Shady Lanes Quilt Top

Ta dah!

It's done.  It's done.  It's done.  (this sounds less repetitive if you sing it in a joyous tone of voice)  Taking a picture proved a little difficult.  It measures 91" x 103" and weighs 2.75 pounds.  At 4 yards per pound, that's 11 yards of fabric busted from the stash!  And I haven't made the backing yet.  It's too big and heavy for my design wall.  I would need two tall adults to hold it up for a pic, or two short ones holding it off the balcony (but it's dark outside), or one very tall man with the arm span of an orangutan.  Here's a few pics anyway.

It was a very long day.  Tedious.  What a struggle!  I always under-estimate the time it takes to add multiple borders to a quilt top and this one had 5 borders (2 of them pieced). If I hadn't already sewed half of them on, I don't think I would have been able to finish.  Measure the quilt top, angle piece the border strips, measure the borders for two sides, pin the borders, sew the borders, unpin the borders, iron the borders.... then start over again with the next two sides or the next round of borders....measure the quilt top again....  all of this so much more complicated because of the size.

I started at 11:00 am this morning, taking frequent breaks, stopped for lunch at the restaurant down the street.  And of course played a well-loved game of cold-cat-warm-cat.  Ever play that game?  It requires a cold winter day and an old cat with arthritis.  Every time I vacated the chair (where I did my pinning), he would snuggle in where I had warmed the cushion...

Then he followed me to lay on the freshly ironed edge of the quilt, sucking what warmth he could get out of that, and playing with the tail end of my measuring tape.

And this suspicious lump under the quilt top?  You guessed it.  I spread it out on my bed and went to get the camera to take a pic.  It couldn't have been more than a minute.

I don't know if I could have done it without ya Lucas, come and have a cat treat on me.