Finally Finished! I Can't Believe It!

Finally Finished!  My Underground Railroad Quilt!   Actually I finished September 30, 2014, but I didn't get the pictures made until October, and I just now noticed my camera dated them November for some reason!  Why?  Guess I better look into that!  My fault I guess.   Oh well, I'm not taking the pictures again!

 Here's the stats:
Piecing begun - May 23, 2011; Completed September 3, 2011
Machine Quilting begun 3 years later - September 6, 2014; Completed September 30, 2014
It remained an UFO almost as long as the Civil War lasted!  (Giggle, or Frown, if you wish).

Just think --- I still have all those Civil War Quilt blocks too, still in a box, not together yet!  They will still be in the box at least until 2015!

I did a lot of ditch stitching and some free motion, though that certainly is not perfect, so don't look too closely.  I decided I can live with it, and called it quits!   I still like it much better than I ever thought I would.

Here's a close-up our our church group's donation quilt finished recently.  We decided to make one this time that would be more appealing to the men.  All our good hand quilters have died, and the rest of us have arthritic hands, so we decided to have it machine quilted this time.    We named it "Deer Meadow".

Some friends and I have been to four quilt shows this summer --- Fort Worth Guild, Trinity Valley Guild held in Fort Worth, Parker County Guild at Weatherford, and the guild at Stephenville.  I took so many pictures at each show of all the beautiful quilts.  We agreed that the Stephenville show was the best over all, though we enjoyed every show.  We were all tired as dogs when we got home each time, but we had fun!

Of course, we had to also check out all the vendors, and then go to the shops too!  I didn't need and didn't buy any fabric, but I did buy a pretty oak wall quilt rack for my guest bedroom.  It has a little shelf on top, but I haven't gotten it loaded yet.

Here's a favorite from each show:

Fort Worth Guild Show

Trinity Valley Guild Show
One Block Wonder, 2nd Place, Hand Quilting, made by a friend of mine!
I'm hoping to try to make one of these in 2015!  I love this one!  My favorite colors!

Weatherford Show, Parker County,
This and other similar Texas panels have been very popular this year, with many different settings.
Just had to show you quilters who are not Texans! *smile*

Stephenville Show - Best of Show
This show was so very well arranged and managed, and every worker there was super friendly and helpful!
Lots of beautiful quilts there too!

(Just noted the date on this picture; I guess my camera just skipped the month of October!  The picture was taken October 3, 2014, one week after the Weatherford picture.  --- Strange happening!  I'm clueless!)

Also at the Stephenville show was Don Locke's "The Supper Quilt".  If you've never seen it, you may go here .  Do check it out when you have a block of time to check each section of his site.  The huge quilt is truly amazing!

I received the very nice prize from Marsha of Grandma's Quilts last week, and everything is so nice.  All my quilting buddies wanted to steal the cute spider pin cushion and the big handled ripper.  I'll enjoy the little note pad a lot, and as soon as I can decide on a pattern for the beautiful fat quarters, I'll show it.  I do have something in mind already.  Thanks so very much, Marsha, for the wonderful prize!

Now that I finished my big quilt, I guess it's time for me to begin concentrating on house cleaning to get ready for Christmas.  I probably will do very little quilting, and if any at all, they will be small.  Both my house and my yard need attention badly!   I'm going to try to get started tomorrow, and tomorrow morning will be coming very soon!

I'm looking forward to seeing what all of you will be doing in the coming days.  Have fun with it all!

---"Love"