Followers

15 December 2007

We Interrupt This Saturday Afternoon, December 15, 2007 To Announce

that I have FINISHED PIECING THE QUILT TOGETHER!!!!!

AND DH and I have calculated that with the material I had left over, I will have enough to piece the backing so I don't have to have a high-speed come-apart in the middle of JoAnn Fabrics when I can't find anything to coordinate with the top!

The fabric-ladened top measured in at 68 x 80 inches. For those experienced in quilt-ese, the pattern is Split Rail. For the rest of us, it's called strip piecing 2-1/2 inch x 6-1/2 inch strips(one each of purple, pink and turquoise) to make a square, piecing 4 squares to make a block and it goes from there-quite simply, there are a hell of a lot of pieces pieced together.

I don't know if I have the words to tell you what finishing the piecing of the quilt(albeit by machine instead of hand, Grandma and Mom, I know you're still gyrating in the ground on that one) means to this fibromyalgic, obsessive-compulsive, anal-retentive, perfectionistic, constantly fatigued person. I never thought I could do it. I bought the material on a record hot Illinois day in late August and had no experience whatsoever, just going on the request of my eldest, Kelli Lynne, for Mom to make her a quilt. With my yearly cancer testing due in November and facing more radioactive iodine, I promised myself it would be under the tree for her for Christmas. Never had a rotary cutter been in this hand before as evidenced by the first slice of material also taking off the tip of my thumb.(I didn't bleed on the material though! :-) )
And it is by no means perfect and I had to fight against myself so hard on that factor. But I found where the Amish make a deliberate mistake in every quilt they make because there is only One Perfect One among us and they don't want their quilts to be perfect. At the risk of numerous Hail Marys due me for being a touch sacreligious, God's rep is perfectly safe as The Perfect One as the number of mistakes, imperfect seams, etc. in this quilt would outnumber the stars in the Heavens.

And you'd better believe your sweet bippy a picture will be posted here upon completion. I'm going to tie tack it with floss instead of hand/machine quilt it and I believe DH and Michael will be pressed into service to help this week as we bond on the living room floor with needles in hand and Christmas carols in the background(with some interruptive shouts at dachshunds to GET OFF THE QUILT PLEASE!)

I am so excited for Kelli Lynne to open it Christmas morning but know full well I will hear from Kiereney Jo, "How come SHE got a quilt and I didn't?"

Maybe next year.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Good to see you're still bloggin', Ness! Good for you for finishing that quilt!! :) Have a great day!