Oh Happy Day!

Like a lion tamer, it took a whip and a chair, but the Quiltmaker's Garden is FINISHED!

TA-RA-RA-BOOM-DE-AY!

It fought me to the bitter end, though. I have to tell you this story of the final stitches because it cracked me up. I'll show it with pictures.

So I did the final "sky blocks" using a motif by Lori Kennedy I found in this book:

Interestingly, as I was studying the motif in the book, I discovered a misprint. (I'd take a picture and show you, but then there's the whole copyright thing, so you'll have to take my word for it.) Anyway...there's a part in the motif where you must change direction and go the other way to add the arms that extend out from the center. In the book, it has directional arrows, but they point in the wrong direction. I traced over it with my finger three times to convince myself there was an error. Anyway...here's how it looks.

I liked this motif because first, it's a flower. But also, these blocks are representational of the sky, and I could see the rays of a shining sun there too. Best of all...I could actually do it! Always a bonus! Here's how it looks from the back.

So here's where the quilt was up to its tricks. After stitching two of these, I ran out of bobbin thread...and no surprise there. So I wound a full "M" class bobbin and said to myself, "Self, that should be the last bobbin I have to wind for this quilt." Oh, Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.

So I go quilting along, and I get just a few stitches into the very last flower when the bobbin thread runs out again. And I say to myself, "Self, you were so silly thinking you could finish up the quilt without running out of (a) bobbin thread, or (b) top thread." (Here, I glanced at the top thread, just to reassure myself.)

But hey...I only have just a little way to go, and so I didn't want to wind a full big bobbin with that thread. So I wind what I think is plenty to get me through to the end, and what do you think happened? Oh my gosh...you're too smart for riddles, aren't you? Yes, when I was just inches from finishing the last motif, I ran out of bobbin thread AGAIN. And I said, "Quilt...you're not giving up easily are you?"

But I WON!!!!! That M-Effer is finished!!!!! I yanked it off the machine, took it downstairs, spread it on the floor and walked all over it with my sock feet.

So, Quilt, how does it feel to be VANQUISHED!?!?! Feel those feet? That's me walking all around and YOU ARE FINISHED!

Not that I get into arguments with sewing projects, or anything.

So, here...please allow me to show you approximately 5,006 pictures of the quilting front and back. Really...you do have all day, don't you?

Yeah...you there...top right of the quilt...You couldn't stop me with your bobbin-running-out-of-thread nonsense. No way, Jose!

Let's just take a look at your backside, shall we?

So, then, I sat down and tossed back a couple of shots of tequila. Not really, but I definitely thought about it. Instead, I took a little break, but then got going on the binding. Here, Smitty was a great help.

So...nice quilt you've got here. I suppose you'd like me to move so you can finish it, huh?

For this, you must pay one dish of catnip.

And that seemed like a small price, so I obliged the little nipper. Then I got to work and finished sewing the binding on. It has a two tone binding, green like grass around the bottom and up each side about halfway...blue like sky the rest of the way.

So there you have it. One finished quilt. Tuesday will be it's five year anniversary from the day I started it. Sadly, I still have one UFO that I've been working on even longer. Aside from that one, Quiltmaker's Garden wins the prize as the longest time from start to finish, bumping Mumm's the Word from first place.

As I mentioned in my last post, Erik, Mae, and I headed off to the Beaverton Farmer's Market yesterday. There I found the most lovely Oregon berries...nice big ones. Since I have to cut the seeds off the sides, I look for the biggest ones I can find.

Today I'm celebrating my quilting victory by making strawberry ice cream...and I'm not sharing any of it with the quilt.

As for the quilt...that binding isn't going to hand sew itself. It's waiting for me on the chair downstairs.

A journey of 332 inches starts with a single stitch, and I'm itching to get stitching.