Saturday, June 16, 2012

At Long Last...

Finished at last!

If you've been following me here for a while, you may remember the first glimpses of this quilt from back in  2010. Um, yeah, so that's kind of embarrassing. Life happens though and you get frustrated with the progress and then make a mistake that puts you off it for a while and then you start grad school and then you start working three jobs and then you decide to do some crazy laborious embroidery on the back...you know, the norm.

Detail
I centered the embroidery right at the top so she'd catch a glimpse whenever she snuggles into bed

Well, I managed to finish the binding by hand in one long car ride yesterday that my husband and I just made from Massachusetts to Michigan to visit family. I was bound and determined to be productive as long as I was just going to be sitting in that car for 12+ hours! I finished it just as we came across the border from Canada (having driven about half the distance too and maybe with a bit of a lead foot so that I could get back to sewing...) and GOOD GRIEF was I elatedproudexcitedestatic to say the least. Today I gave it to my three year old niece, as I'd planned all along, and have to admit it was a little hard to let the thing go after all this time. I've done several doll/lap/baby quilts over the years, but never a big one like this, hence all my squeals of joy at having finished it. Definitely enough of a good feeling to spur me on to finishing other projects!!

I know the cool blogger thing is to just show the finished quilt, but my granny, who taught me to sew, always takes one of her with it and I feel that is a tradition well worth honoring so here I am in all my nerdy joy:

Me and my FO

The quilt is twin sized for her big girl bed and is made with Heather Ross' Far Far Away II line in the plum colorway. The backing, sashing, and binding is kona cotton while the purple border is a cotton sateen. I machine pieced and quilted it, but did the binding by hand. You can see the full progress here, from design to quilt top:
Beginnings
Design and progress
Another iron in the fire
The quilt top

8 comments:

KatEzat said...

OH, it's soooooo lovely!

I would love to make a quilt, but I know it's a long journey I'm not quite ready to start...

I found you at the Etsy Blog Team.

Have a great weekend!

http://lifesjewelsonstring.blogspot.de

Min the Mouth said...

Awesome! I'm kind of jealous of how arty you are. (And if arty isn't a word, it should be.)

Marquise Style said...

Lovely quilt!!!!
Great Blog! I am a blog follower from Etsy. Please visit and follow my blog as well:
www.azlifeandstyle.com

Thank you,

Ali :)

Meeling said...

Beautiful Kat!! What a lovely gift. One I'm sure she'll treasure for many years to come.

And yes, you should be in the photo with your creation!!

Unknown said...

oh that's wonderful. I'm sure she'll cherish it forever.
Debbi

Christina said...

Yay! It's beautiful. I remember when you started it! She will treasure it.

thestoryofkat said...

Thanks so much everyone!!

The Hungry Crafter said...

I love this -- and I love your grandmother's tradition. Maybe I will take up that tradition myself if I ever finish a quilt :) Glad to know it's not just me -- my niece got a quilt top for Christmas this year and I haven't touched it since -- eep!