Scraps of Fabric and Time

It's December!  I can hardly believe it, the time passes so quickly.  Little Buddy and I put up most of the Christmas decorations this week.  I'm saving the tree for next week.  We're spreading the joy of the season all through the month.

Here's what I've been working on.  The top for this quilt was finished back in February.  (Click HERE to go to the post about piecing it.)

It's quilted at last!  And shown here on my queen sized bed.  The quilt finished at 72 in. x 81 in.

As you can see, I did very simple quilting.  Mrs. Pfaff and I quilted in the ditch to stabilize everything, and then we quilted the ditches of the nine patches and just continued the lines across the unpieced squares.  I marked the lines with soap.

It was easy to include the pieced border in the grid lines going across the quilt.  When I finished the grid, there was only the outer unpieced border left to quilt.

I sort of copped out, and used a swag stencil I've gone with a lot.  It's easy to mark and easy to quilt.  Plus I actually like it.

Here's the back, a lovely repro fabric I bought on sale a long time ago.  I love turning over a quilt to find a pretty backing.
Did you notice the binding?  It's the same fabric I was thinking about using for a border on my Wagon Trail quilt.  It's really dangerous to leave a fabric laying around in the sewing room.  It can get snatched up and used for something completely different.  Will I have enough left for the border I was planning?  I don't know yet.  I might have to go to Plan B.

This week, we had a sad event in our family.  Little Buddy's great-grandmother, Grandma Betty, passed away.  She was 90 years old, and had led a full life, but she will be sorely missed.
Grandma Betty was my son-in-law's grandmother.  My son-in-law (E.) told me this story.
When E was born, Grandma Betty made him a quilt.  He kept it all his life, and had it with him when he was living on his own.  His puppy chewed up the edge of it several years ago, which really upset E.  Last summer, E asked Grandma Betty if she could mend it.  At first she told him to just throw it away, but he refused.  Together, they cut off the damaged edge, and Grandma Betty mended the quilt.  Both of them were very glad they had preserved it, and E has this very special memento of his grandmother.
We just never know how important the gift of a quilt might be to someone.  It's a lovely way to be remembered.

I'm wishing happy memories, new and old, for you all this week.
Cheers,
Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with
Sarah at Can I Get A Whoop Whoop
Myra at Busy Hands Quilts
Angela at Soscrappy
Cynthia at Oh Scrap