This second French Braid quilt ended up becoming a Christmas present for my brother. He had admired the size of the 'man sized' quilt and after discussing with him fabric choices, I set out to make another quilt.
For my brother's quilt the backing was a navy homespun with a large white polka dot design. The quilted design on his quilt was the Baptist Fan and again I had it professionally quilted by the same long arm quilter. The back thread of the quilting is white to show up against the navy fabric and also to meld into the dots. The binding I made out of aqua fabric with light blue small dots on it, as I thought it would stand out from the front and the backing fabrics, while still being masculine.
I tried to select more masculine colours for his quilt, but I did also sneak in a bright red and white Hawaiian hibiscus flower print. He loves it, as it reminds him of Hawaiian shirts.
You can see scraps from other quilts that I've already made, still being useful. Note the green and white polka dot material (from my son's quilt border), a scrap of blue striped fabric (which was one of the borders in Scotty's quilt) and the black and white arc print (which also featured in my own french braid quilt).
The shoe box is part of my quilting process. I often keep cut up pieces in shoe boxes so that they stay flat and don't require ironing over and over again. (Life is too short for ironing!)
This photo is of the seven completed braids, all trimmed up neatly and placed side by side for effect.
I wish that I'd taken more pictures of this quilt during the quilting process. Oh well...I know for next time now.
Truth be told, I've actually started to make another one (only in the cutting stages so far, but still I can't stop myself from making this pattern over and over again.) Don't know who this one is for yet, but I'll put a post on here when it's finished.
