It's finally finished!

I finally finished the king-size quilt for my DS & DIL! They've been stationed overseas since 2001 and I promised it would be finished by the time they returned to the States. Luckily, they reinlisted several times! They are returning this summer. It was started in 2002 - that's when I cut out all the pieces. I machine pieced the blocks over a period of time, in between other projects. Then the blocks were assembled and the border attached. That was about 4 years ago maybe. I basted it and put it on a frame in my dining room, but just didn't work on it very often. After about 2 years, I finally took it off the frame, stuffed it into a huge plastic shopping bag, and started working on it with a hoop on my lap. Last summer we found out they would be coming back this year, so I got serious about getting it finished. It's the only quilting I've done since last Fall. It's pretty cumbersome trying to quilt a king-size on your lap - I'd pull out a section and get it in the hoop and stuff the rest back in the bag. I never really knew how much I had left to do, so it was a surprise when I found I had done the last block! The border went quickly. I had marked the border in pencil all those years ago and the marks were still there! The blocks were marked as I went along. So I just HAD to show it off. I sent them pictures and they are very well-pleased (good thing too, because I'm not doing this again!). I know I asked some questions and advice about this quilt along the way and I thank all of you who helped me! NancyH