Finish it up Friday: Hello Kitty Quilt

 I completed the Hello Kitty quilt!  It's been so long since I've done a Finish it up Friday post, especially to document the completion of a quilt.  My daughter is very thrilled: she even joined me at the place I rented the longarm for the last 1.5 hours of quilting.  She really was so excited and I was too!  I didn't love having this top laying around: all those tiny squares needed securing pronto and there's no better way to do that than quilt and bind it!

I quilted it last week on a Friday and had it bound by that Sunday.  It really dwarfs Charlotte's  toddler bed and she said she's ready for a "big girl bed."  (I wouldn't mind putting her in a twin sized bed, but we don't have one, so that will have to wait.)  I contemplated keeping this finish a secret until her birthday but bringing her to the longarm place proved to be a lot of fun: she was really beside herself with happiness.

I rented a Statler Stitcher and chose a daisy pattern stitched in white thread to finish the quilt.

Most of the quilt backing is made up of some very "old" stash fabric from Erin McMorris's first-ever  fabric line, a find from Marden's from at least 7 years ago.  I bound it in the only purple fabric I had more than a half yard of: Joel Dewberry True Colors woodgrain.  The quilt measures 78 x 88.

Since moving to Colorado, in order to rent a longarm, I've taken occasional trips to Ft. Collins and stayed the weekend with my sister, renting a longarm from an official Gammill dealer.  My experience there has been okay but it's definitely not been convenient and I've been a bit underwhelmed with the customer service there.  I decided to try out renting from a lady advertising on Craigslist to use her machine in Colorado Springs.  I visited her studio before making the rental appointment, I wasn't impressed with the amount of "stuff" in her storefront: it was truly packed from front to back with consignment items and her own things.  For completing the quilt, I chose a day my husband had off and arrived on time.  The store wasn't opened; I called her.  She said she was "on her way." If I'd known it would be another half hour before she arrived, I probably wouldn't have waited but she gave me the impression that she was simply running late.  It was a freezing, snowy morning.  When she finally arrived and I asked her what had happened, she confessed that she had completely forgotten our appointment and there was "no excuse."  I was really disappointed but we proceeded to get started.  I told her how I wanted the backing to be oriented on the quilt and she did it completely wrong.  She offered to re-do it but I declined, we were already way behind schedule!  Besides a very rocky beginning, I was happy with the quilt and how it turned out.  The rental price was also extremely reasonable: it cost me just $54.  But I am honestly not sure if I want to return.  I am so used to the professionalism I had at Laurena's studio in Burlington.  This experience furthered my determination to purchase my own Gammill- now is definitely not the time of life for that kind of purchase and commitment but I am so looking forward to someday having my own machine!

Thanks for reading.  Linking up with Finish it up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts.  Hello Kitty QAL instuctions can be found on the Sukie blog here.