it's actually finished

the quilt, that is. any of you who have been around these parts for a good while might remember this queen sized quilt that i so ambitiously started about nine months before our wedding. i'm not sure why i thought i'd have time for this, but so i did. i finished the top, back, and basting that spring (i wrote about the top here) and then it sat. and sat. and sat some more. i worked on quilting it for a while. and then it sat some more. i would pick it up in fits and starts and swear to myself that i wouldn't start another knitting project until i had worked on the quilt more. but mostly, it sat in a pile in one corner or another of our house.

until this past winter. when we knew our lives were about to be overtaken by a baby (and thousands of tiny baby craft projects!) i vowed that i would finish the quilt before the baby arrived. i just needed to have it done. and so i did. i quilted. and quilted and quilted. until a few weeks ago,  it was just done. i could hardly believe that i had pulled the last basting thread out, and completed the last hoop of quilting. i got the binding done in about a week (after being shocked again by how much 2" bias binding one can get out of one yard of fabric) and immediately threw it in the washer and then the dryer (three times) and straight onto our bed. and i love how it sort of matches these pillows.

it is the most lovely feeling to be sleeping under this quilt (even though i am way too hot to sleep under a quilt these days) that i so lovingly and painstakingly worked on for two and a half years. i love looking at all the different fabrics that i used and reminding myself who gave them to me or where i bought them or what projects they are leftover from (and who was the recipient of that gifted project). i love having little pieces of friends and family in this quilt. and i am so glad it is finished.

a few details:
i loosely followed a pattern for the chinese coins quilt from last minute patchwork gifts (there was nothing last minute about this project, ha!).

i modified it to make a queen sized quilt, though i made it even bigger than a standard queen size- this is about 100"x100".

all of the fabrics used for the "chinese coins" part of the quilt were from my stash- a mixture of new, thrifted, vintage, and who knows what else. the back has one strip of patchwork. and i realized in taking these photos that we could always flip it over to that side if we were in the mood for something minimal...the dark grey for the front is kona coal and the light grey that i used for the back and binding is kona medium grey.

i hand quilted the entire thing in a "pattern" of randomly placed, shaped, and sized squares and rectangles that overlap.