Quilt Top! BAM!

      WHOOO, YOU GUYS I FINISHED PIECING MY QUILT TOP!!!!!!!!!!!!

      I've been working on it since before I boarded the train to come out here and it's finally done!!!!

      I started cutting out the applique pieces a couple of days before I was set to leave, stuck them all in envelopes along with some thread, needles, ribbons, buttons, and embroidery floss. I cut out enough for twenty blocks, and that seemed like a ridiculously high number, especially since some of the blocks had 10 pieces + embroidery. I started working on them on the train ride out here and finished about half of them, not including embellishments. A couple of months ago, I finished all of the applique, and about a month ago, right after I came back from Christmas, I stitched the last few buttons and beads on.

      And finally, after sewing literally all day, I finished piecing the top! I watched “Star Wars: Return of the Jedi” while I did so, which may have not been a good idea, because there were a couple of times when I realized that I had run out of bobbin thread like 3-5 minutes ago and wasn't actually sewing, just stabbing the fabric with an impotent needle. Whoops. So here are some pictures.   

One of the blocks - from the Amtrak ride

Laying out the blocks

Another close-up

It is finished.

      Now I just have to get the thing quilted. I think I'm going to try and rope some of the church quilting group into helping me get it laid out and basted onto the backing using the church's quilting frame. Otherwise I'll have to lay it out on the cigarette-smoke enhanced carpet in Ben's house (now with added cheap-motel charm!), or on the dining room table at my house, and neither of those really sound ideal.