Hand-quilted art pieces ~~ a beginning

Having finished "Sunset in Utah" and needing some handwork for our trip to Nashville for QuiltCon, I've already pulled together another little quilt. Another sunset, this one is quite different from the last. 

I thought you might be interested in what these look like before I start quilting. I make up a quilt sandwich, starting with the backing and batting. The size depends on nothing, really. I just make it whatever size I want or need for the project.  

I begin laying the strips of fabric down overlapping edges so that I can stitch both at the same time and keep the batting inside the piece. When the batting is completely covered, I pin the strips down with lots of quilting straight pins. Then it's off to the machine to baste everything together. 

I just put in a few lines of big stitches perpendicular to the strips and try to catch each strip at least twice. Anything that can move needs to be controlled, so I either put in a few hand stitches or go back to the machine. 

I like the raw edges that ravel while I'm working on the pieces, so I rarely sew strips together and never turn the edges. And it's ready for quilting.