second quilt finish this year

 This giraffe printed fabric panel came from another quilter's sewing room clean out a few years ago. 

I like free things and I thought it might make a good donation quilt for a toddler, so I snatched it up and brought it home to wait for me to get around to using it

As you see here it was manufactured in the year 2000 so it's time for someone to do something with it.

At first I was trying to work with the entire panel as it was and add some coordinating colored strips top and bottom.  I just wasn't happy with that idea so I tucked it away again...for two more years!

 Then in my quest to finish all my unfinished projects, I pulled it out again.  In taking a fresh look at it I realized that all the empty black space above the giraffes was keeping me from liking it.

So I trimmed it up and thought I'd alternate the colored strips with black strips from the trimmed part.

Then, I remembered these pink and green blocks I'd started on a while back for a girl baby quilt then abandoned them when I learned the baby was a boy.

They were a pretty close color match to the giraffes. I decided to use them and use the black strips as sashing.

Yep! It worked out with one block leftover. I think the pink and green helped to brighten up the drabness of the black.  Now it's definitely a feminine quilt.

I finished the top  in 2020 but just now finished the quilting and binding. Here is the finished quilt.

The back is an assortment of pink fabrics I wanted to go ahead and put to use, and I included the leftover block.

Had to wait for a sunny day to take photos.

The quilt measures roughly 38" x 58".

When quilting it, I started out by trying to outline stitch the giraffes. I couldn't seem to follow the lines and was making a mess of it, so I ripped out those stitches and went ahead with my usual meander.

I think it works just as well anyway.

So, this is my seventh finished project since I vowed (nearly 3 years ago) to finish up all my unfinished objects (UFO's).

It will be a donation quilt, maybe to "Project Linus" or "Quilts for Kids"...unless I see some other good cause in the meantime.

I still have two more finished tops to quilt but I've been cheating and have started on something new.

No willpower!