Finished on time...

Whew!  I almost didn't make it.  But a little after 11 last night, I put the final stitches in the birthday quilt top.  (I've now decided to call the quilt Grace.)  It was kind of an arbitrary goal - to have the top done by the end of the weekend - but it now gives me 11 days to quilt and bind it.  It also means I completed the top start to finish in exactly 7 days.

There are 9 of these blocks in the quilt - 5 with a light background, 4 with a dark one.  Each block finishes at 16" and contains 40 pieces.

One of the blocks in Grace

Once I had all of the blocks made and most of the center together, I had Mr. Quilting Bug come and give it a look over.  I wanted to make doubly sure that none of the units were turned in the wrong direction before everything was assembled.  Been there, done that.  It takes so much more effort to unsew a complete quilt top to fix a mistake rather than to catch it before then.

Center of Grace assembled with sashing

The quilt was too large (68" square) to lay out on the floor of my sewing room to take pictures, so I took it to a spare bedroom.  The lighting isn't as good in there so the colors aren't as true as in the previous picture.  Oh, and Moses helped me with these shots as well.

Completed quilt top

Instead of stopping for the day - it was already after my bedtime - I decided to stay up and complete a few other small tasks.  I made the binding for this quilt and pieced the backing as well.  Once I pre-wash the batting, it's ready to be loaded on the frame.  I also took a half hour or so to start cutting out my next quilt.  It's going to be a charity quilt using a Dilly Dally layer cake.

The amount of help I had while working on this quilt yesterday was just amazing!  Moses was my fabric inspector...

Moses on the quilt while I'm trying to pin on borders

Gabriel offered workout advice - by making me step over her every time I got up...

Gabriel in front of my cutting table

And Sam acted in a purely advisory capacity...

Sam napping on the back of the couch

I'm hoping to get this quilt loaded on the frame later today.  But first, I've got some chores to take care of.

Until later...

May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to you, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer. 

Psalm 19:14 (NLT)