111 Blocks, 12 months, 1 Big Quilt!

 Could you hear me whooping and hollering around 5:00 this afternoon?  Yes, there was a lot of happy dancing going around after that last border got added and pressed carefully quickly.  Then all 97 1.2 x 108 1/2 inches of this quilt got thrown over the top of my queen size bed for a photo shoot.  Yes, it's still raining here, so the pictures aren't all that fabulous, but I wanted to share the finish!  This quilt is for a king size quilt, and you can tell by the amount that hangs off the size of my queen size bed that it will fit very nicely on a larger bed.  I love how cheery it is with those nice yellow circles on the center of the plates! (But how I hated cutting all those freezer paper circles, ironing them on the fabric squares, trimming the fabric, ironing the seam allowances over, basting the edges, then appliqueing them onto the plates....

This top will be picked up tomorrow by the owner, then it will be long-arm quilted.  At that point it will likely come back to me for the final binding (probably in the green)  I'm relieved that I won't be doing the quilting - this is one large quilt!  And I'm sooo ready to work on another project!

I think Betty would be very pleased with how her quilt came out.  I was able to alternate all of the blocks she did (100) with the blocks I did (11) and you really can't tell who did which blocks unless you look really close.  She used white thread for her applique and I used a soft yellow.  And I know that her son and daughter in law will treasure this quilt and enjoy it!  I'm happy to have had the experience of working on it - I've really fine-tuned my applique skills and have learned that when faced with a large project that I need to work at a steadier pace.  Just think, if I'd have done just one block a day 5 days a week it would have been done several months ago and my poor fingers wouldn't have been sore at all!  I'm going to try to put that into practice on my Dear Jane project and start doing that one block a day...that will help me to cross that one off my list.