My Some Kind of Wonderful quilt top is done!

The deadline to have this quilt done & dusted is Oct. 31. I knew early on I would not have my quilt finished, so my aim was to have my top finished. I thought I would still be madly sewing on Wednesday but I actually finished my top Friday night. I’d lost the patch that goes over the sewing block so I had started making it again, I hand pieced all the little in between block sections so that was going to add some time. Anyway, decided to have another search, & found it, yay, so I was able to get it all together. I was actually surprised at how big the top is, I just love it! Note the sun was out when I went out to photograph my top but by the time I prised ds off his laptop to help hold it up the sun had gone.

I also stumbled towards the end as I wanted to replace the butterfly block but couldn’t decide what to put. I then remembered a freebie block offered by Bustle & Sew last year so I dug it out, resized it, & voila! I do love the seaside, it somehow makes me calm, lol, I should live there in that case!!!!!

I have really enjoyed working with everyone on this quilt through the year. I don’t sew with anybody so this was my quilt group. I’ve loved looking at everyone’s work & seeing how everyone interpreted the blocks & the great range of colours chosen. I’ve certainly been inspired by the work of others & I would never had got this far without the group. I really hope Chookie decides to launch another quilt for us all to work on.

I can’t wait to choose some backing, I’ll be checking my stash today, so I can get it layered & start quilting. I also plan to add buttons & beads to some of the blocks, buttons for the centre of flowers & beads for the seagulls eye & the heads of the pins in the pin cushion. There is also a string of bunting to go on my caravan. Maybe this time next year it will all be finished. :-)

I've learnt a lot working on this quilt this year. After over 20 years of quilting I've discovered that working on one project pretty much exclusively actually suits me better than having a ton of things all on the go. I have way too many ufo's at the moment that I will spend time going through, to decide what I really want to finish, & what I can just let go. I want to finish the things I still love & then just work on 1 or 2 things at a time. 


I also plan to have a major downsizing of all my craft stuff. I have a large studio that is packed to the rafters with every sort of craft thing known to man, & rather than feeling inspired when I walk in, I feel overwhelmed & guilty. I started crafting when I was about 8 & at 52 there aren't many crafts I haven't tried, so I have the stuff to do everything! I'm also one of those people that has to every book there is on every craft I love, which adds up to hundreds & hundreds of books. So the clear out must begin. If you have been through this & have any tips to share, please do!!! I'm not a big fan of eBay & although I will give some of the stuff away, I really need to try & recoup some of the huge amounts of money I've outlayed on all this stuff.

If you'd like to check out the other quilts here is the link to our shared blog:

                            http://stitch-a-long.blogspot.com.au/