Christmas Day - The Report for Everyone Following This

As I hoped, Mom loved the quilt. :-)  Here's the setup Christmas morning:

before

after.  If you can't see it (and haven't read the rest of the blog), the design is my own and is the sign-language sign for "I love you", which is something special in our family. 

The scavenger hunt was a success (I even managed to stump her a couple times!)  I'll post more pictures later...for now, it's bed time.  :-)

santa's coming!

t minus one more night of sleep until santa comes! I wanted you to pick my gift tonight, but it's better this way...I'm trying so so hard not to point out all the flaws, and nick even pulled me into your sewing room to read the "zip your lips" thing on your shelf. I think that's great. :)

anyways, this is likely the last entry before you get to see it. I hope I've managed to give you some idea of how much love I put into this for you. mom, you are an amazing woman. you are my hero and my best friend, and I am so inspired by you every single day. I am so glad I got to be your daughter. I love you so much! :) MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!

driving back from port a

I feel like I've been holding my breath for weeks now...I'm gonna try to grab a couple more close-up pictures before we go see Avatar tonight, but it's so hard to even think about Friday without letting my poker face slip. you still have no idea, and I hope you don't think I've forgotten you this year. I hope you like it...it's far from perfect, but there's a lot of love in that quilt. :)

I can count the days left on one hand...

I'm packing up stuff to go to Texas!  I'll be there in less than 12 hours!  Your quilt is the reason I'm checking a bag this year...I won't be letting it out of my sight until I'm in Fair Oaks, so it's going in a duffel bag with me on the plane.  I bet you'll wonder why I needed so many bags.  Teehee.  6 more days though!  I can't wait!!!!! 

Muahahahaaaaa

You gave me some "suggestions" last night for what I could get you for Christmas, if I hadn't thought of anything yet.  Eeeeexcellleennnntttt...that means you have NO idea what's coming!  :-D

In other news, Christmas is now on the 10 day forecast!!! 

23 days!!!!

That's three weeks from Friday!!!! 

I've been telling everyone how I feel SO bad because I know I've told you about everyone else's Christmas gifts, but I haven't even *hinted* at yours...I really hope that by now you feel better about that.  I hope you're not hurt even right now (Dec. 1, 2009), but I know there have been some lingering pauses in conversations that have made me cringe and slap my hand over my mouth.  You know me well enough to know that, if I went even one step down that path ("don't worry, your gift is way better") that I'd end up spoiling the whole thing entirely.  But believe me...half the gift is the fact that I'm pretty sure you have *no* idea what's coming! 

I've already got the whole gift-giving thing planned out, too...I'm going to take close-up pictures of everyday objects around your house (Jesse's nose might be one of them, hehe) and use those as "clues" for a scavenger hunt to lead you to the guest room, where the quilt will be laid out on the bed. 

I'm also not letting that quilt out of my sight...as in, it's coming with me on the plane.  It's simply not worth the risk to me, lol.  I'll sleep in the airport without a toothbrush before I'll let that thing out of my sight. 

Man, I can't wait!!!

official finish

I think with this, I'm going to call your quilt officially complete. can't wait for christmas!!!

made especially for you...

taadaa! like everything else, it's close but not perfect lol

33 days left...

I'm waiting for the iron to heat up so I can make a label for your quilt.  I'm using leftovers of the pink lining, with green thread to make a "Made especially for you by Kathryn LeBlanc" label for your quilt.  I feel like, given how many of your quilts had that (with your name, obviously) on it, it's only fitting that the one made *for* you should as well.  :-) 

I got a thank you note from you for the pj pants.  You told me I should keep a photo album of gifts I've made for people...little do you know.  :-)  It'd be cool to have physical pictures all in one place though.  I think I'm going to keep this blog going though, so I can keep notes on ideas and what worked and what didn't too.  Maybe after I give you the quilt, I'll even let you be a writer on here so you can contribute too if you want.  :-) 

Iron's ready.  I'll post pictures. 

Not out of the woods yet...

Man...every time I talk to you, it gets harder not to tell you about your quilt (or any others I'm planning, since I don't want to give it away even a little bit).  I feel so bad, too!  I told you about the flag and the bag, and I can't even hint that I'm doing something WAY better for you!  IT'S KILLING ME!!!!  I hope you're not hurt that I wouldn't make something for you first...I really want to tell you, but it's only 35 days until Christmas.  ARRRRGGGGHHHHH

Made It!!!

OMIGOSH Mom, you have NO idea how hard this weekend was!!  You guys came to visit, and we had a TOTAL blast...but all I could do was concentrate on NOT telling you about the quilt!  I did good though!  I hope you'll laugh when you read this, but all I was thinking all weekend was "I didn't get you a razor, Mom!"  :-D

Retrospective

So in review, I would have done the borders TOTALLY differently.  I'm going to try really hard not to point out all the little glitches and poor stitching, etc...I'm sure you'll find it on your own lol. 

My next project is going to be another secret project (well, secret from the recipient)...I'm going to make Mai a quilt for her high school graduation in June.  I've already started collecting black and white fabrics, and I'll be looking for a few deep red ones to throw in as well.  I'm thinking I'll just do basic squares...maybe 3x3s...with a couple of borders similar to the ones on your quilt, then red binding.

Also, I sort of want to try doing a quilt sort of like those puzzles you see where the whole picture is made up of hundreds of little pictures...I wonder how I could do that, and what I could use as pictures.  Hmmmm...

mas mas fin

wide view. it's 2 am on a work night, so I'm gonna go to bed. :)

mas fin

the backing...looks better from far lol

fin

oh my gosh...it's actually done...

small problem...

...I cut too much off when I was trimming the backing. crap. wish I could ask you how to fix that.

back border

pinning the borders to the backside

more borders

putting all the borders on

first border done!

I like it! it's subtle, but still pulls out the heart. I'll finish the rest later.

more border patrol

I don't know if there's a better way to do this, but I'm sewing the whole border down. this is still the first one, and I'm not 100% sure what to do at the corners, but I'm sure I'll figure it out.