Clifford's 'Road to Oklahoma' quilt is complete!

UPDATE 8.18.2015

My 'Road to Oklahoma' Quilt is one of my entries in Lily Pad Quilting's 'Pets on Quilts Show 2015'. 

It is entered in the category 'Animal-themed Quilts' because the woodland deer scene fabric on the back of this quilt, was deliberately chosen because of the recipient's (my sweet cousin, Clifford's) love of deer.  When he saw the quilt, he thought the deer scene was the front of the quilt..... and was probably more excited about that than of the many pieced blocks on the front!  If I'd thought he'd think the 'back' was the 'front'.... that'd surely have saved me a lot of time and effort!!  :) 
For those stopping by from the Pets on Quilts Show 2015..... My family roots run deep in Oklahoma history as my ancestors were part of the Oklahoma Land Rush. I made this quilt for my cousin, Clifford, who still calls Oklahoma home, so it needed to be suitable not only for a grown man, but also have symbolic meaning.  That's why I chose the 'Road to Oklahoma' quilt block.  I live in South Carolina, so my husband even planned a special trip out to Oklahoma as part of gifting the quilt to Clifford.   All the links telling the story of this quilt are located at the bottom of this post. 
Thank you for stopping by!  Lisa

After a marathon weekend of quilting and binding.... my cousin Clifford's 'Road to Oklahoma' quilt is done!  It was immediately washed and dried last night to see the quilted goodness.  I could not wait.  One of my favorite parts, is to see how a quilt softens and crinkles after its first launder.  My husband did a fine job of holding the quilt for its final photographs this rainy afternoon.
The front:

The back could be used as a 'front' too.

A closeup of the woodland print fabric..... I like it.  He likes deer so this should be perfect.

 Always gotta have a photo of the binding, prepped and ready to put on.  Again, I used Shiny, Happy World's "How to Bind a Quilt"s video.... again, with the exception that I sewed it to the back first, then carefully pinned and machine-stitched to the front.  Love, love, love the way she was you begin and end the binding..... so easy.  Binding is 2 1/4" wide, folded in half, zig-zagged stitched on raw edges....

Thought long and hard about the quilt label and this is what I came up with.  If you look carefully at the back photo up above, you can see this tucked down into the lower left-hand corner.

I was v-e-r-y careful to line it up with my quilted squares and stitched on the top seam-lines so you cannot even see the machine-stitching from the front.  It lines up with the top two, left squares, photo below.   Here you can also see a little of the wavy, running stitch I did in the border.

Once the quilt was washed and dried, the little wonkiness in a couple of places, seemed to disappear.  Warm & Natural 100% cotton batting was used in this quilt, and all my other quilts too, and from what I've been reading, that type of batting helps fabric 'cling' and stay in place a little better than other types of batting..... and THAT may be why I've been able to quilt successfully without using a walking foot.  This finished quilt measures 50" x 66".  (It measured 52 1/2" x 68 1/2"prior to washing.)  All pieced and quilted by me using a Bernina 1230 and (basic) Kenmore 385.

If you remember from my very first post, this quilt, made from the historical quilt block aptly named 'Road to Oklahoma', is to be a surprise for my cousin Clifford, who always set aside time for me, and made me feel so special when I'd visit Oklahoma during all my growing up years.  I wanted to show my gratefulness to him in some sort of tangible way.  This quilt was a labor of love and I enjoyed every, single, minute of the many, many hours of time invested in this project.  Only my third ever quilt.... my first quilt this size.  I learned a lot and am satisfied with the end product.

It was nice to travel down memory lane and think of all the good times with my cousin as I worked on his quilt and can hardly wait to surprise him with it soon!  May I again thank Karen for sharing her beautiful inspiration quilt and Gourmet Quilter for her video on piecing this block using 2 1/2" squares...

...and 'Thank you' readers, for traveling on this road with me!!

UPDATE:  Official quilt photo with my sweet cousin, Clifford.  Seriously, when he saw the deer on the back, he thought that was the front!  :)  Be sure to check out all the links below that tell the complete story about this quilt.

BE SURE TO READ ALL THE POSTS ABOUT THIS QUILT:
*'Road to Oklahoma' - the beginning
*Assembly Line progress
*The top is done..... or is it?!
*Let the quilting begin!
*'just keep quilting.... just keep quilting....'
*Complete!
*The rest of the story