I love this quilt

This is a quilting marathon weekend and boy does my body feel the pain. Who said quilting wasn't an olympic sport? Well, it should be!

I have been quilting and cutting fabric since Saturday morning at 6am. I cut for about 2 hours on Saturday to get some more fabric ready for the student who is helping make the quilt kits. Then, I turned my focus to the bright quilt for my friend's graduation gift. I had cut out the little squares and sewn most of them together earlier in the week, but the rest of the quilt was pieced and quilted on Saturday. But, first, I had to quilt the blue quilt because it was pinned to the quilting machine so I had to get it off of there to make room to quilt the graduation quilt.

I managed to finish the graduation quilt just as the party started, binding and all. I really love the colors on this one. It is big--52 x 80 and just perfect for curling up under for a nap. I came up with the pattern myself, using what I had on hand, all of the fabric is from stash and I'm very happy with how it turned out.

Yesterday I started working on the t shirt quilt for my principal who is leaving at the end of the school year. I finally got all of the shirts yesterday. So many people offered to help out, but then didn't follow through with getting the shirts for me. They just didn't understand that it takes time to make a quilt. They figured that if they gave me the shirt the day before school was out, I could go home that night and whip up the quilt.

The thing I hate about t shirt quilts is that you have to put the interfacing on the quilts, which means more ironing. I really don't like ironing because it hurts my back to stand. There is the cutting of the shirt and the cutting of the interfacing and then the squaring of the block and then the sewing of the border and then squaring the block again. These quilts just take a lot more work than a normal quilt does and I worked for about 6 hours yesterday on it and have most of the blocks done. I think I have 6 more blocks to do today and then put it up on the design wall and sew the blocks together. I was hoping to get it all finished today, but I don't think my back will hold out for that long. I will be happy to get the top finished today and then get it on the quilting machine. I just hope my machine is big enough for the quilt. It is going to be the biggest quilt I have ever quilted. If not, I have a friend with a long arm and I will beg her to do the quilting for me by next week. I just don't know if she can squeeze me in like that on such short notice.

And, I still have to clean my daughter's room because she is coming HOME today! I'm so happy about that I could jump up and down, but my back hurts too much :) I still have to wash her car because I haven't driven it enough while she was gone and some wasps decided to make their home in it. She wasn't too happy when she heard that and I promised to get rid of them before she got home. Nothing like waiting until the last second.