Finally Flimsy!

Finally finished the final block final day of the year!

I thought this fabric, and therefore this project, was a teenager. I thought I'd bought the batik leaf fabric and made it into a dress before I began dating The Lizard. I thought I'd started this quilt back before I had a riding partner.

While cleaning my desk recently, I ran across the original receipt for the fabric, and it wasn't back in 2002 as I thought but five years later, in 2007. Still not a young project, but well past toddler!


This forlorn child was born as a brown quilt block, using leftovers from three different projects. I would have liked to have started with the plentiful golden leaf leftovers, but at that point, I had no other yellow fabric leftovers at all. Yellow, outside of aspen leaves, has never been a huge inspiration for me.

My original idea was to use leftover blue snowflake fabric with leftover blue leaves and leftover green batiks or bright florals with leftover summery leaves. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do for the fourth season - spring - since golden aspens are so magical here, and having two autumns in the quilt with no spring didn't seem right. As a result, the project sat indecisive for quite a while.


I finally began working on it again when I had new ideas for matching the leaves to my collection of hand-dyed remnants instead of print remnants. I think I'm glad I changed the original plan. I think I like what I've done much better than what I originally saw in my head.

I think I had just finished the third block when my sister-in-law put elated dibs on the quilt. She rarely leaves comments on my blog because the process is difficult for anyone who does not have a Google account. She suffered through the process and wrote, "I WANT THAT QUILT!"

Her comment ignited my desire to finish the quilt for her by Christmas. Then by her next birthday when I missed that first deadline. Then the next Christmas. Then the next birthday. I don't remember how many years it's been now, but I keep missing the deadline!




However, I am one step closer now, and thrilled to have conquered this last roadblock. I don't know why I didn't just finish the final block in a night or two; that's all it took. Purple is one of my favorite colors with which to work. Perhaps I procrastinated because I was dreading the binding process? I had ideas for a coordinating pieced border of leftovers, but I didn't really want to take another year or two to finally finish this gift for her. Maybe my mind refused to process finishing the main quilt top due to indecision about final visual impact.

While working on the final block, I still didn't know yet what I should do with the border, especially with new quilt deadlines looming now for the next couple of months. At 49 by 71 inches, though, I think it's big enough without an extra border.

It feels good to be able to hang this lovely whole grade-schooler on the quilt stand instead of in baby sections all over my bedroom wall!


Linking up with Confessions of a Fabric Addict here and Crazy Mom Quilts here.

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