Next Up! How long?

My next quilt up on the frame is a big one!   94×115.  This morning I spent some time designing what I was going to quilt in the borders:

And pondering what to put in the center:

I often get asked by customers “how long” does it take to quilt something?  And I can rarely give a definite answer.  This particular quilt needs to be returned to the customer on Saturday, 7 days from now.  It is custom with full binding and I’ll start it today to give myself enough time.  Because it all depends….first off, how long does it take me to decide on a quilting plan…how much S&S (stand and stare) does each quilt need?

Then it depends on how the threads play with the machine and the fabrics, how much manipulating I may have to do in order to make the quilt lay flat when finished (this one doesn’t look like I’ll have any to do!  YEAH!), and the other parts of life that creep up affect it as well….like thunderstorms at this time of the year.

Here’s yesterday afternoons sky as the storms crossed over:

These passed overhead and I’m thankful.  What you can’t really tell in the photo is that the gray cloud was rolling overtop of the white storm cloud below it.  Quite scary looking for a few minutes.  And when you have storms, if you’re like me, you shut down all your electronic equipment.

Of course then there’s always that one last distraction, the furkids.  My biggest one has taken to spending his day in a new location:

Right beside the deck doors in front of our rocking chairs.  Where he can’t miss seeing everyone (or every dog) who goes in and out of the house!  Smart dog!

So, how long does it take to quilt a quilt?   As long as it takes to get it right.  LOL  Which may or may not be very fast, but that doesn’t matter as long as the end product looks terriffic!

I’ll try to remember to post pics of this as I go.  When I get involved in a quilt, I not only tend to forget to eat, but I also tend to forget to stop and take pictures.  And it’s hard to blog post about quilting without pictures!!!