A Swoon in the Woods.

I started this quilt a long time ago.

We had just closed on our house, and I was getting into quilting in a big way. In lieu of planning the renovation the house so badly needed, though, we went for one last hurrah to visit family. To not take advantage of the much-cheaper shipping within the US seemed like a waste, so I sent a bunch of stuff to myself while we were there, including a fat quarter bundle of A Walk in the Woods and a paper Swoon pattern. I started cutting this quilt out in January of 2012, intending to make it for my sister W, who didn't get a quilt before that trip because I ran out of time.

I made a block after we moved into our newly renovated house (May 2012), then it sat there.

Then I had friends get married in October 2012, so for their wedding, I made two more Swoon blocks, for huge cushions, as a refresher...

...so I pulled the pattern out, ready to get it started again. And it sat there.

(You can see where this is NOT going.)

I forced myself to make two more blocks in the intervening year, always with the best of intentions to finish the quilt...until a new half-yard bundle came through my mailbox and I was distracted. Or I suddenly had a project with a deadline that I absolutely needed to finish! Before anything else! RIGHT NOW!11!!!1!!

The problem was, I really disliked making this block. I think it is so beautiful, but the method really irritated me. Maybe because it seemed like a lot of effort that cound easily be circumvented with a few clever tricks. (And, it totally can. I just bought the Mini-Swoon pattern which is entirely different, and works much how I thought the pattern originally did, which is to say, MANY FEWER STEPS.)

However. Last month I got so sick of myself that I pulled it out again and said ENOUGH. I did nothing else until it was done. I had help, of course, in the form of television (thank youuuu Arrested Development and Community) and I had already vowed I could send this off to my longarm quilter. I finished the top, and I was delirious, so I decided to make the back extra nice and I even added a strip of HSTs.

I machine bound it, because our other sister's kidlets are little and grabby and sticky so I figured my sister would want something she could throw in the washing machine at any time. I prefer to machine bind, for durability. The backing is Michael Miller Cotton Couture which is my favorite backing fabric ever. It's so soft and smooth to touch, it makes it nice to snuggle under.

And now it is done.

I really wanted to make a quilt for my sister. She's creative, an artist, loves foxes, and when I bought the fabric, blue and bright red where totally colors she loved. (I hope they still are!) I would say that this quilt challenged me, but in truth, the first block challenged me the most. Once I picked it up again I found that I'd learned so much in the intervening months that it was just sewing by rote to get it finished! I felt overwhelmingly guilty at not being able to finish this for my excellent sister, who is clearly deserving of a nice snuggly quilt.

Here's hoping it gets there in time for Christmas!

Name: A Swoon in the Woods
Finish date: December 2013
Made with: A Walk in the Woods by Aneela Hoey for Moda Fabrics, background & sahing Kona Snow, Backing Michael Miller Cotton Couture in Wedgewood
Patched on: Bernina 440QE
Quilted by: Jeannette Bruce of The Quilting Platypus