leftovers and no thread

What I planned to share today (or yesterday) is not what I will be sharing...but I'll tell you the story and the why...

A few years ago you may remember me sharing my purchase of a purple and grey kit...  (Okay, okay, it was 2013.)  And then I didn't really share much more...perhaps this blurry gem...

...and then a while later, I shared with my guild via facebook this poorly lit gem...

...with the comment that it was going to be a lap quilt, then I decided to keep sewing and make it fit my bed, but instead it didn't fit in my living room (which I really didn't think was that small!)...

I have been in love with this quilt since the moment I saw it.  And I'm over the moon excited it's now big enough (with a $36 purchase of additional fabric) to fit my queen size bed and replace the current quilt that, after 21 years of use, is literally falling apart.

It took a while to get it together.  I had to be in the right mood.  It's Cherrywood fabric.  Pricey.  And I wanted to do this when I WANTED to do it.  It's an easy pattern, but I want to climb into bed every night and snuggle under something I love - not resent for all the work I HAD to put into it.

So for a while it sat as pieces.  Then as blocks.  Then as a top.  Then as a top I knew needed borders.  Then as a top waiting for me to not be afraid to cut up the extra fabric I bought for borders.  Somewhere in there as a top waiting for the exact perfect right back.  While the top had no borders, it was also a quilt that I wasn't sure how to quilt.

Finally, last week it all came together.  I knew how to quilt it.  I had the back.  I had the border fabric.  I took a deep breath and cut into the fabric.  I did it right!  I even made the binding while I was making borders.  I sewed the borders on.  I loaded the longarm.

I quilted for 4 hours.  5 bobbins.  Longarm bobbins.

I went to bed.

I quilted 1.5 hours.  2 bobbins.  Longarm bobbins.

I went to celebrate the 4th with family.

I quilted 2 hours.  3 bobbins.  Longarm bobbins.

I rewound 3 bobbins and saw I was getting low on longarm thread.  A 3,280 yard spool - new 10 bobbins ago.  I'll be okay, I thought.

I quilted 1 hour.  1.5 bobbins.  Longarm bobbins.

One more pass!  6 more blocks/motifs!

My machine threw a fit.

I looked up and over.

What?

Yes.  Empty.

I've never done that before.  Not on my longarm.  I quilted more than 3000 yards of thread into a single quilt!  And I'm not done!

More is on order.  2-5 business days.

But I really, really, really, really, really wanted to show you the quilt finished.  Well, quilted at least.  But I'm not going to.  Because it's not finished.  I LOVE it.  LOVE.

(If I hadn't wound that third bobbin, I might have made it.  Probably not...)

So instead I will share with you what I've nearly finished using the "lost" triangles from the heart blocks!

I had a plan in my head to use these as pinwheels - the big mixed with the little - but with 7 colors and pinwheels, how does one properly set that?  I thought and thought and then one night in bed (why do my best ideas come to me when I'm supposed to be sleeping?), I thought "A HEART!" and it all came together quickly.  Well sort of...

If you look close, you can see how I fixed some rookie mistakes.  Somehow I forgot how to work seam allowances, so my heart is 1/2" too big for the pinwheels.  And the teeny pinwheels (each HSQ unit measured 1.25" unfinished) aren't framed exactly even...you'd think I'd been quilting 20 days, not 20 years with the mistakes I kept making.  But I was determined this was NOT adding to the UFO pile.  No more!  The pile cries "UNCLE!"

And here it is quilted (with the binding pinned down - I should be sewing that right now):

I love this one, too.  I hope this makes some young girl happy to wrap her dolly in it.

And with that, I am off to wait for the mailman to deliver my much-awaited (already) smoke-colored thread!  Tomorrow?  (Ha ha ha, I ordered it Monday!)

Happy quilting,

Katie