The generational quilt....done

My husband stood in the rain today to get this finished photo.  From bad came good as it often does.  If my mother had not been sick, I would not have finished this quilt...I know it.  I was avoiding the free motion quilting because I am not very good at it.  But because I had decided to just do the hard stuff, the more I quilted, the easier it became.  In no time, what had sat for years was finished.  I am delighted.

 The path of this quilt started between 25 to 30 years ago when I copied this pattern from a paper and mailed from Miami to Phoenix the blocks with the cats drawn in pencil.  My grandmother, in her 90's, immediately called and said that her eyes were not good enough to do this.  But she was a worker and in 2 weeks time I had them back done.  The blocks then sat for at least 10 years while my mind worked on the next step. ( my mind was slow even then!!)  I needed to get a fabric that complimented the cats without overwhelming them.  I found it in Hobby Lobby.  Without even having these blocks on my mind, I saw this fabric in green and red and it all came to me.  Then to every workshop and boring lecture I attended for CEU's, I appliqued baskets.  The blocks had to ferment again.  I had to decide on the placement.  Two years ago I set it this way.  Last year my group basted it with me and I quilted the lattice, borders and did the binding.  And it sat again...because of the free motion quilting.  Enter my mother and the saga well documented in this blog!!!!  And in two days it was done.  Sigh!  Thank you Mother, thank you Grandma....This is truly a generational quilt!