9 Year Old Quilt...Finally Finished

I am SO thrilled to announce that my quilt is FINALLY finished. So this quilt has been in the making now for 9 years. Yes that is a long time, and I have made many things since the start. Lets just say...I am not a very good finisher. I love to start things but am not so good on the finishing part...unless there is a deadline. I do deadlines very well. Usually the night before, but deadlines are good. So when my mother-in-law took the kids for a week to let me rest from being sick for a week prior, I used my time wisely and finished several things that have been waiting for my attention. My quilt being one of them. After much waiting, may I present....

And best of all, it was finished just in time for the Fourth of July.

So how could a quilt take 9 years to complete? Well that is a very good question, indeed. It all started when a good friend of mine and I went to the fabric store. Yes it has been one of my favorite places for a very long time. We came across this very fun fabric that had 2000 written all over it. Perfect we thought, we are graduates of the year 2000. What a perfect graduation quilt. Well, hers was finished within a few months, and mine sat in a box. I moved away and started college with the intentions of working on my quilt (the first large one I have made). And it still sat in a box.

Then I got married and had a baby girl. My quilt was put off once again. The perfect opportunity presented itself three years after the purchase of my fabric, when we spent several weeks in California. When we packed to go I brought along my sewing machine (did you really think I wouldn't?) and three or four projects, my quilt included. My husband was working and I had my baby, now almost a year old, and my few projects that I had brought along. With no other obligations, I set up at the kitchen table and finished all my projects except my quilt. With nothing else to do I went to my grandmother-in-law (she is a quilter) and said, "Where do I start?" And thus my quilt had begun. I enjoyed it so much that I finished the top in three days or so. Thank goodness I had a good baby. She played and played. We left California and my quilt sat in a box.

Five long years later, after another child, a move, a third child, and four more moves, my quilt made it out of the box and onto some quilting frames. A dear friend spent several hours with me tying it and it was almost done, but not quite. It sat around for another several months awaiting the final binding step. Why it took so long? I don't know. I am not a very busy person. : )

So when grandma took the kids and the Fourth of July was upon us, my quilt once again made an appearance, and this time it is finished! I have been so excited about it. It is 90 degrees outside and I am still huddled under my quilt. I think I am ready for the next one...but this time it won't take so long. What good is it sitting in a box?