2011 CM12: Cathedral Window Quilt

And here it is.  The Christmas make to end all my other Christmas makes.  The Cathedral Window Quilt.

When we drew names back in July, I was really excited to get my dad.  He is generally im-poss-uh-bull to shop for because the kinds of things that he wants can only be found on ebay, and he's the only person who knows what they are, so he just buys them himself.  But two years ago for Christmas, I made him this cathedral window wall-hanging.  It's now hanging in my parents' living room, and on several occasions, my dad has mentioned how much he loves it.  So I figured that this Christmas, I would go for the gold and make a whole cathedral window quilt.

This is the project I wanted to start in August.  This is the one that had me moaning throughout the entire fall, "I HAVE SO MUCH TO DO!!"

Countless hours of ironing to make 120 blocks:

Then sewing them into strips...

And then I was so busy cutting and pinning in the colored windows and sewing around each one, sewing more strips together, pinning more windows, sewing them in, and repeating...that I forgot to take any more pictures until it was done.

Front

Back (I love the trellis pattern that cathedral windows make.)

And here it is in its home, which gives you a little better idea of the scale.

Close-up!!

Unfortunately, the pictures don't do it any justice in the slightest.  I've been putting off posting this for a few reasons.  The main ones are:

• I just cannot think of sufficient words to describe this project.  The hours it took.  The strategic, systematic production mixed with the joy of creative sparks throughout.  How much I truly enjoyed seeing it grow and come together.  It was just so lovely, start to finish.  And I know that without really wonderful pictures, I have only my words to tell you about it.  And that makes me sad.
• All those makes I wanted to do in January to put away with my Christmas decorations...didn't happen.  No huge surprise, but I was really excited about them.  Then I want back to work.  It's temporary but still vastly consuming (time, energy, lifeforce, etc.).  I really wanted to go full speed ahead posting 2011 Christmas makes right into 2012 Christmas decorations.  Oh well.  I'm done working in 2 weeks, and then Jason has promised to still take Judah one day a week so I can get my creating mojo back in orbit.

I did manage to make a project for Valentine's Day, which I will post soon.  For realzies.