IT. IS. FINISHED!!!!! Two Hearts in Love

I finished my daughter's wedding quilt!  All I have left to do is wash and dry it, but that will wait for when I get to my dad's house since his bathtub has a hand-held shower nozzle so rinsing will be easier.  It took me a year to piece the top - I tested a pattern for Jenel Looney called Two Hearts in Love and you can find the free pattern here.  That became the center of the quilt, but it wasn't as big as my daughter wanted, so I got out the graph paper and graphed out the woven border - that was HARD with the HST/QSTs, but it is lovely!  Next came the Delectable Mountain border - I had never made this block before so it was lots of fun and I made enough that the extra blocks are going to be the guest book at the wedding, so she'll get another quilt!  Still too small, so I added the small ombre pink border and the larger white on black border.  The quilt will be hanging behind the cake table at the wedding, so I'll grab a few shots of it when it is hanging!!

Here is the whole thing!  I thought it was 105x105, but when I did the binding, I was short a bit, so it is a little larger than that.

I took the quilt with me when I went to Florida last summer and after spending 3 weeks in England with my quilting buddies, I stayed an extra week at one of their houses, pieced the back of the quilt and used her longarm (it has IQ on it and I love IQ, wish I had it too!) for 12 hours a day for 8 days to get some of the quilting done.  Brought it home with me and didn't get it back on the frame until April (customer quilts come first), worked on in a while, took it off to do some more customer quilts, but I got smart!  I schedule the month of July for finishing it - her wedding is August 1, so I kinda had to get on it!!  So, here are some pictures of over 200 hours of quilting:

Can you see the E?

Can you see the T?

Now, here is the back:

And the label!

I used Superior Threads So Fine pink, black and while on the top and their Bottom Line pink, black and white for my bobbin.  I made the label on my Bernina Artista with So Fine and Bottom Line.  Now to finish the placemats for the flower girls and I am done with the things I created for the wedding!!!  I am so excited to get everything finished!!  I'll be linking up again with Sew BitterSweet when it is time to post our July finishes.  I've linked up with Sew BitterSweet for the Lovely Year of Finishes - July Finishes Party!!

A Little Busy

This summer has been flying by!  I was helping a friend sort through some shirts for a t-shirt quilt she wants me to make for her daughter.

Just a few shirts to choose from!  When she narrows the choices down, I'll get it put together!

Then I did a fun quilt for my customer, Joan.  It was so long that my friends had to hold it sideways or it would have been on the ground!!

All those pretty squares!!!  Of course, she sent a solid cream backing fabric for me to stress over!

In the pink squares I did a 6 different designs, modern quilting style.  In the greens and blues I did some swirls and a couple different kinds of feathers.  Took a bit of time, but worth it in the end.  The border was fun with deeply curved feathers.  In the small inner border I did e's and l's facing each other - makes for a lacy looking design.  She loves the look of the back of the quilt and has decided that she'll have to use solid backings on all her quilts that I quilt for her so she can see the quilting!!!

I am working on my daughter's wedding quilt, getting up early so I can quilt upstairs while it is cool because in the afternoons, with no a/c, it heats up something fierce and I just can't quilt when it is over 90 and I'm dripping sweat on the quilt!!!

What have you been up to?

A Lovely Year of Finishes - July Goal

I've never done this, but I MUST finish my daughter's wedding quilt because her wedding is August 1 - not cutting it too fine, am I??  I am going to try to link up to Sew BitterSweet Designs Blog as added incentive to get this monster 105" square quilt finished.  Since my daughter wants it as part of the decoration at the reception behind the cake table, I really need to get this baby finished!

I have most of the quilting finished - it should be less than 100 hours to finish the quilting, label is made, need to wash the binding fabric and get the made and put on...just as soon as I get the quilting finished!!  Maybe this will help!!