Halfway Down the Long and Winding Road

Well, I have finished the top to my Long and Winding Road quilt. I am really diggin' the colors! I just love when the finished project looks as good as it did in my head!
This quilt is for a gift, and the recipient was a huge Mickey Mouse fan, growing up. I found this fabric for the backing on the $2.00 clearance table:

I have a goal to spend no more than $2.00/yard for backing fabrics for quilts. I have a big rubbermaid bin full of 5-7 yard lengths which I have purchased for $2 or less. Some of them I bought purposefully, with a particular project in mind. Others, like the $1/yard print of allover celery stalks with ladybugs crawling over them, were just too cute to pass up.

I get the love for "novelty" fabrics from my Grandma. She made me a quilt one time, whose backing was the same fabric that was inside my tennis shoes, and said Sneak-ease all over. For Johnny Tremain and Lily's wedding quilt, I got $1/yard that said How Do I Love Thee Let Me Count the Ways all over it. MacGuyver has a quilt with Monopoly Man fabric on the back that I bought for $0.78/yard. It's a fun treasure hunt!

Turning a corner...

Don't you love it when one of your children disappears, then calls you up to see a "secret"? Alvin Fernald was looking in his footlocker for something, and decided to pull out all his soldiers. I let him keep them up for three days (the advantage of having only two children left at home, is that they are able to have their own rooms!), and he took these pictures as a remembrance.

First, the Cowboys and Indians:

Next, Gettysburg is played out here. Alvin just bought a new PS2 game of The History Channel's Civil War:

Finally, one side of WWII. It looks like the green guys in the back have yet to be set up at the time the photo was taken:

I really should have taken a picture after they had been put away. Kudos to Alvin--he is on a neat streak about his room, and Mom is lovin' it.

I will let you know when I decide how I want to quilt my L. & W. R. project. I love hand-quilting, but am not a fancy quilter. You may have read here before about my Quilt Motto--Finished is Better than Perfect...