Geo's Birthday Quilt Is Completed

Making this quilt tested my patience at every level. I will never use Fireside backing again unless I get a long arm machine. The thing wouldn't slide along as I was trying to free motion quilt. My sister came up with the idea of putting tissue paper underneath, so I tried paper from old clothing patterns. That solved the problem, I was able to move the quilt around with no friction. The paper was extremely difficult to remove after the quilting was done. I had to pick at it for a few days with tweezers before it was finally cleaned up. There wasn't an inch of backing to spare, I should have bought more of it. On one small section it wasn't enough to go right to the edge. I had to attach the label along there to cover the gap. As I was stitching down the binding, I noticed that some of the quilting was pulling out in several sections. The layers must have been too thick for the machine, the top thread wasn't catching the bobbin thread. I had to requilt all those areas. Now that this monster is finished, I can breath a sigh of relief. The Fireside backing is nice and cozy. Geo loves his new quilt.