6 weeks. Really?

Good grief!  I just looked at the date of my last post.  I knew that I needed to get back to posting, but life has been so busy that I just haven't taken the time to do it.  So I am going to try to do a little bit each day, and will hopefully be up-to-date by the time I need to travel again at the end of the month (spoiler alert - it involves the Pope!)

Since my last post, I have taken four trips and was only home a total of 9 days in the month of August!  

The first trip was to Philadelphia, for the Knights of Columbus international convention.  That's where my quilt was raffled off. I am very excited to announce that my quilt raised $1,500 for the Knights of Columbus charities.  I was sooooo thrilled.  And I have to admit that my head got a little big with all the compliments. ;->

I thought that it was amusing that some people liked the back better than the front.  I guess that it is kinda unique, because I used a panel in the center, then added border strips and corners.  But I didn't really plan it that way, it was a consequence of how I assembled the sections of the quilt. 

Here is a photo of the back.  I'm not sure you can see the hands, but I had my son and my daughter hold it up so I could take the picture.  The center is the panel, and it is surrounded by a small print with red and blue stars.  Then the corner sections are a bigger red and blue star print.
  

I did plan to use the panel on the back, mostly because I wasn't sure where else I would use it, and it fit right into the red, white and blue theme.   The center section of the front and back of the quilt were actually made with a straight set, then turned on the diagonal and the corners were added last.  Because it was getting so big (see the previous posts about how I had to keep re-designing it!), I didn't think that I would be able to quilt it all on my home machine, so I quilted it in pieces, then assembled it and added a binding.  

To assemble it, I sewed the sections of the top together with my sewing machine.  After that, the batting in each section had to be sewn together, then the backing had to be sewn.  I did the batting and the backing by hand, using a simple whip stitch.  

Here is the final product:

Some people asked me if I was sorry that I wasn't keeping it for myself.  I thought about that for a long time and decided that making a raffle quilt is kind of like raising a guide dog.  You love it, you care for it, but ultimately, you know that it is meant for someone else.  So even though I really like the quilt,  I am glad that it has a good home.  A nice lady from Northern California won it, and she told me that it will go into her spare bedroom, which coincidentally has a red, white and blue theme!  It was meant to be!

Next up - August trip #2 and  thoughts on "She who dies with the most fabric, wins"