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I did it! I stitched the last stitch on my massive by-hand quilt yesterday. What a job.

I think I should call it my “Holland Plate Quilt.” Dresden Plates are the name of the circular-star pattern, but since I finished this in Holland… it makes sense.

This is so not perfect. I know it looks pretty good from these pictures over the interwebs, but this thing is just riddled with mismatching seams, things that don’t line up, places I didn’t measure well enough. And my poor hand-quilting skills make me sure this is just going to fall apart. But hey, whatever. It’s done.

This is a queen size quilt, with 30 blocks. I mostly followed the Dotty for Dresden pattern found in Material Obsession II, with some of my own tweaks (probably would have been better just to stick to the pattern…).

I checked back on my own blog and found out that I ordered the fabric last February–this took me almost an entire year to make! With breaks. I cut out all the fabric and sewed the blocks and plates together in Portland (with a machine, not by hand) then I shipped everything out to Amsterdam, which took a few months to receive. Once I got it, I started appliqueing the dresden plates to the quilt. Then I made the “quilt sandwich” and started the actual quilting. Finally, yesterday, I finished!

I put a few fun secrets in, like the tiny Christmas tree I stitched on Christmas Day. And when I ran out of fabric for the border, I threw in a swatch of Liberty of London I bought in London. My favorite part was an afterthought, actually. I stitched a row of Amsterdam-inspired canal houses on one edge, and I’m pretty much in love with how that turned out. I also added a “signature” to the back.

I finished this just in time, as we are currently experiencing a cold snap all across Europe–a frozen wind from Siberia has been sweeping down and turning everything to ice. Seriously, it is. That’s not even a metaphor. This quilt was perfect to cuddle under last night, making everything warm and toasty.

I’m so in love. And do dang proud of myself for finishing!