July UFO is finished

This quilt was not the one drawn for July, but I made the switch because I knew I was going to be at my mom's house until mid-August, and there is no sewing machine there. This was the only remaining UFO on my list that just needed hand quilting. I partially quilted this quilt and put the binding on it so it could be in a quilt show in March 2002.
       Most of the hand quilting on this quilt is "in the ditch," one of my favorite hand quilting techniques. I love the way the fabric speaks for itself, the way the quilt flattens out and the way the lines straighten up when I stitch along the seam lines.
       The left side panel consists of four large blocks. From top to bottom, they are some kind of basket, a Penrose tiling, a state capital block called "Sitka" (the old capital of Alaska), and an eccentric star.
       The right side panel consists of four blocks. From top to bottom, they are a reversed squares block using a quick method I invented, a hidden wells block, a larger Penrose tiling, and a broken dishes block.
       The top and bottom rows of the center panel are double pinwheels. Cathy chose the fabrics for these. Along the left side of the center are six smaller blocks. Four are extra blocks from baby quilts I made for my kids, and the lower two are blocks made from leftover scraps of other quilts.
       The large block at the top center was a color study I made when I was taking classes from the late Kathleen Weinheimer. The center block is another state capital block, though I don't remember which state. The bottom center consists of four blocks - a nine-patch designed by Cathy, the one that says "Cathy," and two Cambodian applique blocks that I bought at a quilt show.
       Along the right side of the center panel is a Christmas mouse that I bought at Keepsake Quilting at my first visit there in the early 1990s. I made a Christmas wall hanging for my aunt, who loved mice, from the other mice in that pattern. The other blocks are another nine-patch designed by Cathy, some batik butterflies, another Cambodian block, and a sunshine and shadow block also designed by Cathy.