The Quilt

My biggest to-do before we hit the road is to finish a quilt top I've been working on for almost five years. (Five years!) Back then, when I had a lot more time on my hands, I willingly volunteered to make one as a gift for my favorite sister-in-law. It's a queen-size "Double Wedding Ring", which if you know quilting you have rightfully declared me insane.  And, if you're not a quilter, just know that it is one really complicated (and obviously time-consuming) project.  I mean, yes, we have to figure out how we're going to rid ourselves of most of our possessions. But, I'm telling you, this quilt is a bigger deal.

Last weekend was a significant one in the birthing process of this quilt.  Within 24 hours, I hit a significant setback and achieved a major milestone.  

The setback: This quilt consists of 9 rows of 9 blocks. When you do the math you come with a total of 81 blocks, right?  When assembling the last of the 9 rows, I came up one block short.  I can't tell you how many times I've counted these wonky little blocks and come up with 81. But my many miscounts came up with the same disappointing result.  So, I started at the beginning and constructed the last block.  It was as if I had been playing a five-year game of Monopoly and had to go back to "Start".  After assembling 31 pieces of fabric into the final block (See, I am insane!) I was back in the game.  

The milestone: The rows are done!  Again, if you're not a quilter this means nothing.  But, if you are, I can hear your virtual cheers.  (Thank you!) This queen-size quilt is now in 9 easy pieces. All I have to do now is sew those 9 into one and I am done.  I'll keep you posted. 

Now that I can see the light at the end of the tunnel on my biggest pre-fulltiming to-do, I feel like we really are getting there.  

Now all we need to do is figure out what to do with all of this other stuff!