Finishing my quilt...

Ok -so I told ya'll back in May that I was making myself a quilt to nap with on the houseboat... I had a few more steps to do on it & since I don't do quilting related activities unless I'm w/ Rose & Debbie it had not been touched for over 4 months.  Rose & I finally had a free weekend together so last weekend I went to her house to finish my quilt.  You may remember she lives about 2 hours from me so we don't get to see each other often.  Debbie lives between us & she had had a Mary Kay party last week so it worked out perfect we were both there so I sent my quilt top & backing home w/ her so she could have it loaded on the quilting machine when I got there to save some time.

You may also remember that I helped talk Rose into buying herself a super fancy quilter named Millie.  And YES she is a person, people.  She is to be referred to as 'she', 'her' or 'Millie'. 

I arrived around 7 pm on Friday night & after we chatted & caught up we got to the business at hand.

First I had to pick my quilting pattern.  Rose vetoed some right away because I'm a newbie & just not ready for that kind of responsibility... We narrowed it down to these 3...

I decided on this pattern which is called 'Bam!' because it seemed super simple & not intricate.

Next Rose started sewing down the edges & through the middle in a few places to help secure it to the batting & backing.  (She made the stitches through the middle larger so as we advanced the quilt it would help hold it all together.  Before I actually sewed the quilting pattern on I had to remove the large, middle stitches.)

We got up the next morning & Millie & I were ready to start working.   You can see the fabric I chose for the back here.  It's like a dark pink color w/ squares.  It came off the clearance aisle, people. 

So let me explain to you what's happening back where I am on her.  The pattern is laid out under a clear, plastic sheet which keeps it in place.  I use the laser light shining on the pattern to guide me.  NO, it doesn't have to be perfect (Thank GOD) & you have to move fairly quickly.  Rose had me practice before we started & she said, 'Ok-you're going way too slow.'  Sounds funny, but the faster you move her, the better it is.

Rose learns all kind of stuff from You Tube videos about Millie (God bless the internet...) & she had this tape measure on one of Millie's bars w/ the arrows to pointing to certain lines of the quilt to keep us on track.  

When you are quilting you make one 'pass' down, raise the needle, cut the thread & then you have to advance the quilt to the next 'area'.  Once you get it lined up again you're ready to thread the needle & take off.    

And ya'll have seen a quilt before so you know the concept...but this is what mine looks like w/ the quilting pattern I chose. 

Once I was finished, while it was still on Millie, Rose had to 'square' it up to get ready to attach the binding.  

We had strips cut already for the binding & Rose worked on getting those ready while I was quilting on Millie (& interrupting her 5 million times to help me...)

She has found that you can sew the binding on one side of the quilt w/ Millie which is WAY easier than doing it on a sewing machine.

Finally we removed my quilt from Millie & Rose (are you noticing a pattern here?  Rose did ALL the heavy lifting, people...) had to cut my quilt off from the extra batting & backing that was 'over hang'.  

This is the point where I checked out, people.  Rose had to use the sewing machine to sew the binding to the back of the quilt & I really had no purpose then.  I sat on the couch, then laid on the couch... Then we got the bright idea to take a picture of me w/ the first quilt I made sleeping to send to Debbie.
NO I wasn't actually sleeping... I mean - I would've totally taken a nap but Rose would've killed me.  

And finally, it was done.  Like done done.  And I think it's awesome.  

(HOWEVER in the spirit of full disclosure as I was preparing for this blog post I was reading some of my previous posts about the quilt & I totally forgot we were going to add a 6" border of the dark purple w/ white dots on it.  OOOPSIE.  I can't believe I forgot the purple!)

The final test is the napping capability of the quilt.  I like it to be wide enough to cover me, w/ extra to snuggle up with & it MUST cover my feet.

I give this one an A+.

Before I went to visit Rose, I knew that on Saturday we HAD to go to a drawing they were having in her town.  An organization there has been doing a drawing all summer for a winner & no one has won yet (so the jackpot keeps growing & growing).  If you are there & they draw you - you get the whole jackpot, if you're not there you get half.  This weeks jackpot was $704,894.00.  

UHM, yea - we went...

And I cannot explain to you the amount of people that were there.  It's a true testament to what people will do for $700,000.00.  The cool thing is that it has also stimulated other businesses/charities in the town.  The movie theater was selling popcorn, there was a beer garden set up, a school was selling sandwiches & drinks to raise money for prom.  It's a big deal, people.

Sadly, Rose was not drawn this week, but the guy that was drawn did NOT hit the jackpot... Which means it grows again...Rose texted me Monday & said this weeks drawing will be $845,000.00.  

OH MY.

I sat my newly finished quilt on the couch when I got home Saturday night & Sunday afternoon Sonny gave it his stamp of approval.

I had said I was going to take this one to the houseboat but now I'm changing my mind.  I think I might take the first one I did to the houseboat & keep the new one at home.  I mean, I will only use the houseboat one 2 months of the year, plus the quilting job is not as nice as the one I did w/ Millie.

And I know it might seem easy, breezy but I'm telling you people - this quilting is hard business.  There is SO much that goes into it & can't even begin to explain it to you.  And I could NOT have done ANY of it w/ out Rose & Debbie.  And of course Rose was SO much help this past weekend getting it all loaded on Millie for me, then showing me 9 million times had to thread the needle & un-thread it & all that stuff.  I am so grateful for her help.  

Rose has also started doing some quilting for people on the side.  She has a blog (YES I helped her set it up - they're the quilters, I'M technical support!).  You can find her on my reading list or at www.creativequiltsbyrose.blogspot.com !