Motivational Monday MIRACLE!

It's Motivational Monday again. A very exciting day. Many people are not that fond of Monday - it's the end of the weekend, it's back to work. For me, Monday has been a very exciting day for many years as that is my sewing day. Well now that I work full time, it's not technically a full sewing day, but it's all about sewing as I do get to spend a bit of time first thing in the morning with the sewing group and then off to work which is always exciting.

Today is even more exciting as I'm going to spend the entire day with the sewing group. Normally on stat holidays, the sewing group doesn't meet, but today they are and so I get to join them.

BUT even more exciting is what I have to share with you this morning. The TOP of my January project is done!!!!  Yes - it's been almost 10 years since I started this project. I've tried to resurrect it several times and got bored?  But the top is DONE!!!!   I'm super excited about that and hope to get the binding (which is cut and ready to sew together) and the bits for the backing are in my sewing bag today. As I lay awake this morning, I had a vision of how to put the bits together for the backing! Perfect!!!!

Let's have a look at how the top got finished.

First, I wanted to share this fabulous quote with you.  How true!  Let's get these things done, but perfect?  Hardly. But what a huge weight I felt lift when I got this top done!!!  That's what we're aiming for!

There was ONE last seam to be sewn in order for this section to be finished.

One last seam and now the center is together

I was short by ONE hexagon when I put it together and I used a different green. You can see it in the top left corner and also near the bottom right hand corner.  I wasn't sure that I like that green so I tried another one.

Ah - I don't think so - this is hideous and stands out way more than the one that I orginally used.

I don't think that green works!!!!

So I tried yet another green and this time, I was much happier with it. I think what bothered me was the original fabric was ONLY green and there were no blocks that were solid green in the quilt.
The new fabric has some gold in it so it blends better.

Much better

 After the auditioning process was over, it was time to replace those bits. Thankfully, they were on the edge so wasn't too big of a deal to replace.

NOW the center part is complete

 Next up was to choose the borders. I tried the new green for the border, but it doesn't look as good as it could when placed directly against the pieced bits.

Color is good, but it looks weird

 That is even more jarring when the border is placed next to the orange/yellow bits.

The border is even more jarring!

 Let's try a smaller border in yellow/oranges which of course wasn't hard to find. I literally grabbed the first or second fabric from the orange basket and it works perfectly.

This is much better!!!

 I laughed at one point when I was working because the January project is pretty bright, while the February project which is on the left is pretty dull!

February project is dull compared to the January project

 Speaking of the February project, it's also in my bag for sewing today!!!

Let's get those points trimmed off!

Off with the points!

 And put on that first border.  There are many bias edges on this quilt and over the years of mistreatment, the pieces have been stretched. Thankfully the stretching wasn't too much of a problem. But this is a good example of why we need to make sure the top and bottom borders are the same length and that the two side borders are the same length.

First border on!

Audition the green again.  Much better!!!

Much better

 Now it was an easy process to add that final border - well almost. I decided that last border should be mitered.

Mitered corner

Here is the top - completely DONE!!!!!!

Top is DONE!!!!!!

 I never noticed this before, but I always had it on the wall in this orientation. Probably because the columns were easier to put on the wall. But the final size of this quilt is 63 by 72 which is pretty close to my general lap size so guess what, it's going to be a lap quilt, NOT a wall hanging and it will look like this!!!!

Now it's a lap quilt!

I'm super happy with it. I think I may keep this one for myself after all the agony of it.  BUT here's the thing - without this group, without The Task Master, this project would have gotten shelved yet again. I could see everyone posting their January projects and some are already finished their Feburary projects. Well I had to keep slogging.  I was even tempted to put it on the long arm and quilt it yesterday, but I had a customer quilt that had to be done and I have a few things to finish off before we leave for QuiltCon so those take priority. When I get back..................   well we'll see.

Customer quilt - DONE!!!!!

So a HUGE HUGE thank you to all of you who are posting your completed projects.  It's very motivating.

On that note, I have to finish getting ready for my sewing day!!!

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!


And if you want to join us on Facebook and post your finished projects, check out the group.