Gone stitchin'...

It is done.

Finished.

I officially flicked the power switch on my sewing machine to the "off" position after burning the rubber on that thing for days now.

For the last year and especially the last week and a half, my mom and I have been working away on this quilt*. My mom, who, by the way, is not a quilter, was watching a television show over a year ago that featured a quilt designed by some ladies in our state's capital specifically for our state's centennial celebration. My mom was intrigued and on her next visit to that city, purchased the kit for this quilt, thinking she was going to give it to me to whip up. When I saw the booklet that came with it (yes, all 52 pages), I told her no way was I making that all by myself, and that if she wanted it done, she would have to help me.

The quilt is set up as a "block of the month" over an 8-month span, but we worked a little longer on it than that. Each block has something to do with a different part of our state's history, and it was quite the labor of love, filled with lots of hand applique, some tricky paper piecing, and lots and lots and lots and lots of cutting and sewing. Of course, I decided that in order to hurry us along, we should set a deadline, a goal if you will, so I decided to enter it in our State Fair this year. Doing so meant that we needed to get the quilt top and the backing all finished and ready to go by the end of this week so we could take it to the professional quilter tomorrow, giving her only a matter of weeks to get it quilted, back to us, and then for us to get the binding and label finished before it gets turned in to the State Fair people.

We finished our portion (the quilt top and backing) just about 30 minutes ago, and we are taking it to her tomorrow morning.

Yeehaw, us.

Now here's hoping our good quilting friend can get this sucker finished by our next deadline...

*I was going to post a photo of the quilt top, but I decided to wait until we get it back from her and finish the whole thing off with binding and label and then take the picture. Creates more suspense that way, hahaha.

Nighty-night, all. I'm off to watch Project Runway and relax on my sofa while the people on my TV screen slave away over their sewing machines...