Sweet Home Chicago

Every year I try to get back home to see my family at least once or twice.  This year George and I came out for a quick two week trip-- just enough time to visit the ones we love and soak in family time.
George has been getting reacquainted with the cousins and hanging out with Grama.

I'm trying to savor every moment and make memories to keep me from missing them all year.

Grama K. making plum cake.

Each time I come home, I take the trip down to Lockport to go to Thimbles.  Gram always says,"oh, next time you should tell me so we can go visit Mary Jane."  Mary Jane and Grama were friends when their kids were younger and I hear that she helped Grama take care of me when I was a baby and my mom had to go back to school.  She's also one of the few people that traveled to Greece for my wedding (my side in attendance= 9, Costas' side= 241).  Imagine my surprise to get to Mary Jane's house and find out she's a quilter!!!

Mary Jane and Gram K.

For the record, Gram didn't know either.  hehe.

Well, Costas flew in today and I'm happy to announce that the wedding quilt I've been working on is finished, days before the wedding!  And Costas arrived just in time to hold it up so I could get a good photo.

It still needs a label and a run through the wash, but I think it'll be ready to hand deliver to the bride tomorrow.

Lizzie, quilt protector.

Many thanks for all the emails and messages you sent worrying about how we survived Irene.. Our house is fine, we just lost one tomato plant.  Really, nothing compared to some less fortunate.  Thanks for thinking about us.
Btw, the Trip Around the World quilt is not the first quilt I finished in 2011!  I managed to stitch the binding down on my NYC Metromod show quilt over the weekend~  Yay, two quilts done in a week!

TATW

How did I not see this pattern before?I had been looking for something easy and quick to do with the lovely, trendy fabrics I bought from Pink Chalk Fabrics last fall.  My original thought was to do a Curlique Crush, recently famous through Lesly's Ogee QAL, but I didn't start in time and now the clock was ticking..

See, I bought the fabrics (and the curlique pattern) in hopes of presenting a lovely modern wedding quilt to my cousin when she gets married next month.  I was planning ahead!  As soon as she announced the engagement I was off and fabric shopping.. but back then September '11 seemed like such a long time away..  Even last month it still felt like I had tons of time to pull something together.
Alas, I quickly realized that I procrastinated too much and an Ogee would never happen before the wedding.  I didn't want to go to Chicago empty handed, and really didn't want to buy a replacement gift (because I already spend the $ on all that fabric and even if they asked for one, I know they'd use a quilt more than a cappuccino machine..).  So, it was good timing that I happened to see Lesly's tweet about her new Trip around the world quilt, and decided to follow her lead.  (Thanks Lesly!

As I was cutting and piecing this amazingly simple (and easy to put together) quilt this week, I just kept thinking over and over how wonderfully generous Bonnie Hunter is, and how she has helped me time and again with my quilting and hasn't even known it.  Thank you Bonnie!
The pattern is very simple with strips  cut 4"x WOF, joined, then looped and subcut.  Bonnie's directions include how to press seams so that everything butts together smoothly when you step the strips up or down to create the pattern, something I wouldn't have had the foresight to do on my own.  I thought the unpicking might be a pain in the a**, but it actually wasn't that bad, and I really enjoyed putting each strip on my design wall and watching the pattern appear. 
Here I wasn't too sure..

But a few more strips and I was dancing around the sewing room, loving how cute it was going to be..

The top is just about together, I'm waiting for the border fabric to dry (damn rain).  We're headed to Chicago in less than 10 days, and I want it quilted and the binding attached so I can hand stitch it down as I visit with the family for a few days before the actual wedding.  I found the best background fabric too, but I can't show that til it's on..

I hope my cousin and her husband like it, and don't feel gypped that they're getting this instead of the more complicated Curlique, but hey, if she ever mentions it, I'll just help her choose new fabrics and we can make one together then.