Finished the Pineapple

I finished my pineapple quilt this afternoon! I love, love, love this pattern. I took it from McCalls February 2006 edition. It was on the cover. I finished up the piecing years ago but just got around to quilting and binding it, today.

For those not familiar, this is called a pineapple quilt because the block looks a little like a pineapple. This is a scrappy quilt (using a lot of different fabrics) so the pineapple might not be as obvious as it is in some settings.

Here it is on the longarm.


I've had it on the longarm since before we went to Oklahoma. My original plan had been to quilt it and take it with me. I could put the binding on during the four days of driving in the car. For some unknown reason, the longarm stitches went haywire on the eve of the trip so instead of quilting it, I ended up fighting the machine for a couple of days before giving up. When I fired her up again this afternoon, I messed with the tension, bobbin and thread but really don't know what magic spell I cast. At any rate, she is now working like a charm.




This has been my all-time favorite quilt top and I am so happy to have it done before the fall. I have been in the process of making a blue scrappy (batik) pineapple quilt for daughter number 2. (For a picture, look in the UFO list on the right - Katie and Chris' wedding quilt). I wanted to use this pineapple quilt to practice longarming before I tacked that one. I had some aspirations of doing a spectacular quilting design but ended up mainly doing a meander. It really is NOT well done and I am the first to admit it. Even the meandering is not even. I should feel bad but I don't - I know I am just beginning the learning curve.

Sorry to be tedious but I took a number of pictures before I put the binding on - probably just to put off binding it. I love selecting the fabric and pattern. I love cutting out fabric. I love piecing it. I love quilting it (at least with the longarm). I HATE putting on the binding.

To bind, I used a 2.5 inch black Moda "jelly roll." Husband asked why I used black and I told him the truth - because I had it and it was cut. (Good lord I hate binding). I pressed the strips, ironing them in half, then ironed them in half, again. I used the old quilters trick to put the binding in a container so it comes out in a manageable manner:


Here it is before washing:


Instead of hand stitching on the binding, which always looks so nice (and takes an eternity), I machine stitched it on. That looks sucky but it gets it done. Have I mentioned I hate binding? If I ever enter a quilt in a competition, I guess I'll have to do a decent job on the binding but so far, mine always suck.

Here it is before I washed it but after I put the binding on:



After stitching on the binding (using black bobbin and clear smoke top thread), I tossed it into the washer on warm, then dried it on hot. I expected to get more definition but it really didn't.

Of course, I had to recruit the girls as models:




Unlike Evelyn, Jezebel HATES being covered up, in case you can't tell.



I'm really happy with how it turned out.