Tah Dah

I’m done.

And just in time for the link up party. You’ll want to visit Stories From The Sewing Room to see what others have also finished in the month of November. It’s where we post a goal at the beginning of the month, then report our progress at the end. Thanks to Anne-Marie for hosting this One Monthly Goal Challenge. It has kept me on track.

My November goal was to finish this quilt. All that was left to do was the handstitching down of the scalloped binding.

How do I wrap up my huge Bible Sampler Quilt Project in this post? This quilt provided the focus, gave the purpose to my decision to start blogging in the first place. A lot of living has been lived in those five years: family members have passed, a global pandemic has come and gone. Where do I begin?

Shrinking away from such a monumental decision of what I could say, I look to the Bible, from whence cometh this project in the first place. After the amazing miracles the children of Israel experienced in the Exodus, Moses wrote the books of Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. What did Moses say? He recapped. He reminded God’s chosen of the places they’d been, and what their God had done for them there. He included lots of facts and figures. So here we go. Here’s my own list of facts and figures if anyone is interested. I fully realize my humble project lacks miraculous events of any importance, so I thank you for indulging me in this recap:

Number of pieces: 4,490.

It felt like a lot more. Jane Stickles had 5602 pieces in her quilt, which only took ONE year to make. And I wonder if she added the binding and sleeve to her total? (I did.)

How many years did it take? Five years. That’s sixty months. I began in mid-November 2018, and we are now at the end of November 2023. (And I sewed by machine. And didn’t quilt it at all. It’s tied.)

How many Blogposts published during this project? 210

How many Views? 7,733

How many Visitors? 3,335

How many different countries visited my blog? 49

Now I probably should not count the one from: “Unknown Region”. And I’m not deluded enough regarding my popularity to believe that the views from some of the more remote countries are actually humans looking at my quilts. Do bots count? (I’m looking at you, China.) Even so, I welcome you, bot or not, and you too, one viewer each from Pakistan, Oman and Algeria. I counted you in. It IS a small world after all.

Most favorite block? This one, number 12: Dove in the Window. I like how it rolls around inside the square.

The very close second choice is Goshen Star, number 20:

I like how tidy it looks.

I’ll close with this: I thoroughly enjoyed every step of the way. I loved each block, and each part of the process as I went along. Even the step of tearing out of all those papers from the backsides. There was blood, there was sweat, but there were no tears.

My usual trajectory when undertaking a project comes in three phases: One: Initial enthusiasm. I’m excited as I pull fabrics, imagining how fun the new challenge will be. This phase is followed by Number Two: Dislike as I get underway, at times bordering on disgust. I question myself about every little decision. “WHAT was I thinking?” Then finally, Phase Three: Satisfaction as the project wraps up. I feel tickled and surprised by my accomplishment. The second guessing, the mistakes, the ripping out, is all forgotten.

But not this time. And the best part of this project? It was the reading through of the Holy Bible, the Living Word of God. I highly recommend you jump in if you’re thinking of doing this.

Here’s one last look …

That is all!