On the wall

Well, I got it on the wall.  And, it's time to critique it. 

We've found some things.  Basting threads and some brown stitches I put in to let me know each block was complete. 

The story of this quilt is that I asked for and received, a baggie of Dresden Plate blocks for Christmas a few years ago.  When I opened it on Christmas morning, a cloud of mildew spores came out of it.  I had not selected well.  So, I washed them.  A lot.  And, when they were clean, I realized the fabrics were beautiful, but the combinations they were in were a real mess.  An awful mess.  And, there was some rot.  So, I took them apart to put them together in pretty combinations.  And, found out no two of them were the same size.  So, I re-cut every one of them, put them back together, and hand appliqued them to the background.  And, at some point, I decided to assemble the blocks by hand.  Before I knew it (aka a year later), the whole quilt top was together.  By hand.  So, I decided I needed to quilt it by hand.  Three years later, I didn't have a choice but to bind it by hand.  And, make a sleeve by hand.  And put the sleeve on by hand. 

But Rob's hands hung it.

I washed it in Sydney's bathtub.  She had to actually really clean it.  The quilt was dirtier than I thought.  I don't know if it was 4 years of dragging it around tho.  I think there was still considerable dirt in the blocks.  Anyway, slosh it around, drain, step on the lump of quilt to squeeze out the water, fill and slosh, drain, step, ...repeat til the water is clean. 

Then, we put towels down and rolled the quilt in them and I walked on that to squeeze out water and we put down another layer of towels and did that again.  Then, we put a sheet down and pinned the quilt to it in a square.  Tight.  I got an extra inch and a half out of the quilt stretching it this way.  Then, we put fans on it and left it.  And, in about 18 hours, it was dry. 

It may not be the finest quilt ever made.  But dang if it wouldn't be proud to hang a few feet away from the finest quilt ever made. 

If you see any quilting pins, that's me marking things that need doing.  Have you noticed how straight all those straight lines look? 


On the home front, Sydney needed money for a day out with friends.  And, has agreed to several jobs I don't want to do.  She negotiated a price to wash all the windows.  Rob made me feel guilty.  So I had to double what I was gonna pay.  And, even at that, it's a steal!

Rob and I had dinner with new friends on Saturday night.  It was our 16th anniversary...well, our old anniversary.  But, we still exchanged cards.  We had so much fun at dinner.  The guys were funny and we have a lot in common.  We've been looking for couple friends. 

And, the yard is about to explode.  I walk around in amazement.  I'm like a kid waiting for Christmas.  And, I can hardly wait for it to get here. 

Everybody have a great Monday!  It's going to be the start of a great week. 

Lane