Twenty years and done!

I knew I had started the current project a long time ago so I did a search of old messages from the rec.crafts.textiles.quilting newsgroup and found a posting I made mentioning it in April 2002, so yeah, 20 years... 

Snakes and Ladders (aka the black and white monster) is now finished! All quilted and bound (but not yet labelled - so is it really finished?) and in the washing machine to remove construction/quilting markings and dust and cat fluff of past and present.  My quilts all go through my washer and dryer - I can't be doing with something that needs super special care.  There were blue washable markings from 20 years ago on it that seemed to vanish OK when I dabbed them with tap water, so fingers crossed that everything washes out fully now.

Here is a proof of completion picture that I took before committing it to the laundry process.

Six ladders with feather and pebble quilting, nine snakes with five different patterns inspired by Native American snake designs, and a whole lot of black stippling on black fabric.  The feathers, pebbles and snakes were quilted with YLI White to Black machine quilting thread, the stippling with Aurifil black and I used The Bottom Line in black in the bobbin.  The batting is Warm and Natural.  Because of the dens quilting in the ladders the fabric was starting to draw up a bit so to prevent grief and puckers I decided to break the "rules" and after I had done the ladders I quilted the borders and added the binding before going on to quilt the final black sections in the quilt centre, it seemed to work - I haven't found any egregious pleats or the like on the back yet.

At the beginning of the month I set this as my One Monthly Goal and am delighted to be able to join the link up party for goals achieved!