Do I Hear 'Three'?

YES! Unbelievably, I have finished a third quilt this month and it is another one that needs to be carbon dated to figure out just how old it is. I'm guessing close to 20 years in the making.

Kaffe Fassett's Blue Diamonds is truly one that I thought I would never finish; just pack it up and hand it off to someone else was a real possibility at one several points.

I started this one before we moved to this house, and we've been here for 14 years, so you do the math. It was half sewn together before the move but I struggled to get good joins at the corners so I'd stop work on it more than I would pick it up.

Needless to say, it wasn't the first thing that I unpacked when we moved, staying hidden in a TO DO bin until I set up my sewing room a couple of years later. Last year I decided to finally finish the top and then this spring sent it off to be quilted. By this time there was no love lost between it and me so I was fully prepared to use it as a charity quilt.

Once it was quilted though it was a different story. Suddenly it had texture that took some of the pressure off of perfect points and blended the fabrics into a cozy collection. And that pieced backing that I also grumped about seems to have worked out perfectly.

Roberta used a pretty pattern with a butterfly motif to compliment all of the florals and a delicate blue thread to quilt it.

The Official Cookie Tester has taken a real shine to it too and says that it has a very French feel; I tend to agree. I remember having a difficult time finding enough different blue and pink large florals to use in it so there are some rows that are a little scrappier than others to make it work.

And the scrappy doesn't end there. The pink and blue striped setting triangles around the edge just make me smile. They are the real 'make do' part of the quilt, the blue coming from an old shirt and the pink was once my nightshirt.

Not only do I like the inclusion of the stripes, I like how they work with the florals. I couldn't resist placing one or two on an angle for more interest.

This fabric with the red cabbage roses and daisies is by far my fave, in part because I didn't have a lot of it,

and this cream cabbage rose that I've used around the border isn't very far behind.

The bright, geometric binding is fun too.

So, at the end of the day I guess the moral of the story is not to second guess a WIP until you see the finished product. It always seems to come together in the end....M