Finished! Sarah

This UFO went back to 2002 or 2003, so I am particularly glad to cross it off my list!

I bought the pattern at a shop in Kidron, Ohio during a shop hop.  I had the top pieced, the applique woman assembled and fused to the top, and the whole thing layered for who know how long.  When I rediscovered it, the in-progress quilt looked like this:

The woman was fused in place, so there was nothing I could do about her placement.  I ripped out the inner border and everything beyond.  My husband, A, helped me pick a dark purple from my stash to use instead.

I like it much better both in the smaller form, and with the darker, less match-y borders.  I struggled with the name of this one.  The pattern is called "Sarah," and I just couldn't identify with the name.  But in the end, I've been working on this for like 13 years (off and on) and always thought of it as Sarah, since that's the pattern name, so Sarah it is.  Here is the detail of Sarah herself:

There is some shading and layering with her dress and her scarf.  I took the finished quilt in to a local quilt shop as part of a UFO challenge they are running, and the staff person commented on the layering on the dress, something I had honestly forgotten about, since I did it so long ago. Machine applique is not my strong suite, but I was glad to really work at it some on this project.

I did an attempt at stippling in the tree tops, then outlined some of the tree trunks.

This was my July goal for A Lovely Year of Finishes. (Goal setter #61.)  It is also on my Q3 list for the Finish Along hosted by Adrianne. (My original list of Q3 goals can be seen here.)