finished!!!

So, you haven't heard me complaining lately about working on that giant monster extra-wide king sized quilt in awhile, have you? And you know why? BECAUSE I FINISHED IT! I can't quite remember when I started it, but it was probably early May or late April of this year, 2010. And I put the last stitch in the binding on the Friday before Thanksgiving. So that'd be October 8th that I finished it. So... that's 6 or maybe 7 months that it took me to make it. Hunh. That's funny, it felt like longer. I mean, I thought it'd be some impressive figure, like, a year and a half, or at least 9 months so I could quip about how it was an entire gestational period. But no, it really only took a fat half a year. So I should be impressed with myself right? Or at least start cranking them out for all the rooms in my house, or members of my family or something.

The first post I can find about it is here where I seem to be quite optimistic about my progress. I got the whole thing laid out and sandwiched here. I complained about quilting it here. Aaaand more complaining here. And now I'm finally done. In fact, I was so happy to be done and getting on with all the other making I need to/want to/have to get around to, that I didn't even post about it when it happened. Of course, I wanted a good picture, and pretty much as soon as I finished it (ok, maybe the next day) I threw it in a bag and hauled it over to my mom and dad's house, where I snuck it into their bedroom and put it in the place where it had been intended to go all along. Now THAT was a satisfying moment. Then of course, I had Thanksgiving dinner, a million other things happened and I forgot to take a picture. And kept forgetting, and just haven't gotten around to it. Until just the other day, at the most recent birthday-weekend party. I pretty much had to walk through the door, pass off the Little Dude to one of the helpful cousins, and make myself go and take a picture. 

Of course I wish this picture was better. Wish I'd taken the time to stage it better (should have moved the mat beside the bed, and taken all the stuff off the side tables) to make it look more interior decor mag-ish, but I had dinner to eat, and sisters to talk with, so really it was a question of priorities. 

An just in case you are wondering, the pattern I used was Ice Pops from the Denyse Schmidt Quilts book. The fabric is all Kona cotton solids, and the colours are Slate for the main ground colour, Bone for the lightest frameing style areas, and Raffia, Straw, Delft, Medium Grey and Curry for the accent parts of the blocks. 

And I did a little poking around on the interweb to see some other examples of how this quilt looks when made up, and its crazy how different it can look with different colour choices.

Another reason it took me so long to get around to taking these photos is that I wanted to make the matching pillow shams to go with the quilt. I had 6 of the long rectangular blocks left over when I finished laying out the quilt, which was the perfect amount to make matching shams. I'm kind of an anti-pillow sham kind of girl myself, preferring a minimalist look, but my mom is most definitely not a minimalist. More of a traditionalist. And she likes a nice sham. I must admit that they do give the whole bed a lot more dimension, and since I did not add ruffles or any thing extraneous, so I think they work well for both our tastes. Though now that I look at it, maybe I should have added a layer of flannel inside, and faux-quilted them, so that they had the same texture as the quilt. Eh, its probably just me that notices that. 

Here's a little more context to give you an idea of the whole room. I think it works really well in the space. Overall, I'd say I'm very pleased with how this quilt turned out. Totally worth all the neck-aching labour and complaining along the way. And as I said, despite the fact that my mom and I have different tastes (not to mention my dad, don't even get me started on that ;) I think this quilt manages to please everyone involved. 

Now I just have to make a quilt for my own bed. Yeah, I'll get right on that. 

Comments

[cynthia]

GORGEOUS! you are so talented and I think quilting is a testament to perseverence...

I love it!

[MrLemurBoy]

You should see how good she is at bossing you around when you're over for a quick visit and she needs to put the last touches on the pillow shams...

[finger thumb]

Yeah, that's called 'delegating', MrLemurBoy. Plus also you were a very helpful gift wrapping assistant. I think you'll have to come over again just before Christmas ;)

[Karen]

The curry gives it a nice punch. Kudos!

[Marcia Van Drunen]

That's so CRAZY to see this posting because about two days ago I had a random thought of "hmmm .. I wonder if Dre finished her quilt every?" and VOILA my answer.
Also the hail pics are awesome :)

[Marcia Van Drunen]

Hey, I just looked at the pic of the other quilt and I think it's MORE than just different colours--that other one has a great deal more wonkiness. And it works, too. Fun to see another quilt!

[Zonnah]

Beautiful!

[finger thumb]

Thanks all! Yeah, the curry was my mom's idea, and I was worried it'd be too much, but it was just right.