overdue quilt: a process post

a few of you have already seen this, but many of you have not.  for my birthday gift to myself, i finally took the time to finish sewing up this quilt top!

i love-ity love it and now want even more for it to be finished so we can use it this summer (and so that i can hopefully hang it in the madison modern quilt guild quilt show at my library next month!).

in the interest of expediency, i’m thinking that a single-fabric backing would be nice and simple.  so far, i’m waffling between these options:

(heidi grace:  botanical wood — or really any subtle woodgrain would be nice.  just found this at my local joann, so it’s easily accessible, though i’m not sure how much yardage is left…)

(denyse schmidt: aunt edna circle dot grey, also at joann’s)

(lotta jansdotter: glimma, little kita in fog.  fell in love with this one this morning when i saw it online and now i can’t get it out of my head.  of course, it’s the most expensive and since it’s a brand new print, it’s the most difficult to get my hands on.  i’d have to order it online.)

i am hoping to have it quilted by a longarm quilting friend from the madison modern quilt guild (cindy, am i too late to get it to you and still get it back in time for the show if i wait for fabric to show up in the mail?  am i already too late?).  i am still waffling on the quilting schema too.  again, for simplicity and quickness (and because i like the way it would echo the design), i’ve been thinking about just vertical lines, randomly spaced (and not necessarily 100% straight lines, wonky is fine with me!) but i am a bit concerned that since my quilt strays from 90-degree angles in places that very straight lines would only accentuate the wonkiness (in a bad way).  so now, i’m wondering about loops like this, or squares strung together like this or this or just square stippling like this beauty…  maybe a zig-zaggy diamond?

dear readers, i am waffling, waffling, waffling.  please offer advice!

(oh, and yes, while this does look quite a bit like shelves full of books, i like the fact that it’s really just a geometric design, so no, i don’t plan to add titles to the spines on the books or add in woodgrain shelves between the rows or anything else that would make it look like a “picture quilt.”)