Tumbler quilt

In 2007 I started cutting out tumbler shapes for a quilt.

I put the binding on this summer.  It only took five years to finish ...

In between I had to lay it out, to figure out how the rows were going to go.  The cats helped.

Magic's black and white; Tabitha is the beige blob. 

I eventually got it all laid out, and the rows sewn together.  If it's not obvious from the picture, this is a large quilt.  I think there are about five hundred pieces.  Many were handsewn into pairs and quads, until I lost patience and it got too big to be an easily portable project.  Then I used my sewing machine.

Once I got the rows together I laid it out again.  I must have been measuring it so I could cut the back; I'm pretty sure I didn't put it down just for the cats to play with again.

That was, however, what happened.

Magic made sure I didn't have to quilt it alone. I just did straight lines, in the ditch between the rows.  The front's busy enough to not need detailed quilting.

Those books in the back corner of the table?  They're pressing leaves flat, so I could trace them onto scrapbooking paper and trace that onto the borders of the quilt.  You can see some of the quilted leaves in the border.

"I'm sorry, you were working on this? Why don't you just pet me?"