finish a quilt

Even days after taking the last hand stitch and tying off the knot, the enormously sweet after glow of completing my first ever quilt is beaming all over my face:))) So many years and so many false starts later the quilt entitled ‘Triumph through Love’ is finished!

In the end, it was the desire to express my deepest feelings to one of my nieces that kept me committed to this particular quilt.

I think the picture doesn’t do the embodied love justice. The picture doesn’t capture the energy that breathes life into every fibre. And it doesn’t show the sense of accomplishment that leads to standing a little taller.

Finishing things, especially creative things that require long hours and grit, is good, really, really good for the soul. It causes a person to believe more in herself and expect even greater things from herself.

Can’t stop to write it Up – Off to a dentist appointment now. (I’m planning on using this sense of euphoric triumph and un-stop-ability [Is that a word?] to get me through the next couple of hours)

More later … and a picture too!
OMG!!! Except for the really sore thumb and index finger, this feels soooooooo, from head-to-toe good:)

Quilt-making is definitely a labour of love. OMG!!! It can only be that keeping me on the path at this point. I soooooooo much want to do something else, anything else. Hand sewing is tedious, time consuming and is certainly pushing my ability to ‘finish the last 2%’to the absolute limit. (I don’t trust myself to stop now. I may never pick this thing up again. I’m thinkin’ hand-sewing, through layers of fabric, really ought to be something that’s done over days, maybe weeks.)

When I think of my niece’s face when she gets this quilt – I make another few stitches. I get a little closer to the goal. And I pick out another knot from the ($#@&!) thread.

(Right now I don’t love quilt-making, a lot!!!) The love
and the fact that I made myself the 43T challenge or I have to give up 12 pieces of ‘pettable’ fabric drives me forward.

I see the light. It’s at the end of the tunnel.

So, after the trauma of finding that I didn’t have enough of the chosen fabric to make the binding – (no matter how many little pieces I was willing to string together) I called my mentor and got a few solutions.

Because I’ve made such a funky, happy quilt, doing a scrapy (many different fabrics) binding works. (Things always work out how they ought to, huh: Especially if one is willing to relax – like me. Okay, personal lie. I was frantic.

I’ve made the binding! I’m making the ‘sleeves’ and I’ve printed the label!

Nearing the finish:))))

Boy, for a goal that’s been on and off my life list for a couple of decades, making a quilt sure is proving to be a wiggly goal to pin down (no pun intended:).

After many false starts, I finally got the quilt top pieced together a couple of months ago. Then I got it to a long-arm quilting machine person. Thank the Gods for her! Who knew that quilting actually took so much energy. Romantic in the imagination – a truckload of work in reality.

The quilt came back from being quilted by the machine. It looks fabulous!!! People have been commenting on how bright and joyful and fun it is! (Not sure I want to give it away)

Now for the finishing part! This would be the part that is known as the last 2%.

Today, I wrote the quilt label. My niece will be over-the-moon when she sees it. Hope the cotton-backed inkjet printer sheet works. I also need to make the hanger-uppers. Even though it’s a bed quilt, the ‘rule of thumb’ (apparently) is to sew fabric ‘sleeves’ into the binding so that it can hang on a wall, should it ever want to.

Then, there’s the binding. I’ve been motoring along today feeling pretty good about myself and my talents, only to discover that I’m about 140 inches short of the binding fabric!!!!! Yikes. (Looking toward the heavens – Are you kidding me???)

After piecing together too many pieces of fabric, in order to get enough length, then I machine sew it on, then I hand sew the raw edge. (Am I crazy?)

It will be a definite triumph to fully complete it and I only have a few days left to meet my challenge.