Finished, Still Breathing, with Elation and Disappointment.

What a weekend! I finished the Chinese Auction quilt at 10 p.m. on Saturday night. Sunday morning before church I finished up the rice warmers. The baskets were filled and off we went to the Chinese Auction/Basket Bingo. We left at 11:45 and didn't get back home until 7 p.m. I've never really been a Bingo person, and DD#2 found out she isn't either. After 20 games of Bingo, 4 Special Bingo games, Door Prizes, and Chinese Auction, she was SO ready to head home! It's funny how one can do nothing but sit, and be bored and hungry. Not that I should have been hungry, but boredom builds an appetite. And it's tiring being bored for so long. We were exhausted when we left. But, it's for a good cause so that's okay.

Mary did SUCH a wonderful job digitizing the softball logo for the quilt! THANK YOU, MARY!!! It really made the quilt so special. Less than 5 minutes after I put the basket on the table with the back logo/names/numbers showing, one of the 14U players ran up to another 14U player and asked, "Did you see that quilt???" It created quite a buzz, and the girls were thrilled with the pics inside. Lots of tickets were dropped into the container for "The 14U Basket". I was so happy that people liked it and was hoping one of the 14U girls would give it a good home. That's the elation part.

Here's the front of the quilt:

And here's the back. I REALLY wanted to show the full logo to show what a great job Mary did, but had to blackout the team name :

This the closeup of the back:

Here's the disappointment. The 14U basket was won by a grandmother of a 16U girl! What is she going to do with a quilt that doesn't have her granddaughter on it, features none of the girls on the 16U team? I just hope it doesn't end up in some rubbermaid tote destined for Good Will. It was meant to be a keepsake quilt for a 14U girl. Guess Grandma was NOT wearing her glasses. Or maybe she was like my mom thinking, "Oh...I thought it was your team." Oh well, what can you do? It happens and we move on. I'm hoping she gives it to a 14U parent, or maybe one of the 14U parents bought it off her. And then there's that 14U tote with the 14U pic on the back LOL. It is what it is. But the rice warmers are good. What woman does not have cold hands? Most women I know have them, including myself.

This was the project that came straight from the old noggin. I knew what I wanted and went to work. The pictures on the front were placed under a "picture window". Same principle as a bound buttonhole without the lips. That was my intention so the fleece edges would be raised around the picture, kind of like a window frame. Since there were two layers of fleece, I didn't use batting. That would have made it too thick IMO. I applied woven, cotton muslin on the back of each front square to act as a stabilizer to prevent stretching. My must-have tools for this project? Basting spray and a walking foot--definitely. No headaches and quick sewing. The two finished sides were stitched together with the ends fringed.

Overall, I was really pleased with the quilt. Truly, I'm not a quilter. My heart is not in it. But it was a nice project to do for the auction and I'm glad I did it. My motivator for this quilt? Cindy at Patternreview did a lovely t-shirt quilt for her BIL. Here is a picture of her quilt. She answered some questions for me which got my brain thinking on methods I wanted to use for this softball quilt. Her quilt was lovely and inspiring.

So now I'm taking a breather. My family is hoping for some good, home-cooked meals with that big project done, and I'm back to garment and accessory sewing. See the jumble below?

That blue and grey microfleece fabrics are for my daughters' friend's Christmas presents and the green, curly fleece is destined to become night pants for my daughter and me. That was the fabric.com fleece I was thinking about sending back. It's so darn soft inside that the decision was made to keep it. This pic doesn't even include DS#1's jacket either.

That's all for now. I have to get some sleep.