The stages of my quilt.

I first bought many books of upholstery samples of the same red and gold color scheme from The Scrap Exchange in Durham, NC for $4.

Then I laboriously cut/tore them out removing very large staples. Then I peeled the paper off that was glued to the back of each one. 5 days and some very sore fingers later, I finally had each square more or less 'clean.' I laid them out on the floor to plan the pattern.

Then I sewed them together like a puzzle- filling in each little gap while I ensured I matched the color scheme. (This was the only stage I was able to use a sewing machine. About 30% was done by machine, the rest had to be by hand.)

Here you can see the bits of paper I was unable to completely get off. This took about a month to do this.

Then I 'sandwiched' this top layer with some stuffing in the middle and a gold colored sheet on the bottom and then I 'traced' (by sewing) all the major lines- outlining every square and every major design of each square- sewing it all by hand. This took about 3 months.

Finally, I sewed the excess edges of the sheet up over the sides to make a nice edge. (Took about 4 hours.)

I've finally finished this very satisfying project. The quilt is very thin but wonderfully warm.

I won't be attempting another quilt anytime soon.