what did you do this weekend?

I made a quilt. I call in my marathon quilt. I bought the fabric on Friday and finished it last night. At 2am.

On Friday, two of my quilting buddies and I piled into my Honda and drove to the closest quilt store 45 minutes away in Las Cruces, NM. It was a delightful trip with lots of gabbing and getting to know each other. This is a picture of me being somewhat overwhelmed by options at Oregon Mountain Quilt Shop:

(and yes, I do stand like that alot.)

Why make a quilt in a weekend? Well, the Ginders were the lovely couple willing to let us house-sit for them when we first got to El Paso. And Kelly came home today. (Which is significant since I thought she'd be home Sunday, but gratefully I had until Tuesday.) And I wasn't sure what would be an appropriate gift for a couple who let us live in their space for so long.

So I went for personal and decided to make something. And in classic Karen-style, I waited until the last minute.

So this fabric was bought on Friday, conveniently pre-cut in what's called a fabric jelly-roll:
And this is what popped out on Tuesday:

front

back

I chose the Chinese Coins pattern and ran with it. I'm not usually one to follow quilt patterns since I prefer the scrappy, randomly pieced-together look. But I didn't have time to experiment, so $5 later I had a pattern and a plan.

It took many hours, and two movies: Gigi and Pride and Prejudice. (And not just any Pride and Prejudice, but the A&E 5 hour version. The very best one, in my opinion. It's my "quilting movie"; I watch it at least once per quilt I make. It's that darn good.)

And I think having a deadline and only a few days is the way to go. Otherwise quilts are like any other project that I start and never finish. For once, procrastination paid off this time.

As proof, I got a call from Kelly this evening saying she loves it. Absolutely loves it.