Designing, cutting and piecing was a breeze. Basting was less successful:
But after getting my pins in place and moving the furniture back into the living room, the real challenge began.
Quilting it!
Must have new machine! And it became clear that I didn't use enough basting pins when my in-the-ditch quilting started leaving smalls tucks in the corners. Gah!
But I carried on... 3 months were used on the machine quilting portion because I HATED being at my machine. It should not have taken that long. And that left me with very little time to hand-quilt a design in the blocks and on the borders. I only had a remaining 3 months for that, and I had to choose a less complicated design to get it done in time.
Finally, I borrowed a closed-toe foot to bind from the left-over backing material, which went much better than planned!! 1 day of dedicated cutting and sewing. Less time than I've ever spent on binding, and seriously the largest quilt I've ever had to bind.
Here she is before I washed the chalk quilting outlines out. I had a very hard time packing her up for the journey to her new owners. Not just because of the massive size, but because of how much I have fallen in love with this quilt over 2012. It's everything I ever hoped to be able to do with a quilt, and by far, my best accomplishment in this field.
