A tardy, yet timely finish

Yesterday afternoon the final strip of fabric was stitched onto my late (that's 1 year, 6 days late) birthday present to myself. 

 A week before my birthday last year, I decided to make a quilt log cabin quilt with 41 "logs", one for each year of my life.  This was the perfect number for a giant courthouse steps block- 10 logs on each side with a large rectangle in the middle (which I counted as one of the logs).

Going by quilter's conventional wisdom, I gave myself a year after the intended birthday to gift it to myself.  I finally started the thing a couple of weeks ago.  And so now the quilt top is double belated- six days later than the original one year grace period.  Sad face.  

The quilt top is, however, an early finish for A Lovely Year of Finishes.  Happy face!  Behold my March entry for ALYOF:

At 62" x 76", this is the largest quilt I've made so far.  What to use for the back is a huge question mark.  Should I be a Paganelli purist and only use Sis Boom fabric?  Should I use something I absolutely love, Sis Boom or not?  Decisions, decisions.

Since there's still quilting and binding to be done, I'm linking up to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced, as well as to A Lovely Year of Finishes at Fiber of All Sorts.  Check out both of these linky parties for some lovely quilty inspiration!

Under the wire

Only one more day until the quilt (at this point, quilt top) that I promised myself a year ago is due.  If I work very industriously today, it just may be done by end of day.  Working in my favor is the threat of rain- great excuse to stay home.  However, it's early dismissal day, so the older kids are home right after lunch and I can't send everyone outside to play.  Then there's dinner to be made, a soccer meeting and the general daily chaos of having three kids.  Curses!

And curse Pride and Prejudice (the Colin Firth edition).  I had time carved out Monday evening, but I made the mistake of turning on the television and stumbled upon the P&P mini-series marathon.  There went my sewing time!  For me, Colin Firth is the quintessential D'Arcy, so this version of Pride and Prejudice will win out against sewing every time.

So now I'm racing against the clock to finish up my "41" quilt before the stroke of midnight.  Here's the requisite photo of the work in progress (horrible lighting due to overcast skies):

 
Look at all that Sis Boom prettiness.  So happy to finally cut into these gorgeous Jennifer Paganelli prints. I love how the different collections play nice together!

Linking up to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.  I highly encourage you to check out what other quilters are working on this week!

 

Something for me

Sadly, Martina's Poetica quilt is still a WIP.  I had hoped to have it finished by February's end -in fact, it was my ALYOF project for last month.  But I became a little overwhelmed during the block setting process.  The top looked crazy busy, and my little lady does not want sashing, which I was thinking would tame things a bit.  Having to make up a few more blocks further dampened my enthusiasm.

So I'm taking (another) break from that project and will start one for myself.  The goal is to have the quilt top pieced by my birthday mid-month.  I'm calling it "41" for several reasons: the design, it's the name of one of my very favorite songs, and one other reason that shall not be shared (though anyone could probably make a fair guess).

Here are the gorgeous Sis Boom fabrics earmarked for "41", which is my March entry for A Lovely Year of Finishes:

Many of these have been stashed away for a while.  It's time to make them into something pretty.