So ignore the fact that I knew this young woman would be graduating from high school a few years before it happened.
Ignore the fact that I decided to make her a quilt about 10 months before said graduation date.
Ignore watching me pick out fabrics from my stash that I could use in said quilt about six months before said graduation date, choose what kind of quilt I'd make about a week later, and then sort the fabrics into necessary piles about a week after that.
Don't even look at those fabrics sitting, neatly pressed and still separated into their respective piles...until about two weeks ago. Graduation date done and gone. Graduation party (fortunately) delayed until mid-August. Quilter returns home from summer travels, completely fried, looks at calendar, and immediately thinks, "Cr*p. The party is next Friday."
I didn't *quite* make the party. I was able to wrap up a completed quilt top (in some circles that's called a "flimsy," which I find highly entertaining and a perfect description) in a gift bag and hand it to her at her party, and them promptly snatched it back away again with promises she'd have a fully finished quilt before she moved away to college.
I made it. Sure, I had to overnight express the darn thing to get to her house the day before she moved, but I made it.
Graduation quilt complete
Backing and binding
Binding by machine--did a pretty darn good job this time!
Back of binding--I stayed on the lines! (Well, 95% of the time, anyway. Better than in the past.)
Requisite "Quilts n' Dogs" shot. He's looking quite regal. A bit full of himself because he was recently groomed. (Read: "Defurminated.")
(Yes, my portable quilt hanger was in jammies and a sweatshirt and I dragged her outside early for pictures. I had to get the quilt to the post office, dontchaknow.)
I heard from the grad today--she got the quilt and loves it; I had to assure her that it really is okay to take it to college and not to worry about stuff getting spilled on it. I made it to be beat up. Velveteen Rabbit and all that.
And now I get to start on baby quilts...