the quilt is done!

Second daughter's quilt was complete on December 29. I told my mama on Christmas Eve that I thought I would have it done before the end of the year and I did! According to the blog that tells no lies, I first got serious about this quilt back in February. Since first daughter's quilt took more like a year and a half I have been speeding things up. And let us not forget the little thing called having a baby that slowed my progress!

I could document all the things that went wrong or at least not quite right but that might not be quite as nice of a blog post. I am just going to say, every project I sew, I learn things and I practice things and lo and behold I get better at things.

Behind this quilt: a board, 2 clamps, 1 husband on a stool

So here's what I love about this quilt:

My kids!
My second daughter and I designed it together when she was 2. And she did have opinions. My first daughter (age 6) helped me design the squares made of four patches.

The quilting!
I did it all on my regular machine because I still don't get what's going on with the dropping the feed dog business and the other special quilting things you can use (and can I on my machine?!). I only have the one very old machine and I made it work. The wonky straight line quilting, which I did fairly dense turned out great. I love the texture. I did matching threads for each band of color: pink thread on the pink, yellow on the yellow, and so on. But then I had each of the colors "leak" into the next section. And for good measure I tossed a few loose and random lines elsewhere in the quilt. Very fun if I do say myself.

The colors!
I love bright saturated colors and that clearly comes through in this quilt. Hee.

The fabric!
Ok, I love fabric anyway but here's what's special about this quilt: I didn't buy any fabric for it! Everything came from what I already had in my stash. So some of it I had bought myself but I also got scraps from my husband's grandma, my mother-in-law, and my sister-in-law. Plus, a lot of my stash is from a dear family friend (her 98th birthday is coming up next month) and has some vintage appeal. And another friend gave me her leftovers and those are incorporated too. So some of it wasn't what I would have bought myself but all put together in one quilt it is beautiful!

I am proposing that this is going to be the year of the quilt for me. I hope to complete 2 or 3 more. Ok, I will say 3. I have a quilt top that is done so that can count. I am off on a tangent right now whipping up a gift but for the most part I am going to be disciplined and work on one project all the way to completion. No more half projects hanging around after this year is through. I have been attempting to structure my morning so that I get some time in the sewing room every morning before the kiddos are up and so far, so good.