One of the longest finishes in my quilting world

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Loads of Art Gallery fabrics, some linens, a few French fabrics, and one Ruby Star Society print make for a new quilt.

Oh wow. This quilt, for my husband, has been completed today. It began.... Ages ago, May 2023. I had to scroll through my pictures folder to find exactly when I began laying 4.5" wide strips on the design wall. Never has one of my machine-pieced quilts languished SO LONG, sigh. And that it's for my hubby adds more guilt to my heart, but now it's done, la la la la la la!

A little bit of a close-up. Quilted at the top and bottom of every row, then each strip was hand-quilted, which I enjoyed, but wow, that's a lot of hand-sewing.

Ahem. I'm rolling my eyes at myself, but yeah, it's done. Once washed it's not quite as wide (or long) as I had hoped. But it's pretty (and it's FINISHED) and he's happy and no longer does it take up space on the sofa making me cringe for how much time it has taken to complete it.

Another kinda close-up. I LOVED using the linen fabrics, and really want to make something else with what I have waiting in my stash. I'll see how they hold up to repeated washings on this first, then move forward.

I have NO PROBLEM with an EPP quilt taking years. And part of why it lingered was, well, because it was for my better half, who didn't NEED a new comforter, but I was tired of the one on his side of our bed, a nice quilt I made a decade ago that was too wide for his half of the king mattress, but it worked. Over a year ago, I decided to make him a new bed quilt, using autumnal fabrics that I ASSUMED would be perfect for the fall of that year. 2023. Uh-huh.

Took some shots of the hand-quilting this morning, second to last strip being completed.

Anyway.... At some point I sewed those rows together, basted it, then, well, set it aside for other shinies. Earlier this year, like in May or June, I started machine quilting it, but it was big and heavy and I gave up that endeavor to hand-quilt the rest. But once I finished that, I found it required more quilting, which I kinda knew was gonna happen, but I thought I'd have machine-quilted the whole thing and didn't stress out about the hand-quilting until I gave up the machine quilting and, well, yeah.

Yeah. Well, uh....yeah. But now, TA-DA, it's done! Woo-hoo and all that celebratory oration!

However...(LOL) I want to say here that I'm sorry to my husband for taking WAY TOO LONG to finish this. I've already apologized to him, and he was very sweet, bless his heart. Yet I feel like I need to, um, beat myself up a wee bit, or perhaps remind myself that projects require finishes. EPP too, which means no new starts until I wrap up at least ONE of the many hand-stitched quilts crying in totes for attention. Okay, I get it. Really. I mean it. I am not going to start another English paper-pieced quilt until I finish one. And as for machine piecing...

In noting the back, I considered how it represents all the work done on a novel that is never seen by the reader, edits and formatting and last-minute revisions, etc....

A stack of similar fabrics sits on the work table that I was going to use to make myself a new bed quilt. Now that I know it needs to be bigger than the one my husband received, Jeez Louise! That certainly puts the brakes on my enthusiasm. Maybe I'll make a Christmas-themed quilt next. I actually don't have one of those despite owning HEAPS of Christmas fabric (more eye rolling).

The last strip I hand-quilted. Such beautiful fabrics all of them, but blue is my fave colour. And now I have reclaimed all my good safety pins for basting, yay!

That will be a thought for tomorrow. Today I've cast off the blah-meh-yeah mood, traded it for a slightly guilty conscience that shall be assuaged as soon as I post this entry. The bed quilt for my beloved is DONE. Time to move right along the creative road....

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