The Dirt Road Gypsy Quilt

The Dirt Road Gypsy Quilt is home! On Tuesday I picked it up from Jackie and with the Blogger Quilt Festival beginning on Friday, I set about getting the binding on:

Stitching to the front:

And then I was eager to hand stitch the back down. I love binding quilts and I these little red binding clips are my new favorite notion:

Its been a busy week, but yesterday DH left for an Elk hunt and our girl came home for the weekend, dragging along a friend and two kitties. In order to get this quilt bound in time for the Quilt Festival, I had to work on it while she was home. This was my solution:

I just tossed a big flannel sheet over the top of the quilt. Problem solved! I'm sneaky like that. :)
The girls went to town last night to conquer the corn maze and I worked on the binding all night long until they came home.
I had help:

My binding buddies:

I'm cutting it close for the festival, but who needs sleep? I'm multitasking, as this will be my Christmas Through the Year project for October as well.

  Darlene and Cheryl have been wonderful throughout the year and because of them, my hand made gifts are just about finished! Thanks ladies!

If you're popping in from the Festival - welcome to the end of the dirt road where quilting and ranching are mixed in with a bit of homemade goodness from the oven.

Our college girl chose this pattern that was originally published in the  February 2012 issue of American Patchwork and Quilting. It is a pattern by Bill Kerr and Weeks Ringle. I think I wore out my iron pressing all of those seams open, and I was never so happy to unplug that thing when the last seam was pressed. However, now that I see the finished quilt, it makes me want to make another one...or perhaps I ought to just keep this one! No worries kiddo! It was just a fleeting thought although don't even try to con me into giving this to you early! Under the Christmas Tree it goes!

I love the stained glass look and am smitten with the backing. In an earlier post, I came to the conclusion that I was channeling my inner Jimmy Buffet when I crossed paths with this fabric. And I suppose Jimmy Buffet is a Gypsy in an island kind of way. I sure did listen to a lot of his music while I worked on these blocks. This became known as the gypsy quilt when I began to look at all of the fabrics I had gathered together. There are bits of Terrain, Curio, Gypsy Caravan, Organic Soul, London, Grand Bazaar, Road to Marrakesh, Rhapsodia, Mimosa, Summersault and who knows what else! Its an eclectic mix and some of the names of the fabric lines just made me think of exotic and far away lands and thus gypsy came to mind. College is  a journey so I'm thinking it is an appropriate name, but no matter where she roams, she will always be a dirt road girl. 

Quilt Measurements: 100 x 100
Special Techniques: None, just lots of pressing open of seams. :)
Quilted By: Jackie Williams using this great swirly design called Happy Days

Best Category: Bed Quilt - Scrap Quilt 
So here's my contribution for this year's festival:

Thank you so much for stopping in! I know that Amy is hosting another grand quilt festival and that there are umpteen blogs to visit and oodles of inspiration. Thank you Amy! I'm fairly certain we will all be adding to our lists of 'must make' quilts!