Today I am so happy to finally show you a very long work in progress that was completed at midnight one Friday night a few weeks ago. (Yeah I know my Fridays nights are crazy : p) Brace yourselves. It's a bit of a long post...
The Sampler Quilt
At the beginning of 2012 I signed up for the Modern Sampler Block Bee... Gosh have I learned alot since then! I knew nothing of 1/4" seams, rotary cutters, quilting, hexies, binding, all the gorgeous quilting fabrics, paper piecing, and so on and so forth. Nothing. Now here we are. This is the project/quilt that started it for me and it is now the 6th quilt I've completed. No that's not very many, but for me it's alot, and I've got another one in the wings and yet another that's a few weeks away from being bound! Making quilts is now part of me.
As you've noticed it's not 'my' quilt as such. Somewhere along the line I decided it would be for Anya. For her 5th birthday. She is now well over 6... anyhoos. Good things take time right? Half of the blocks in here were from other bee members - Laura, Nin, Juliet, Cat, Treena, Lisa, Kelli, Sharon, Deb... (I hope i haven't forgotten anyone? And see that Butterfly? Juliet designed and made it especially for Anya - Lucky!!) Thank you ladies for your gorgeous blocks - we still love them!
It took ages for me to find sashing in a shade and pattern of pink that I was happy with. Eventually after lots of trials and discussions (and months!) we found a winner. The top was finally put together!
In November last year it went off to Leeanne who quilted it. I still marvel at the beauty of her work every time I see it. Isn't is just exquisite and perfect?
The next challenge was finding binding fabric that I was happy with... I probably sound pedantic but after all that effort and time and cost... I was not going to blow it on just making do. The hunt lasted for a few months until we stumbled upon the patterned green fabric at Spotlight in April. Yes! The right shade, not solid, perfect!
The night after I finished the baby quilt from last week, I sat down and sewed the binding on. And once it was started, it had to be completed! Almost 2 1/2 years later, it was finished. All 70"x 84" (180 x 213cm) of it. Just like that.
Anya woke up the next morning under her new quilt. She ran into our room to wake me and tell me that: "I woke up Mummy and thought the blanket felt different. Then I looked down and saw it was my quilt! It's finished! Thank you Mummy! I love it!" and off she went, dragging it to the living room where she proceeded to use it for the rest of the weekend. I could not have asked for a better reaction. Yay!
Hooray for finishes!!
Do you have any finishes to share? Or have you embarked on any big projects? Do share, do tell!
Thanks for stopping in lovelies - always nice to see your faces : )
L xx
Some more of this quilt's history here.
My 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th quilts.
An InLinkz Link-up