Big Finish!! It's circa 2001!!

We've had some pretty amazing sunsets this month! Taken from our deck on a day so mild that we ate BOTH lunch and dinner on the deck.



We also went to see the amazing Mr D!! He's the happiest 6 month old I've ever seen - during the day! The nighttime Mr D is not happy because he is apparently not sleepy. Poor sleep deprived parents!

Last weekend I was feeling left out - all my quilting friends in Nebraska were at the Fall Retreat having fun without me!! Yes, they did pass around the phone and I got to talk to them ... but really!! It's not the same! So I drug out my UFO from 2001 - most of their hand prints were traced on this quilt, so fitting that I was working on it! [Didn't help - still missed them!]But I did basically finish this very old UFO.



My friend ML wrote 4 mysteries that we participated in at a LQS. The first one was "Fowl Event" - ML loves chickens!! I finished that one right away and since my mother loved it - she got it.

The second one was - of course - Fowl Event Two!! And it had a different setting - it was supposed to be a center medallion. But I used up ALL my 'follow someone else's pattern' during the first Fowl Event. So I did a strippie of sorts. I still made the same blocks they were using - but put them in rows. I even named it "Fowl Event Two; kind-of; sort-of" back then. Then 9-11 happened.

My first thought was to contact all my friends and family to be sure everyone was okay. No matter that we lived in NE on that day; no matter that some of our friends were in other parts of the US. I needed to touch base. So I sent out a quick letter asking for their handprint on a piece of paper. I said they could include a note but I was on a deadline - send the handprint and we could catch up later! Deadline - HA!! This quilt was then renamed "Gather ye friends and family"

We had lived in NJ for 8 years; my DH worked in the Woolworth bldg - 2 blocks from the WTC. His train came into the city under the WTC. People were waiting anxiously at the Princeton Jct train station to see who would come home. Not all of them did.

10 years later ... I took this top to the LQS to long-arm it. And it continued to give me a really hard time!! Every problem a newbie has - it's in there!!

A rip caught the LA foot while I kept quilting in place!! Well, honestly, I was looking at the pantogram, not the quilt!! Yikes - she's not going to be happy about the LA coming home with the quilt!! Some bad words and both of us ripping like maniacs we got out that rat's nest; we steam-a-seam-ed the rip and acted like nothing happened!!

One groovy-board didn't have a repeat so we had to keep moving the board forward while the needle was down and we got the design off-kilter.

Another time the bobbin ran out - how embarrassing, I AM the bobbin reminder person on Stashbusters!! I'm supposed to know better!! When we started back up, I went backwards. We had to rip out 6 L*O*N*G inches of double quilting.

I thought I was finally on a roll. That's when I discovered the back wasn't long enough! Really?? I usually have to cut a foot of backing and batting off!! [I later discovered that I pinned the back on sideways!! And it was just 2 inches short of fitting the length!!] Note to self: put a pin in the TOP of backing and batting from now on!!

Took it home; put it in timeout for a week (!) [That will teach it!!] Last weekend I finished machine quilting it with my home DSM. I free motion quilted in each hand print with matching thread; added backing and finished that last row - stitch in the ditch freehand. Good practice!!

So presenting: Gather Ye Friends and Family. All done, except for the label. I need 5 hand prints of family members who have joined us since 2001 - SIL, DIL and the precious GKs hand prints will frame the label.

I see SIL next weekend - I'll get his hand print then. He already thinks I'm crazy, what the heck!! It's a bonus when you make them think!!