Hopscotch and a Win!

Hi. My name is Emily. It has been 3 days since I purchased my last bit of fabric.

I'm not a hoarder, I'm a *ahem* collector. I collect the pretty fabric with every intention of doing something fabulous with it right away. And then I doubt that my plan is really the best use of my pretty fabric. So it goes into my drawer of pretty fabric and there is waits.

Well. One day I'd had enough of that nonsense. I pulled out a jelly roll I have had for months (years?) and decided it was time to get cracking! I wanted to make a Hopscotch quilt from Thimble Blossoms and my Sweetwater Reunion was just the fabric for it.

I got the top sewn together pretty quickly. I mean, it has A LOT of pieces to it. But thats jut part of what makes it so special right?!

Triangles all sewn together, but not into strips yet ^^^

And like MAGIC, the strips all sewn together ^^^

Back and binding all picked out ^^^

And then I decided that straight line quilting was the way to go. Worst. Idea. Ever. Don't get me wrong, I totally love how straight line quilting looks once its done. But it took For.ever. Hours and hours of sewing line after line. And probably two spools of thread. 

This was at the half way point. I wasn't totally sure I was ever going to finish. But I just kept going and one day had a marathon of sewing. I think it took me four hours straight to finish the quilt, but I was determined and nothing was stopping me from finishing that darn thing!

Somewhere along the way I decided that this quilt would be for my dad. He is such a great man. Supportive and kind and loving to everyone. I knew it was something he would love. I also decided somewhere along the line that I would enter this quilt into the State Fair. This meant that I needed the binding to look good, and that meant it had to be hand sewn down. Normally I do the quick and dirty method, and just sew it on but I'm never totally happy with how that looks and so I knew I needed to be able to make sure it looked great. 

Don't you just love that floating triangle on the back side? I think its a fun little addition to the quilt.

My dad came over to visit two weeks ago and I told him that I had a birthday present for him and that he could see it early, or he could see it once the fair has finished. He wanted to see it right away and he loved it! 

Last night we were finally able to get over to the Fair and see if I won anything and I got a blue ribbon, first place, in my division!! I was super excited to see that! I'd geared myself up for no ribbon at all so that was exciting for me! So now my dad has the pleasure of owning a first place quilt! HA! 

I'm linking up!

http://www.estheraliu.blogspot.com