French Braid

I know there was a French Braid quilt craze a couple of years ago.  I thought they were pretty but never made one.  I guess I also thought they looked hard to make.  I was wrong.  The hardest thing about making a French Braid quilt is picking the fabric.

I cut out and constructed the braid runs at the ASG sewing retreat I attended in January.  I was able to pick out the border fabric after I returned.  I finally made it into my sewing room again and got the top finished.  I had one little item in my way.
This is my pressing surface.  The window behind my ironing surface allows a strip of sunshine to warm the carpet.  This warm sunshine attracts my cat.  She will sleep in the sun until it moves, then she will move, until it moves up the wall and she can follow no longer.  Most of the afternoon she is asleep on the floor where I need to be standing to use my iron.
This is a close up of the center with the bands separating the braid runs.

This is a corner of the quilt and next a view of the entire quilt top.

I was able to take the quilt top and the back to my friend, Pam Seeger, who is a long arm quilter.  We selected this quilt pattern and beautiful thread.

I also make it a rule to construct the quilt binding before I start on the next quilt.  This way I don't have to hunt out the fabric when the quilt returns from the long arm quilter.  I also don't have to worry that I used the fabric in another project and no longer have it available to use as the binding.

The brown strips for are my binding and the green is my piping.  The cord is what goes inside the piping.

I will go to another quilt retreat this weekend in Emory.  I will get to visit two quilt stores and have three and a half days of non-stop sewing, sleeping, and eating.  I can't wait.