Houndstooth Quilt

I began this quilt about a week ago for my brother and sister in law's soon to be born baby.  They picked the houndstooth pattern and the colors and turned me loose. It appears that I will be buying the pattern again because it has multiple sizes, not just crib anymore.
I have known about the quilt for months, but in my true fashion, I waited until the last minute.  One of these days, I will change my ways......

When I finished the front, it was kind of ho-hum.  I wanted more contrast between the colors, but it was done.  It looked fine, but I was not in love with it at this point. In the process of making it, I took it upon myself to add an extra row of blocks all the way around, so it was a wee bit big to take a width of fabric for a backing.  I needed to get creative.  I decided to put a large chunk of the print fabric-- Speckle Garden Gate from the Michael Miller Secret Garden Line designed by Sandi Henderson.  Then I added the borders and cornerstones.  Me likey!
I planned on adding a pop of color by quilting it in peach and binding it in peach, but decided it would take away from the pattern.  So, I quilted in yellow and bound in blue.  I just did free motion meandering.  It is my go to DIY quilting method.  This time, I think I really mastered it.  It probably had more to do with the size of the quilt and the ease of movement with it than my actual skill.  Either way, it turned out well.
All of the decisions turned out to be the perfect.  I L-O-V-E this quilt.  It got significantly more pretty as I quilted it.  It hid the sins of my imperfect piecing very well.  It truly has no back or front because both are so awesome (if I may toot my own horn loudly).  I am usually humble about my projects finding 10 ways to do them different or better, but I cannot say so on this one.  I hope my niece loves it too.

The "Front"

The "Back"