Progression from idea to actuality

Busse knives.

This is the inspiration for my husband's Christmas present. Yesterday, I bought the fabric for it and then spent 2 hours meticulously cutting 2" strips from 15 half-yard pieces.

Three half-yards have been cut at this point... I really wish I had a table!!!

Tim is back at work, so I have the house to myself. I'm going to try to keep the actual progression of the quilt secret (he doesn't read this blog.. not that anything is secret in here except his present!!!) So, this morning I got up an went to work. I finished cutting the last three fabrics that I was too tired to do last night. Then the sewing began, followed by more cutting, pressing, and more sewing.

Ta-da!

The end result! Panel number one!! It's my artistic interpretation of the knife on the far right in the top photo. Considering this was my first attempt at a bargello quilt, I'm pretty pleased with it. Ok, I'm ECSTATIC. I love when a vision starts to come together.

Really, that is what my quilting is about-- getting the pictures in my head made into fabric. I want others to smile at the colors, the textures, the feel of a warm quilt that just happens to be beautiful. While this present for Tim is not my typical color scheme (I prefer COLOR over neutrals), it still makes me want to do a little dance just having gotten panel #1 done. I love it.

As I look at the knives in the picture, I think the knife on the far left is going to be the hardest to get right. If I can get the other two done by Tuesday, I can safely hide them from Tim's prying eyes... why do guys like ruining surprises so much? I also need to get it done because my brother is brining me another project Labor Day weekend. I promised him I would turn his T-Shirts into a quilt for his Christmas present. He's the original surprise-ruiner, so it makes it easy to do the t-shirt quilt for him.

Back to sewing! I think I've got about an hour of productivity left, so maybe I'll finish the binding of a project from last week... maybe!