Birthday! Aladdin Quilt! Exclamation Points!

Well, another birthday has come and gone.  I had a pretty good one!

Look at the birthday flowers!

And the birthday cake!

Cute!

But, I'll bet you are all wondering whether or not I completed my birthday quilt!  Guess what???

I DID IT!!!!!!!!!  

And I think it came out pretty great!

My seams are still not lining up perfectly, but that just adds to the charm, right?  Here is a close-up of one corner.  I made the binding out of strips of all the patterns used in the quilt:

For the back, I added a stripe of the triangle shapes plus a leftover binding strip to add pizazz.  Also because I cut the backing too short so I needed it to be longer.

For the quilting, I just did some free-form horizontal lines (some straight and some wavy) and echo quilting along the vertical seams.  It was quick which was perfect because I realized that the actual quilting is the only part of quilt-making that I don't 100% love.  I only 45% love the quilting part.  I think I need to teach myself how to "free motion" quilt so I can add cool patterns and such.  Next time!

So, all in all, the Aladdin-themed birthday quilt is a success!  I can't wait for the weather to cool down so I can snuggle with it on the sofa.  Also so I can stop shaving my legs.