Finished and Delivered!

Hallelujah, let the rejoicing commence!

I didn't get called in last night, so was able to sleep and get up about 0600 and get started on my day. Karen's suggestion led me to my final decision--and that was to turn the quilt to the backside and quilt from there. If you remember my version of Judy Laquidara's Labor Day Challenge, you know I'm a bit anal retentive--the kind of child who always colored within the lines--so trying to think of motifs to fit the modified rail fence pattern had me at a stall.
(In my defense, though, I think part of the trouble I had with the LD challenge was using a striped fabric as the wonky center. If I'd used an allover pattern, I think I would have been less disturbed.)
I always underestimate how much time things are going to take, so I didn't finish sewing until 4:30pm--and the baby shower at work was at 3:00 pm. So I went ahead and tossed it in the washer and dryer, took a shower myself, and just met her at 7pm at the end of her shift.

I wasn't real happy with the quilting; I'm still such a beginner at free motion and the fabric gets stuck, then releases, and then I have all these huge stitches, or a bite out of the heart. Here are a couple of close-ups:



The quilting seemed too far apart in some places, and to tie it all together, I quilted loops and circles to get from one object to another, but I think the variegated pink thread was too light and showed too many mistakes.
But hey, I wasn't starting over, nosirree!


And wouldn't you know it?--Jenny's a quilter! I almost snatched it back right then and there. I would rather an uneducated eye look it over, but she's a fairly new quilter herself, and could appreciate all the hard work I put into those mistakes. Seems she made her older child a Yellow Brick Road quilt and has made one for the baby-to-be who is still Nameless.

So we talked quilts all the way to her car as we carried all her gifts down. It'll probably be a couple of months before I see her again, because her due date is 10/8 and did I mention I'M ON VACATION?!! for the next 18 days! Woohooo!!

Sometime during this vacation we were supposed to go to our timeshare in Myrtle Beach for a few days, but folks, we have no gasoline in our little town. Seriously. Some places haven't had any since just before Ike, but an Exxon station I passed on the way to the hospital tonight had about 40 cars in line, and when I came home 2 hours later--no more gas. I'm down to 1/4 of a tank, because I filled up just a day or two before the Ike rush, and haven't been able to fill up since. We have a full 1-gallon container and a full 5-gallon container in the garage--and that's it.

So this may well turn out to be a stay-at-home vacation. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but I haven't seen the ocean in 2 years and I've been looking forward to getting away. My list of things to do around here is pretty long, and I can always make a dent in the UFOs, but I did yearn for a little ocean breeze, and some fresh seafood.

Ah well, I still have 18 nights of NO WORK!

Pass the kahlua!