

...and quilt roll after wash.

Oh, the post-wash texture...

And one last shot, the usual hammock picture:

I seem to have found my quilty groove again... so on that note, I am off to quilt some more!