Hold up... It sounds way more impressive than it actually is.
Back in November, I had the opportunity to housesit for one of my two best friends, Chrissy. While there, I spent my days working on sewing projects. When my neck and shoulder started to complain a bit too much, I would read for a while, then go back to sewing. Since I had an entire house to myself, it gave me lots of counter space and floor space to spread out my projects, without fear of them attracting footprints from people, or pets.
There were apron patterns, pieces of in-progress purses, home decor projects, dresses in various stages of completion, and, naturally - quilts.
(What can I say? I was overly optimistic about how much I thought I could complete over the course of 11 days.)
Now, everyone, gather round and I will share the tale of two quilts.
Quilt #1 - "Rainbow Rag"
Back in July, I put up a post about the first rag quilt I made. It was a baby shower gift for a friend of mine, Jolene. Ever since then, I had been wanting to make one for myself, but I wasn't sure what spin to take on it. Then I remembered another quilt that I have in progress, called City Lot. I got the fabric for it while driving from Bellingham, WA, to Provo, UT, and then from there to Nashville, TN, and then back home to Bellingham. In each of the states I passed through, I got one piece of solid color Kona fabric. With the City Lot quilt, it will all be put together in a fantastically modern, and random, way, as a tactile reminder of that trip that I took with my mom. I absolutely love the look of that quilt, but my inner Lisa Frank hated that I gave up the lovely rainbow order in favor of something more abstract. Enter the rag quilt! 
I had OODLES of leftover fabric from the City Lot project, so I used it to put together this rag quilt. For the layout, I have to thank Constance, a young lady, and daughter of yet ANOTHER friend, Dawnette, (look, Ma! I've got friends!!) that suggested that I try for a cascading color effect. This quilt really only took me about two or three days to complete, start to finish...
...and then there was Quilt #2 - "Laurel Star"
This project definitely took a bit more time. This is the first quilt I ever started, and the fourth or fifth one I've actually finished. I started working on it when I was 16 or 17 years old. For those of you that are Mormon, you'll understand when I tell you that it was one of my Laurel projects. As you can see, it's a scrappy star quilt, all done in reds, dark blues, purples, and various pieces of cream-on-cream fabric. A representation of what my favorite colors were in my late teens. Oh, well. In August of 1996, I had finished putting all the blocks together and had also done the quilting. I know this, because of the little free-hand embroidery I had added to the lower right corner. So close, and yet so far... All that remained was the binding.Since August of 1996, the nearly-finished quilt followed me as I dated, got engaged, married, lived in three different states, and divorced. In May of 2011, while sifting through box after box of accumulated stuff in a storage unit in Franklin, TN, Kaylee, my other best friend, triumphantly held up this quilt. I breathed a sigh of relief at knowing that it wasn't lost forever, and then promptly packed it away to be ignored for yet another six months. Finally, while at Chrissy's house in November of 2011, approximately sixteen years after I had started it, I spent about two hours and added the binding. It's done.
Now, the Rainbow Raq quilt awaits me on cold evenings when I need some extra warmth as a I sit on the couch. The Laurel Star, however, stays on my bed, every now and then prompting me to reflect on all that I've seen, accomplished, and been through in the years that it took me to make it, from start to finish.
