I received a phone call on Tuesday that my quilt was finished. I think that I showed great restraint by waiting until Thursday to pick the quilt up (I could have gone on Tuesday, as Elizabeth, the Amish/Mennonite lady who hand-quilted my quilt is only at home on Tuesday and Thursday, the other days helping at her daughters' school).
On Thursday Lorna, a friend from the quilt guild who knows Elizabeth and her family, went with me to collect my quilt. She was happy to be the first person to see the quilt in person. We took a few side trips, and made the better part of an afternoon of the journey to Belleville, PA.
We were chatting away, and missed the turn to Elizabeth's, so, we decided to modify our initial plan of "quilt, fabric shop, bulk foods" to "quilt shop, bulk foods, quilt." As we went along, the plan was modified more, but that is the fun in the adventure. :)
Our first stop was Mary Lee's Fabric Shop where I found a reproduction 'cheater' fabric that I decided would be nice to cut on bias and use as my binding for my quilt. The original quilt had a brown/blue/red plaid that I have had a hard time finding a reproduction of anything similar to. While here, I also picked up the black fabric for the setting triangles of the 'sister quilt' by Barbara Bucher Snyder. I also purchased more pink fabric for the Fanny Bucher quilt. I love these three quilts! We also ventured to another quilt shop, and then to A.J. Peachey and Son's store, before going to collect my quilt.
I am quite pleased with the work that Elizabeth did. Her price was quite reasonable (I think she under-charges for her work!).
After a few long days of work (6A-11P), I sat down with the binding fabric on Saturday evening, thinking about folding and cutting the binding. I decided that I did not want to make a mistake while cutting, and put it off until the morning. Sunday, I put a new blade in my rotary cutter, grabbed my ruler and started cutting. By the end of a long evening, I had the entire binding sewn on the quilt.
It still smells like the wood-stove Elizabeth uses to heat her home, but I snuggled under it last night, and was quickly asleep. I love my quilt!
[Photos to come later, as I was falling asleep as soon as I finished the binding just after midnight.]
