Slowly but surely

I started this quilt in 2006 as a joint gift for my parents from my sisters and me. They helped with the piecing. It's by far the most ambitious one that I have undertaken. It is a gift to celebrate their 60th birthdays (which happened in 2007) and the 100th anniversary of our camp (also 2007). Obviously, it's not 2007 anymore. We did manage to get the top completed by summer 07 and I have been quilting off and on since then. My goal is now to finish by August of this year so that it can hang in the local quilt show and then they can have it. There - I said it out loud! Now I have to make it true.

I laid it out this morning to check on the progress and draw on more of the quilting. I took this picture to document that Oscar actually stayed put. He usually comes to check things out whenever I am on the floor and I have to run around and scold him to try to keep him off of it. Perhaps he has now seen this quilt so many times that he's over it.

I actually feel like I am finally getting somewhere with the quilting. The middle sections are quilted as are the the sections extended to the sides, top and bottom. Now it's time to focus on the corners sections. I am using both my hoops in the hopes that it's more efficient but I'm not convinced. I feel like if I can stick to hand quilting through this project, I'll be able to tackle anything.