All Done!

I can't believe it, but I have finally finished my first full-sized quilt!

I honestly have no clue how long it has taken me to work on this project.

I started many years ago.

This quilt is special to me and there's a story with it.

My mother-in-law gave me a set of unfinished quilt squares that her mother started.

There were a total of twelve Overall Sam squares.

I put them away thinking that I'll learn to quilt someday.

Haha.

Years went by but I kept thinking about them.

At the time I didn't know anyone that quilted.

So I started researching on how to quilt.

Then I actually started working on the quilt squares themselves.

It was a very slow process at first because I had no clue what I was doing.

Eventually I figured it out.

Sometime in early 2014 I finished the quilt top.

Then I prepped it for hand quilting while I recovered from brain surgery the summer of 2014.

Initially, I had planned on about five months to hand quilt it.

It took much longer.

Partly due to lack of realistic goals and partly due to surgery recovery going better than expected.

I felt so good I went outside instead of quilting. :)

By Christmas of 2014, with the quilt frame taking up a large space in the living room,

I realized I needed to have a more realistic quilting goal.

Even though I recognized this fact, I never made a new goal.

Fast forward to spring of 2015 and I made new goals that were easy to stick to.

I was well on my way to finishing by the end of summer.

My dad turned out to be my biggest cheerleader.

He would ask me almost every day if I had quilted and how far I got.

It was a real encouragement and great accountability.

Then when he was tragically killed that put a standstill on my quilting.

It took me several months to get back to quilting.

I was bound and determined to get this done.

As time drew closer to Christmas 2015, I could see the end in sight.

I worked diligently to finish this during Christmas break.

It's a little hard to read (I need to work on my embroidery skill).

"A Boy and His Dog, made for Nolan, pieced and quilted by Angela Schultz,

Overall Sams pieced by Georgia Bennett, quilt #5, finished January 2016"

I absolutely had to put grandma's name on it.

She started the Overall Sam blocks.

She didn't start quilting until she was in her 60's.

She inspired me to quilt.

When we visited her in Tennessee she would almost always be

sitting in front of the picture window at her quilt frame.

Then she would tell you to pull up a chair and grab a needle.

That is one of my fondest memories of grandma.

(And the quilt frame I used was made by my father-in-law

for grandma to quilt on whenever she visited Indiana.)

It has become my tradition to take my finished quilt project to my in-laws to show them.

My mother-in-law doesn't quilt, but I think she's thrilled that someone else has picked it up.

It measures 70 x 87 inches.

I let Nolan pick the backing fabric.

He wanted some wildlife. 

You may wonder why there are only six of the twelve Overall Sam blocks on the quilt.

I  thought for a long time about it.

I wanted both of our boys to have quilt squares made by their great-grandma.

So I split the set and added the dogs.

Since grandma had such wild fabrics I let the boys pick the material for the dogs.

It adds to the craziness of the quilt.

Part of the reason it took so long to complete Nolan's quilt was

because I worked on the blocks for both quilts.  That's 24 blocks!

This means that all I have to do is add sashing to Connor's and the top will be done.

Before I get to his quilt I have a project I want to do for myself!

I have absolutely enjoyed quilting so far.

It's a fun new hobby.

So that's the story behind Nolan's quilt.