Done!

It is after 6:00 on Sunday and here I sit - back and shoulders aching, feet hurting, arms sore - nevertheless feeling great satisfaction and relief. I have finished the huge Oriental customer quilt. This is one of the most difficult quilts I've ever quilted, and certainly the most time consuming. I listed to unabridged recordings of all three books in the Lord of the Rings trilogy while I quilted, and was near the end of the third book when I finished this evening. I'm guessing that's between 40 and 45 hours of quilting - I sure wish I'd kept track! I know for sure I used over 4000 yards of thread - winding over 60 bobbins before I was through. I wish I could get a good picture of the quilt, but it is too heavy to hold and we don't have a room nearly big enough - or a ceiling high enough. I'm so glad someone else will have to maneuver this monster through a domestic machine to sew on the binding!

Now I can go back to working on my own projects without guilt - hooray! I'm WAY behind on my Civil War blocks and eager to get back to them. I did take time to make one this morning - the first one I've paper pieced. I think it took me longer to make it than it took to make all seven blocks the first week! I do like how it turned out - and can't imagine doing it without paper piecing. This is "Provisions", p. 179 of Civil War Love Letters.

Friday night I took time to attend a guild "sew along". Now that all my scraps are cut to size I'm very eager to use up my strings. I managed to finish 14 string blocks before we closed shop and went home. I really didn't intend to make another string quilt with red as the center strings, however I found the bunch that I'd cut and then lost when I was making the red center string quilt last year, so I needed to use them. This will most likely be another quilt for Hotel Hope.

I didn't do much stashbusting this week - none in fact except for the tiny pieces in the "Provisions" block - unless you count all the scraps I gave away. I added 13 1/4 yards with what came in the mail on Tuesday. That's OK - I believe I'm still comfortably in the negative so far this year - and I REALLY NEEDED these fabrics for my reproduction collection!!!!

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Gratitudes:

1. The monster is finished!

2. A patient, understanding husband

3. A very quilty weekend

4. Coffee with Joseph and Rebecca

5. Successful surgery for Rick's mom