I finally finished this beautiful monster.

I started working on these blocks about 5 years ago. I got about halfway through making the blocks and then this project got sent to time out. 

Let me explain...Do you ever work on a project that you start out loving? Then part way through, you encounter problem after problem, and you start to hate it? Yeah, me too. Those projects go to time out. Sometimes it's for a day. Usually a few months. Well this one got sent to time out at the bottom of my fabric bin, only to be re-discovered upon moving for the 9th time in 8 years. 

Along with a few other projects I'll be sharing soon, I decided to rescue these quilt blocks and make them into something more useful. My experience and ability in sewing has increased in the last 5 years, so I had to clean up some of my former mistakes. Lots of trimming and re-sizing to get these blocks to be actual squares. 

This quilt is also a queen size quilt. Big quilts are oh so fun to snuggle, but a beast in the final sewing stages. After several weeks of rehab, this quilt top was finally done. 

I had enough foresight to snag up this clearance fabric a couple years ago, when I was working at Fort Worth Fabric Studio. I had a bright idea to make matching lobster pajamas for family for Christmas, and use the leftovers for the backing on this quilt. Well, as projects sometimes go, the quilt was completed first. {But I look forward to the day when I will be wearing my lobster pajamas and snuggling under this quilt. }

The binding is pieced from strips of the little bit of leftovers I had, this cabana stripe is my favorite fabric in the whole quilt. Sometimes I feel strange about all the scraps I keep, but I just can't bear to part with beautiful fabrics, that sewn together, could be useful. I still have some leftover blocks from this quilt, that will eventually become throw pillows. 

I am lucky to have a dear friend, who during the Christmas break, let me spend several days at her house helping me quilt a few projects on her huge long-arm machine. I quilt most of my quilts on my own machine, but this one was just too big to do at home. It took way longer than expected and I have so much respect for quilters who make a living by quilting at home. I mean we weren't quite sweating, but it definitely got warmish. 

This beach coloring quilt now has a new home on our guest bed and will snuggle all those who come to the middle of the desert to visit Chateau Humbert. Right now it's cold and rainy outside, but whenever I walk past the guest bedroom and see these bright colors, I'm reminded that sun-filled Spring days are right around the corner.

XOXO,