Finished At Last......Square By Square.....Begging Quilt Project

Last year, on October 15th, I had a blog post talking about a quilt I wanted to make and actually "begging" for scraps to be donated to this cause. The response was overwhelming and I was the lucky recipient of scraps from all over the world. Beautiful scraps. (Click photos to enlarge and get a closer look)

Well, after 11 months,which took way longer than I ever imagined, I am happy to say my quilt top is finished. And. I. Love. It. In defense of the time it took to finish this top, I must say I was not able to work on it as often as I wanted. There were other quilts pieced and finished during this 11 month time frame, so I was actually finishing other projects and working on this one at the same time.

This finished up at 104X106 and will go on my king size bed. There are 82 blocks each made up of 64, 2 inch squares. That is a total of 5248 UNIQUE fabric squares......all different. If you missed my post with each block posted to a flicker account, you can see all the individual blocks HERE. Photos just don't do the individuality of each square justice. Each one is unique and beautiful.

From the very first day a envelope arrived with fabric scraps to the last pin removed and the last seam sewn, this has been a real joy to work on. Trust me when I say pin removed....I have pinned more seams to sew together in this one quilt than I could ever imagine.....and I really detest the pinning part of quilting.....so it was a challenge. This is one special quilt to me and I will treasure it for always.

Today, I will be finishing up the back and getting it ready to go to the quilter. I was inspired by a quilt back a friend of mine posted on facebook, I am using more scraps that were sent for this quilt on the back, I am just as excited about the back as it is very different from my normal backings for quilts......but absolutely perfect for this one!

This wonderful top is filled with all types of fabrics from novelty, civil war, holiday, vintage and modern....all unique and all very special.....much like the bloggers who took the time to send the scraps my way. My original inspiration came from Mary, as you may remember she calls these quilts "Big Hugs" and that is exactly how I have come to view it as well....A Very Big Hug!!!

There is however one little one who is most glad to see the finished project almost ready to be out the door and to the long arm quilters....Baily is tired of playing second fiddle to some fabric scraps and hopes that there is more time for a game or two of fetch......she says "enough is enough". Poor little girl, she does not realize I have fallen in love with this scrappy goodness and I doubt this will be my last. I already have in my mind a variation of this quilt using 2 inch wonders....and I know there will be another come from the left over scraps.

I can not wait to show this off one last time....after it is back from the quilter and the binding on it!! I can not thank you enough for your continued support and encouragement during this process...but most of all for your contributions to a very dear to my heart quilt!! I simply love it!! I'd like to once again thank each and every one who had a hand in this quilt coming together. Without your thoughtfulness and contributions, this would have never been anything more than a dream.