Finally, A May Finish

Late Friday night, I took the last quilting stitch in my UFO of many years - the one I refer to as The Paper-Pieced Quilt. It has a long history - most of which has been spent in a plastic tub in the quilting room - but it now can at last shine in all its wondrous glory. (Sorry for the hyperbole.)

As quilts go, this one falls into the wall-hanging category, I guess. It measures at 41x48 inches. I think I will prefer using it on a table. We shall see.

Back in the late 1990s, several of my quilting friends were getting into paper piecing. I learned how to do it on these blocks. I had no plan in mind at all; I was simply learning a technique and grabbing whatever scraps I had handy to create each block. Had I used a plan, I would have definitely placed colors carefully so that a secondary design would be achieved. Oh well.

After I made the blocks, I just piled them away in a tub; on odd occasions I would come across them, pull them out and consider options. And then I'd put 'em away again.

At our 2014 Veterans' Day sewing event that Sherrie hosts each year, I brought this along to complete. Here is a brief mention of that.

And then instead of aging in a plastic tub, it spent a couple of years aging on a hanger in the closet. I pulled it out last October when I was preparing to demonstrate hand-quilting at our History Day event in Greenfield.

And Friday night, some eight months later, I stitched on the binding. Whew! What a needlessly long journey.

It seems rather typical of me, though, to have long-term projects like this. I often work in fits and starts on quilt projects. When I don't have a true deadline to meet, I am too easily distracted by other quilts or projects. This would be why I can count such an astounding number of UFOs stored here in the quilting room.

Let's have a look at this little gem in some random photos I took of her this weekend.

I can't say that I have very many quilts that represent so many different methods - paper piecing, machine assembling, hand quilting, and machine binding. All in less than 20 years! (hah!) 

Since this epitomizes s-l-o-w, I am linking up with Slow Sunday Stitching. Why not head on over there for a look around??

I have also linked this finish to Crazy Mom Quilts' Finish It Up Friday linky party. Go have a look-see!

Have a great week!
Happy Quilting!