last round of voting!

In my haste yesterday to tell you about my other quilt challenge, I forgot to tell you it's time to vote for the last Project Quilting challenge!

Vote here!

This is my "Modern Chocolates" entry for the "Craving Chocolate" challenge.

Voting ends Friday evening (I think...), and you have 10 votes to use, so if my project is one you favor, I'd love your vote!

Time to go work on that baby quilt...still no photos to upload...oops!

Happy quilting,

Katie

project quilting 10.6

It's the last challenge for Project Quilting Season 10.  It's been a wild ride where far too many things just seemed to fit.  Like they were meant to be.  Scary in a way, but this last challenge fought me harder than any other, so I suppose it was time...

This challenge is all about chocolate.

And just like all the others, this one can go in SO many directions.

Of course, I tried to look for a science nerd way to do something, but really found nothing.  A few other ideas came about with the help of Pinterest, but nothing really screamed at me.

Until I saw a quilt on Instagram.  That I promise you I will never find again even if I try.  But it was wonky log cabin-ish blocks.  Very modern.  But it reminded me of a box of chocolates.

And I was off!

I pulled red/orange/yellow/pink fabrics for the fillings of these decadent chocolates.  And wonkily surround them with a variety of browns to mimic the dark and milk chocolates you often see in a box.

But this is no ordinary box of chocolates.  This box of chocolates is the kind found in a house where "someone" samples them all...to make sure they aren't ending up with the gross coconut-filled variety!

I decided to add a skinny border of bright colors to resemble the little paper cups these treats are found in when in the fancy boxes.

And note the centers are a little wonky because once you've opened that box, they never sit quite as evenly and prettily as they did the first time.  (Thankfully, that doesn't hurt their flavors!)  (Also, the sampler might not have been entirely focused on a perfectly centered bite and instead focused on not getting caught doing so!)

The first two were trials and, after a few adjustments to the plan and copious notes (because apparently I can't remember to read the part that says "finished" and still trimmed them wrong - too big wrong, but still wrong), I was able to mass-produce the remaining chocolates for this rather small box...

This photo was mostly taken for reference so once the "cups" had been sewn on, I would know where they went back.  Because apparently I needed a lot of orange fillings?  (And I still didn't scatter the different chocolate varieties well...)

The cups step was also not without problems.  That blue there?  From my strings and I thought I had plenty.  I was wrong.  And I had no more.  So...into the stash for a similar blue and ripping that blue off the block a SECOND time (because the first time there was too much chocolate).  Also ripping it off parts of the other blocks for a first time.  UGH!

I layered and quilted in the ditch around the centers and the chocolates and it looked like I had done nothing.  (Maybe more batting should have been employed?  But it was far too late to change that!)  Guess that means my ditch-quilting is good, though, right?

How about a zig-zag stitch to mimic the accordion folds of the cups?

This is as far as I got Monday night.  I wasn't liking it much.  In general, I'm not a fan of fancy stitches on quilts.  (Unless it's a crazy quilt, then fancy it up to your heart's content!)  And this was truly the first time in the year-plus that I've had my current machine that I had done anything but a straight stitch with it!  And probably years beyond that since I'd done anything but a straight stitch on ANY machine.

So I stopped here, knowing I could rip it out.  And also knowing that it looked marginally better in person.

I worked Tuesday and thought about this some.  I was ready to rip it all out when I got home, in favor of some echo quilting in matching threads in the cup parts.

But something made me decide to try stitching between the candies/cups.  Maybe my friend urging me on via text?  Maybe a desire to just see if it would look better with more?

This step was also not without trouble.  My machine kept skipping stitches, so I'd have a zig and a zag and a zig and a...what?...straight stitch?  Thankfully, again, this piece is not large, and ripping out that stitch is quite fast.

Finally, it was done!

And it doesn't look too bad.  I think the extra stitching did make a difference.

I considered going around the outside edge, but knowing binding would be applied next, I wasn't willing to see if I could make that fit right.  (Okay, okay, I chickened out a little, too!)

But I had found some awesome kinda-striped fabric that looked like it could be a fancy chocolate box, so it was chosen for binding.

I sewed down the binding this morning and then attempted to get a good photograph.  It's rainy and dreary here, but it seems this quilt defies good photography anyways - if you look at the photos above, the colors seem to keep changing despite sunny skies or whatever.  So it is what it is.

Modern Chocolates.

This challenge was an EVIL one, though.  Because in trying to decide what to do, I had to look at chocolate.  I had to think about chocolate.  I had to see chocolate.

So I ate a bunch of chocolate.

Oh, the finished quilt measures 12.5" x 9.5".

So a little bigger than actual size on the chocolates, but on the whole, a small quilt.

On to the next project...baby quilt #1.  I found out the other day she's having a boy.  This is her second child, the first also a boy, and she got the preppy alligator quilt for him.  I've found a quilt I rather like for this second child...and I think I'll be able to stash-dive to complete it!

There is also another completed little quilt sitting here, but as it is a challenge and I don't want to tip my hand too soon, it will have to wait a few more weeks.  But I'm far more excited about this one than my box of chocolates!

Happy quilting!

Katie

project quilting 10.5

Another week, another challenge!  I was commenting to a friend just yesterday that when this is over (one more challenge after this), I am going to miss this!  While I think my hubby will be happy to not have me running around like a chicken with my head cut off trying to make unicorns and such, the motivation to get in the sewing room and get something done because of a deadline has been good for me.  And, as you saw in my last post, it's been getting me in there even in the off (voting) weeks.

This weeks' the challenge is "Abecedarius" which translates roughly to the alphabet, or having to do with the alphabet.

While the first idea that pops into the heads of most is to make an alphabet of the English letters I know so well, or use some of them to make a word, I resisted the obvious option.  For those of you who know me, that should come as no surprise...

So some research and Pinterest lurking gave me some ideas, but as I was chatting with my hubby, the idea that came to be was fleshed out.

Braille.

Trapunto.

But what to write?  I didn't want to, again, use the obvious choice of the whole alphabet.  Also, that's a lot of little dots to make and fill with stuffing!

So I thought a bunch as I was researching techniques for trapunto.  Now, I know it's a technique where extra stuffing is applied after quilting, but exactly how to do it, or any easier methods than poking it through the back side of the quilt, were not known to me.  (Turns out there are a number of methods, and a number of video tutorials...)

And I settled upon a set of words.

First, I needed to translate my words and figure out appropriate spacing.  (Appropriate spacing is apparently not something anyone worries about because I found nothing.  Then again, who tells you how far apart to put words?  I mean, if you're writing, you just KNOW, right?)

Computers to the rescue - in this case, I made an Excel document and adjusted the cell sizes.  (Good thing for my many years in the field of science, as this went very quickly!)

I liked the size of this, so next up was finding something I could trace around.  While the circles are about the size of a dime, I went looking for something I could trace inside, rather than around outside, thinking I could get better accuracy that way.  It took a while, but I found something...

...in the kitchen!  (Kitchens are great places to find templates, I've found!)  This is the ring that screws on and holds the tip onto the icing squeezer (I'm sure there's a technical name for it).  It's old.  My mom gave me her extras and I'd guess the whole contraption is older than I am.  But it works far better than the newer one I got for Christmas a few years ago.  And the center was the perfect size!

So I taped things to the window (because I don't have a light box...despite my efforts to purchase one...) and got busy while the sun was shining.

Notice the fabric behind the template?  It's kind of washed out and funkified by my phone camera, but it has words on it.  Irony is funny, no?  (And if you want to get technical, it's in French, so I can't read it either.)

The technique I used calls for quilting through two layers of batting and the top, then cutting away the excess batting and layering the quilt as normal with yet another layer of batting.

So, carefully, carefully I started sewing the circles with a dark grey thread so they'd stand out...

...sew 3-4 stitches, pivot.  Much of this was done using the hand crank with minimal foot pedal encouragement.  I just couldn't trust it to go only a few stitches at a time!

And before I knew it, I was done!

(Notice the difference in lighting?  It got dark outside!  The first photo shows the color much more truly.)

And then it was on to cut away the excess batting...

...carefully, carefully, as a couple of the videos I watched mentioned accidentally clipping the fabric or stitching.  I'm proud to say I did neither!

And before I knew it again, it was done.  But this task was made much more difficult since I used (a lot of) spray baste to hold the batting layers in place.  I found running my fingers under to release the stickiness from the fabric helped some.  It was still a fairly tedious task, but I kinda like the poofy circles here...maybe I'll make a poofy circle quilt later?

On to another round of spray basting, this time a proper quilt sandwich and I made darn sure that spray basting was sticking every place it could!  I didn't want things shifting while I quilted.  Because it needed a LOT of quilting to make those circles pop again!

The next dilemma was what color thread to use.  Since I chose a lime green backing (you'll see that in a bit), my creative brain wanted to use lime green thread.  But my practical brain wanted to use the same dark grey, as some of the videos mentioned that could hide any imperfections.  (There are quite a few, but this is my first time trying to quilt perfect circles, so please have mercy on me!)  At this point I asked a friend why we had to have left and right brains?  Who came up with that idea anyways?  It messes with my creativity...but as you can see, lime green won!

After a few hours, it was starting to look like something.  I started sewing between the dots horizontally (starting near the center as well) all the way across the quilt to get things more permanently attached.  I planned to go back and do the shorter stretches, between dots, later.

But this was taking a LOT of thread...I think I went through about three bobbins of thread...and a lot of time.  Who knew matchstick quilting took that much?  (Hahahahahahaha!)

Again, different lighting, but you can see progress here.  About now I was wondering what I had gotten myself into.  The shorter spaces between dots seemed to take longer than the longer spaces.  But I just kept quilting...

...and finally it WAS done.  This was the exciting part.  I knew trimming and binding would take very little time (at least compared to the rest of the project!) and I'd be done before long.

Next up was to choose binding.  When I started, I expected I'd use the same lime green print as the back.  But as I was finishing and trimming, I felt it needed a border of sorts - something the binding could provide...

The green on the left is the same as on the back.  But then I found the grey dots.  Well, you know I have a dot problem, but this was too perfect to not use.  And it was the right shade of grey as well.  (Other fabrics were quickly discarded as too light or too dark grey.)

Binding was quickly prepared - cutting at 2" again this time, as in the first challenge - and machine sewn on the front.  I pressed it so it would be easier to turn the skinny binding to the back and headed down to the couch and Netflix.  I've started re-watching the Gilmore Girls as a treat when binding.  I've seen many of the episodes and enjoyed the show when it was originally on television, so this is fun to revisit the show.  And watch them in order without commercials!

Before I knew it, it was complete!

The back (with the dolly pinwheel quilt that I also bound this afternoon peeking out from behind)...

...and the front, finished project!

I measures about 11.5x12"

What does it say?

eat

sleep

quilt

Fitting for these challenges, no?  Since some days that really is all I do!

If you had told me a year ago, or even 3 months ago, that I would be doing these challenges, that I would be learning trapunto and free piecing and matchstick quilting and making a whole 72x72" quilt in under a week, I probably would have laughed at you.  No way.  Not me.  I can do stuff fast and I can learn new stuff, but like this.  And I don't see myself doing trapunto or matchstick quilting or trying to finish a huge quilt in under a week again any time soon, but I am having so much fun.  I truly will miss the prompts and the challenges within the challenge to myself and seeing all the other things that people imagine and create.  The things I see make me want to stretch further.  To create more things like they create and less like the traditional quilts my mom creates.  (Nothing against my mom, and I do still love to make traditional quilts!)  I am so glad I found this challenge.  And I am so glad that I didn't talk myself out of stepping out of my comfort zone and joining in the fun.

One more challenge to go, but don't despair, three of my friends are currently pregnant (they come in threes, you know!), so I will have baby quilts to create when (or if) they find out the gender.  It's been a while since I've made a quilt to give away, but I'm glad to have an excuse to buy more fabric that the hubby won't roll his eyes at!

And now it's time to go clean that poor, neglected bathroom and perhaps run the vacuum as well?  (The kitties have been less neglected of late, as today my binding efforts put me on the couch for many snuggle-able hours...)

My oldest and youngest were very happy to help.  Of course, the youngest didn't know the drill of "don't mess with the thread," so once he woke up, he wasn't able to stay long.  Skitter, however, just didn't care.  She was just happy I was sharing HER couch with her and didn't run her off completely.  But I was truly happy to have the two of them so close without any snarly whapping happening!

Happy quilting,

Katie

P.S. The Braille alphabet was created by a 15-year-old blind boy with the last name of Braille.  In my research to make this quilt, I read a fair amount about him and he seemed like a determined man in all his endeavors.  Just goes to show you that having a disability doesn't have to limit your potential!

project quilting 10.4

It's done, it's done, it's FINALLY done!

This week's prompt for Project Quilting is "Pixel Play."  As in the past, I tried to science nerd it up and did some research into pixels and whatnot.  But I was just not finding anything truly inspiring.  At one point, as I was chatting with fellow competitor and friend, Colette, I joked that maybe I should just make a unicorn.

Well.

I was cruising along in Pinterest and came across a unicorn.  At first, I was like "no, Katie, you cannot do THAT in one week."  But I looked into it anyways.  I'm good at procrastinating like that.  The gal who made the quilt said she was going to write a pattern.  I would buy said pattern in a heartbeat.  No pattern was to be found.  So I kept looking, thinking...  And came across a grid pattern for the quilt - with a link that went nowhere.  I can't credit the maker...but it is NOT my design.  (Other than perhaps a mistake or two...and the removal of a heart...)

So I printed it out and decided since it was just Sunday afternoon and I had most of a week (and only two days on the schedule at work), I could probably do this.  I showed my husband.  I could HEAR his eyes rolling as he asked "You only have a week to do that?"

Well, it's not a challenge if I don't try, right?

So I made some labels and cut a hole in a paper so I could block out all but one (which I later enlarged to be two) blocks at a time.  Thus keeping track of what I was doing!

I decided to do a 5x5 square grid for "blocks" and then sew those together.  Otherwise that whole thing was overwhelming.  The whole quilt worked out to 40x45 squares and I opted to do 1" finished squares, as a 80x90" quilt using 2" squares seemed large.  (Though in retrospect, it might have been cool to put on my bed...assuming I could find enough background for it...in my stash...)

I shopped my stash for backing and the body, knowing, like the original, I would make the mane scrappy.  I don't have a design wall, which was a big part of my decision to use the 5x5 grid, so all I had was a small space to lay out two blocks at a time next to/behind my sewing machine...

This actually worked quite well.  I thought I might bump things as I was feeding them through the machine, but only a couple of times did it cause trouble.  I was pleased.  So far, the challenge Gods were smiling on me!

It took a while to cut all those little squares, though!  I raided my strips stash first, then supplemented from the stash, trying to use the smaller bits tucked in with larger pieces - the ones I couldn't quite bear to throw out, but wasn't sure what I was going to do with them.  Needless to say, a LOT of them are gone now.  And it worked well that no one fabric got over-represented!

Before I knew it I was sewing rows together...and it was already starting to look like something!

You can see the horn and ears!  Holy cow!  This was so encouraging - seeing it come together kept me going on a project that otherwise might have been set aside quickly.

Never fear, I had lots of help...

Lexie helped, then it seems Freddie came along to supervise her helping?

And then there were three rows...

(Gabby also helped...)

...and an eyeball!  The unicorn has an eyeball!

Just keep sewing!

At this point, I looked at the photo and went "what?!"...there's yellow way over there on the left...  Consultation with the pattern tells me I had sewn the bottom two rows in a set of 5x5 on upside down.  So I sat on the floor and carefully removed those 10 (2x5) squares.  And flipped them over.  Now, know that at this point I was trying very hard to not have the same fabrics touch.  I was paying attention to what was in rows above and next to the blocks I was laying out.  So imagine the frustration when I found this, upon flipping the piece I had removed, right-side up...

In making the next set of blocks, I had placed the exact same fabrics in there right next to them.  How?  What are the odds?  Really!  (You'll also notice the two oranges side-by-side below that, but I was NOT ripping out another set of seams to replace one square that was, other than being the same as its neighbor, correct.  And unless you look hard for it, it's not easy to spot in the finished quilt.)

So a bit more ripping and resewing happened, but I knew if I didn't fix that all the way right, it was going to bother me for the rest of eternity.  So I did.

And kept sewing...

...and sewing...

...and sewing.  But at this point, I was so excited, I just kept sewing and forgot to take photos!

At the end, I had some squares left over.  I was cutting with abandon until I realized that I was done with red.  That prompted me to be more careful and not cut TOO many at once!

I had been keeping each color in zipper bags, which worked very well!  Now all the leftovers are in a single bag and I have no idea what I'll use them for.  (It occurred to me to use them on the back somehow, but I figured with all the seams on the front, my longarm didn't need any extra challenges!)

And by Wednesday night, just like last challenge, I had a top!  (This time WELL before midnight, though - of course, I did start a little bit sooner...)

I can't believe I made this in just a few days.  I did use larger pieces in the background and body, where I could - since I was using all the same fabric, I didn't think the extra seams were necessary to get the effect and it did make my job a little easier!

It is a little less than flat, but I figured that would quilt out just fine.  (And, for the most part, it did.)

I debated on what to use for a back, but knew I needed to stop to get a smaller roll of batting.  I've gone through a lot of scraps and am down to doll-size or unrolling a whole new king-size.  Since I didn't want to wrestle with something that large to take such a small chunk out of the one corner, I opted to buy a baby-size batting.  And while I was there...maybe look to see if there's something good for a back?  (I could find something in the stash, but...)

O.M.G. Unicorns.  Purple-backed unicorns.

Well, you know I bought that, right?

Thursday, after much procrastination, I loaded the longarm.

Not without help, of course.  I was fast enough that he didn't jump into the hammock pictured here, but he sure did want to.  He also attacked the batting from behind and tore a (repairable) hole into it before getting a good hollering.  Then he proceeded to take a nap.  (Good choice, little man, good choice!)

The quilting went much faster than I anticipated - about an hour and a half!

(I love this shot!)

I did swirls in the mane, wiggly lines in the body and not-straight lines in the background.  No, really, they weren't supposed to be fully straight from the beginning.  I'm not CRAZY!

I decided to finish up the grey from the body (a fabric I didn't even like when I bought it, but it was the right color and I needed it for a baby quilt for my nephew, Hunter!) and I had JUST enough.  Perfect.  Win-win.  I get the quilt binding, plus a fabric I don't much like leaves my stash.

This morning, while I was rounding things up to take outdoor photos (which, despite the sunny morning, turned out terribly), Freddie gave it one last snuggle!

The quilt was just draped over the ironing board, but there is no place this cat won't go (or try to go - he's learned to jump on TOP of the rolling clothing rack where I store tops to be quilted - like 8 feet up, this crazy cat!), so this was an easy spot.  But he's so darn cute, how can anyone resist?

(This also shows the quilting quite nicely!)

The finished quilt?

The hubby, out of bed about the time I got finished with the outdoor photo shoot, obliged me to hold this in the back room - where the natural light was best this morning.

It's a UNICORN!

And the crazy part, which should make sense, really, is that the further away from it, the better you are able to see it.

I loved making this.  But there are no more pixilated quilts in my future, thankyouverymuch.

And just to share the sunshine...

Yes, shadows, but look at that sunshine!  (And, of course, Freddie is helping...)

These challenges have been a lot of fun.  My hubby might disagree, but he's obsessed with some superhero fighting game on his phone, so if we want to argue who is making better use of their pixels...well...this one will keep you warm!

(He did ask if it was large enough for a baby quilt.  My answer was "will they give me an actual unicorn in return?" Yeah, I'm not planning to part with this any time soon!)

Happy quilting!

Katie

project quilting 10.3

So I've kinda been absent.  From blogging.  And most recently from real life.

You guessed it...there's a story!  And you're gonna hear it!

Part of my blogging absence has been due to weather.  I've been sewing, but it's been cold and windy and gross outside, so getting photos of finished tops is not easy.  And indoor lighting stinks.  Though it's not much worse than grey, snowy skies outdoors...

But more recently, I've been working on the latest Project Quilting challenge: "Bigger than a Breadbox."  The prompt was released at noon (central time) this past Sunday and I started thinking about how to make it science nerdy right away.  It wasn't something that lent itself directly to my tendencies, but I gave it a valiant effort.

I had an idea, so I went shopping...

I bought a whole mess of things to use.  And a new sweatshirt...and maybe some short overalls for summer...I was in the store a great while...

I bought a light box that wasn't...

...and came home and did my first round of tea-dyeing...

(it kinda looks like there are poops in my bowl...but they ARE teabags!)

And by the time I got home from work Tuesday night, I was not in love with my idea.  Any part of it.  So instead of working on it, I sat on the couch and watched television and looked at pinterest.  Because that is how responsible adults do things.  Things like procrastinate.

But simmering in the back of my head was a desire to make a Valentine-ish quilt.  I am NOT a fan of the holiday.  (I am a fan of the clearance chocolate after the day is over, though!)  I am also not a pink or red person.  So why this idea was roaming around was beyond my comprehension.

What did I do?  Did I go work on my project like a responsible adult?  Did I suck it up and make it all work?

Nope.

I went into my sewing room (after dark, so the colors look extra fabulous here) and pulled 25 different pink and red fabrics that I thought would have enough for an idea I'd decided I liked on pinterest.

And because all the photos of the quilt I found on pinterest sent to me to either photo-only links or web pages offering to sign me up for college courses in God knows where, I drafted my own pattern.  (I may or may not have made an error that makes the tops of my hearts a little shorter, but I'm not telling.)

It was like 9pm now, so a responsible adult would go to bed and get a good night sleep for a hearty day of sewing in the morning, right?  Nah.  I started cutting fabrics.  (Thankfully I had a big chunk of white hanging around for background - I only needed to press the monster.)

I did end up going to bed around 10:30 (my days of being a night owl were over many moons ago) with all the white and about a quarter of the pinks and reds cut.  But I didn't sleep well.  I was excited.  A whole new project.  Also a little worried.  This quilt will finish 72"x72".  I need to make twenty-five 12" blocks.  By Sunday noon.

Up early Wednesday.  Better get moving!

It really didn't take long to finish cutting.  And some of the pieces I'd chosen weren't big enough, so a couple of the blocks will have a little variety.  But by about 9am, I was ready to start sewing.

First, make some no-waste flying geese.  They aren't entirely waste-free, as you'll see in a minute.  But I had to make 100 of them and much of my stash wasn't going to cooperate with wasting a lot.  Also, I hate those lost corners, so end up sewing a second seam and trimming them off for some other time.  Time was not on my side, so extra sewing was to be minimized.

After many hours, things started to take shape...

...heart shapes to be exact.

But at this point (well, shortly before that), I realized that ALL of my flying geese (the waste-free ones) were about 1/8" too large.  They always do this.  I was hoping this time, with more careful sewing, I'd be okay and not have to trim.

Wrong.

Did I mention I didn't have time to waste?  I started a monster on Wednesday, basically, and had to have it finished-finished by Sunday.  With two more shifts at work and a doctor appointment in there, too.  And sleep.  Sleep is always good.

But I kept sewing.  All day Wednesday.  Until 12:30am on Thursday.

I ignored my hubby except when I sent him for lunch.  I stopped to eat said lunch.  I stopped to eat a quick dinner.  I stopped to feed the cats a few times.  But mostly, I was in my sewing room, earbuds plugged in, Green Day blasting.

I even sewed through a spool of thread...

...okay, okay, it wasn't a full spool to start with.  But I MAY have sewn through an entire spool by the time I was done.

I had to work Thursday, but not until noon, so a late bedtime was okay.

About 9pm, I went downstairs to my cat-supervised design floor and layed out my blocks!

But this was not the end!  Remember I stayed up another 3.5 hours?  I got the ENTIRE TOP together.  Sashing and borders.  I was very cranky by this time.  The cats were helping - Emma having a meltdown because I wouldn't sit down, Freddie attacking the "danger noodle" (iron cord) through the quilt as I was trying to press it, Lexie trying to knock everything off the shelf in front of where she remembers the catnip container is hiding (not that I've EVER given her any out of the container - for real) - it was not pretty.

But I put together an ENTIRE TOP in one day.  I mean, there was a bit of time the night before spent cutting, but I was pretty proud of myself!

I allowed myself to sleep in until about 8:30 Thursday morning, but knew I needed to get up and go buy some fabric for the back of this quilt early.  It needed to be washed, dried and folded before I left for work around noon.  If I left it in the dryer - wrinkles galore!  Another time eating problem I'd rather not bother with.

I found THE perfect back right away.  Such a quick trip and home again to the washing machine!  Things are looking up!

While that was washing, I decided my machine, which was acting up more and more (wacky thread breakages and such), probably needed to be cleaned out.  It had been a while.

Holy moly!  It sure did need cleaning!  There were "felt pads" between the feed dogs of superior quality.  With two brushes and a pointy tweezers, I got a LOT of fuzzies out of the innards of my machine.

SO much better!

And now, time to make some binding!  I have a stash of leftover bits of binding, so I pulled all the usable red and pinks and measured and did some math.  I needed about 4 more width-of-fabric strips, so I went back into the stash for that.  I chose to do four different fabrics to keep it scrappy.

Sewed them (machine sounds and works SOOOO much better!), as well as piecing the back, and set them on the ironing board to await my next day off - Friday.  Quilting day.

Is that not THE perfect fabric for the back?  It's flannel, too, and washed up super snuggly.

Work lasted For. Ever.  It was a slow night to begin with, but knowing I had this at home waiting for me made every minute torture.

After a trip to a less-than-local doctor appointment on bad roads in the morning, it was time to collect my parts and put them together.

Freddie helped inspect that I had done a good job prepping the longarm...

This is the first time since we brought him home in mid-December that this thing has moved.  He's jumped up on the table and leapt through the large arm opening, but this was MOVING!  Mom was moving the thing.  (And he's not quite 4 months old, so EVERYTHING is fun.)

Freddie also tried to help load the backing.  I clamped it onto the takeup leader and then, as I was trying to clamp the other end onto the backing leader, it created a large hammock-like drape of fabric.  Do you know what's fun when you're a 3.5-month-old kitten?  Belly flops into the drape of fabric.  Wrestling the fabric.  Burrowing into the fabric.  Doing it again even when mom keeps hollering "NO!"

Freddie got a time out in the bathroom for a bit.

He wasn't in there long, but long enough for me to get the quilt loaded up and ready to go.

But I had to employ the spray bottle to deter Freddie-Don't-Chew-The-Batting-That's-Not-Food from destroying the batting that, until I quilted and rolled enough of the quilt, could be entirely up off the floor.

I decided to quilt this with a pale pink thread.  It shows up in the sashing/borders and on the back, which are all white, but I think with this quilt, it's okay.  And it's not THAT bad!

You can see here I decided to quilt hearts.  Because why not with the overkill?  I mean, if you're gonna make a Valentiney quilt, why not go ALL the way!

At this point I took a break for lunch.  Everything was up off the floor and the batting was able to be trimmed away enough to hide from the batting-monster.

But do not be deceived by these photos and their lack of cats.  Freddie continued to help.  (The other cats wandered in every so often to inspect, but mostly because Emma told them it was time to eat, so they thought they'd check on that idea...if Emma had her way, she'd eat All. The. Time.)

This tiny beast.  They've all walked the rails at one point or another, but this little guy is quite adept.  He also likes to pounce from the table behind the quilt ONTO the quilt.  You know, the part that you've stretched just taut enough so that your tension is perfect?  Yeah, that part.  He got tossed off the quilt more times than I care to remember.  (But he's a tenacious one, so he kept doing it.)

And here he is, on the finished quilt, demonstrating his knowledge that this is the World's Most Expensive Cat Hammock.  How a cat this young knows ALL the naughties is beyond me, but he sure does have a knack for them.  (It's a good thing he's absolutely adorable and purrs his head off every time you try to scold him.)

Eventually I managed to get it off the frame, trimmed and the binding sewn down.  I do the second side of binding by hand, so that was time spent snuggling kitties and watching some Netflix.  I failed to take photos of that, but by Friday evening, I was kinda in a panic to get this done.  I knew I had to work today and it's due to be entered fairly early tomorrow (I know noon doesn't sound early, but if you think about how many hours there are between getting up and noon versus noon and bedtime...it's early!), so I just kept sewing.  The good thing is that by this time, Freddie had worn himself out, so he burrowed down next to me and crashed out for hours.

And tonight, I had planned to get a photo outside after work.  The sun was shining all day.  It was a beautiful (if not cold) day, perfect for photos.

Do you know what I forgot to do in haste to go get dinner with my (now on 2nd shift so I see much less of him) hubby?  Yep.  The photo.

So we did it inside, in my bedroom, which probably has the best unnatural lighting in the house.  And the hubby obliged me to be the quilt holder.  I mean, he'd been pretty much ignored since Tuesday night for this, so he might as well step in now and get it done so he could have his wife back, right?

I'm amazed that this photo (with just a tiny bit of color tweaking) shows the colors fairly accurately.  (Some of the previous photos do not...)

So there you have my entry and the whole crazy story.

It's 72x72".

I did it.

I made an entire quilt in basically two days.

An ENTIRE quilt.

Not a little quilt.  A big quilt.

And I L.O.V.E. it.

(But I still don't much care for Valentine's Day.)

You'd think I'd be burned out by now.  Not interested in starting anything new.  Or working on anything old either.

Nope.  I'm raring to go.

A Left-Handed Quilter is doing a quilt along.  And I've decided I might as well join in.  Because, you know, why not?  I contemplated participating earlier, but wasn't sure until inspiration hit me in the shower the other day (why do my best ideas happen there?)...I have a dot problem.  Fabrics with dots are my weakness.  I have quite a few.  Including a big chunk of grey with white dots that would be a perfect background.  I will make this quilt with my dot fabrics!  (Now I just have to catch up...but first, maybe I should clean the bathroom and run the vacuum?)

So there you have it.  My latest project and my next one, all in one post.

And I promise, now that I'm not on a tear to make the most impossible quilt, I'll try to get photos of the other four tops I've completed in the past few weeks.  And blog about them.  I mean, I have a bit more than a week until the next challenge prompt comes out!

Happy quilting,

Katie