Burnt out but proud!

Okay, some of you have been hearing out my quilt. I posted a picture of the top awhile back. I FINISHED! I am completely burned out from the whole project. If any of you are in the process of thinking about doing a nice quilt I would suggest a few things:
1 - that you reserve at least 80 hours minimum for the top sewing work - Oprah helps!
2 - that you reserve at least 200 dollars for the fabric, machine quilting, backing and batting
3 - finally, that you prepare to be in constant communication with someone who knows what they are doing and won't laugh at your sudden holes that are guarenteed to appear multiple times throughout the process.
Here is the final product:


Here is a close up of the middle patches. I'm blowing up these pictures so you can see a few details. I'm aloud to brag right?! I have some seriously crooked lines but not as crooked as the lines in this picture. The quilt was thrown over a big charger for the lab top! Promise!



And a close up of the corner border. I hope you can see the machine quilting. I chose the backing to be black with black thread and the thread to be tan on the front. It turned out pretty cool!



As you can tell the border hasn't been attempted yet! I don't think that I can handle that right now so it is going to be displayed on the couch for a while until I get annoyed enough to finish the border! As for now I have learned a great lesson that everyone learns at some point in their life. Try not to be so gung-ho about finishing a crafty project that you end up with empty pockets, calluses, holes or blemishes and an overly proud heart!



Finally, I thought that I would devote a picture to Devin. It is his last time he will be studying finals for his biology and chemistry bachelor. He is so studious but after his acceptance to Pittsburgh he changed into a completely different student! Poor kid deserves a good fun summer before he starts again. There is also a story in the tree behind him. You know how they say you get a dog to see if you can handle kids. We started with a small fish. Some already know about our fish but I will quickly fill in those who don't. It committed suicide twice. It jumped out of it's bowl, dried to a crisp on a paper. Then is came back to life in the toilet and swam down the pipes and wouldn't come back up . . . even for food! (Devin eventually had to go to the bathroom) So, we backed up and we are starting with an 8 foot, real ficus tree. I'm not sure how you spell that one. To make a long story short . . . after a 30 minute ride on the highway and severe shavings from an over zealous pruner, the tree is 3 feet shorter and 2 feet skinnier! We love it and think it's the perfect addition to our family!