The quilt that refused to be finished...

I have been putting off finishing this quilt for far too long.  Not really putting off, just doing other things.  But, on Friday I finally loaded True Colors on the frame for the trapunto stitching.  WooHoo!!

Now, those that have followed me for years know this name.  You've heard it numerous times.  But for those that have just started following, let me keep you up to date:

2/22/12 -- yes, 2012!  Here is an excerpt from that blog post (if you want to read the entire post click on the date):

I had a mexican pinwheel feathered star (Marsha McCloskey pattern) that had been sitting around collecting dust.  So I pulled it out -- this is what it looked like (actually is was extremely wrinkly so I gave it a real quick pressing):

Then I worked on it over the weekend, and now it looks like this (still wrinkly):

So when did I start this quilt?... I can not remember, but according to this post it was already collecting dust in 2012!  OMG... seriously!

And then on 8/9/2012 I decided to add the little dots in the border.  I also decided to use this project to partake in my guilds UFO challenge... hahaha... again, hahaha - history with this quilt has already proven that it can not be finished!

So fast forward almost a year to 6/6/13 - yes, I said a almost a year!  This quilt has already missed multiple deadlines -- one being the World Quilt Show FL entry deadline of September 2012.  And, as I already stated in the last paragraph, it also missed the UFO challenge deadline.  And even with missed both those deadlines,  I still managed to pull it out of the pile and *think* about quilt designs... 

So on 8/13/13 I was doodling out some quilting designs -- one of which I really seem to like as I talked about transferring it to the quilt.  Again... did not happen.  Although I talk about this quilt wanting to be born, I think that was me wanting it to be finished.  But no, this quilt was not ready!

Fast forward to 2/21/14 when I took yet another WIP Inventory (these help me to realize how much needs to be finished).  I also again share how this quilt was named.  Now this is what the quilt looked like then - somewhere along the line I added additional fabric for the border, which was a good idea, all that amazing quilting that was planned really needed a place to land!

And at this point I had to finish this quilt.  I had committed it to a special exhibit at Quilt! Knit! Stitch! Did I finished?  No, it's now the end of June and I'm still talking about it.... well sort of.

So back to THIS post.  Last week I finally pulled this quilt out to mark up for quilting.  I had to, there was absolutely no choice, it was getting quilted period!  Then... out of no where this quilt started talking away.  I had added four more dots to the quilt since the last picture (one on each outer point). When suddenly the quilt (or the voice in my head - I think they are the same sometimes) said NO!  Put a diamond there! So me, being no dummy, listened and this happened: 

It looked fantastic!  Yay little voice!!  Yay me for listening!  So, listening some more, four more diamonds were added to the outer corners (sorry, forgot to snap that pic).  I spent the evening doing some hand applique - 8 diamonds worth!  And I continued marking the quilt for trapunto work  Yes, I have to mark the quilt - the design is too precise and things need to line up.  Also, the feathers I have planned are mirror-imaged.  I don't know about you, but I am not precise enough to mirror image anything to perfection, kinda, but not perfect.

Well guess what happens... I discover that I need 4 more diamonds to make this quilt happy.  So I add them -- they looked like this:

See how the quilting design totally needed a diamond there?!!  Sometimes your quilt isn't finish until AFTER the quilting design is planned out.  

So in the middle of all this amazing quilt design I received an awesome phone call!  My new Gammill Vision 2 was being shipped out!  WooooooHooooooo!  It is scheduled for delivery on Monday!  What awesomeness -- the trapunto part of this quilt would be the very last thing stitched on my Vision.  And the very first thing (well other than a test sample) to be stitched on the new Vision 2 -- that kinda makes this quilt even more special!!  Awesomeness overload!

With all this fun news racing around my mind I was determined to finish marking this quilt and start the trapunto work asap!  So here it is all marked up:

I've already received numerous inquiries on what I used to mark the quilt.  I used a water soluble white pen, available from Blue Line Eraser.  It's not quite as water soluble as a blue one, I tested it on this black batik and it indeed needed a soaking before coming out.  No worries, this quilt will need a good soaking anyway as there is water soluble thread holding all the trapunto together.

So, this is what Friday looked like:

And this is what today looks like:

I can not wait to finish the quilting on this!  It just goes to show you - a quilt will not be finished until it is ready!

Oh, and if you're wondering about yesterday -- it looked like this:

Old dishwasher (no, not OLD, just broken) coming out and new dishwasher going in.  Please, don't mind the messy kitchen!