It Is Finished.

Finally.  I did it.  I actually completed my quilt.  Now, before you give me any applause, let me just remind you that it took me 3.5 years.  YES, you read that right, YEARS.  In other words, it took me 2.5 kids to get this quilt done.  It was meant to be a project to remind us of our precious time spent in Africa.  We spent days roaming the streets of Ghana searching for materials that we could take home.  I had no idea how much to buy, we bartered and guessed and lugged this cloth through the streets of Europe and from rental suite to our new home.  Then we stored it, I got a sewing machine, I borrowed books from the library and I planned it out.   I even incorporated "Fulani stars" which are symbols from a people group we were living in community with.   I watched you-tube videos and had many nasty conversations with my sewing machine. 

Then I had this brilliant (read: not-brilliant) idea of hand quilting it together.  By this point, I had already missed my "finish it by the end of maternity leave" goal that I had originally set out to complete it by.  But my lovely step-mom bought me a quilting frame in support of this endeavour and we proceeded to move this large frame from room to room for the next 2 years.  It got put up and I was determined to work on it the summer after Toby was born, and then our kitchen leak happened.  It got put back away again. 

Once the ridiculous catastrophe of 10 weeks without a kitchen passed, it finally got put back up in time for some new years' resolutions. I determined, this time last year, that I was going to quilt 2 squares a day and by golly I was going to get this thing done.  It got moved from downstairs to upstairs, to downstairs to upstairs.  The kids believe it to be a fort or sometimes broke off the hollow legs of the frame to hit each other or pretend to blow trumpets.  The frame was often in my way and when I would walk past it, still unfinished, I would just feel guilty that I was neglecting it.  But sometimes, I'd sit down at it and feel a small sense of accomplishment and hope when I would complete my two squares.

Now I have a King-sized, Ghanian quilt that is hand-designed and hand-stitched.  Finally. Meanwhile, I probably could have accomplished more than 10 quilts by now had I actually sent the quilt out to get the final quilting stitches done or if I'd done it by machine (smaller quilts) or even followed a pattern or bought the quilt pre-cut.

At the end of all this, you might suspect I would have some great concise and poetic lessons I learned like "patience makes the heart grow stronger" or "stitch by stitch, a quilt get's sewed" etc., but I think what I learned is "I don't like long-term projects." 

Okay, okay.  I won't be so negative.  I did  learn that some tasks and accomplishments can only be completed a little at a time.  I did learn that maybe, just maybe, my personal growth is actually a lot like this quilt.  A little bit at a time, a long way to go, but a beautiful creation emerging when the project of my life is 'complete.'

Anyways, here's the quilt!  Draped on our futon.  And if any child barfs on it, pees on it, or wipes their sticky peanut butter fingers on it I might just cry.