Quilt for Donnie

This week my stepmother was diagnosed with leukemia, and the only good thing is that it has been diagnosed as the most curable type. She is on the other side of the US from me, and while I'd love to hop on a plane and go see her, I'm sick, and know she doesn't need my germs right now.

So what does a quilter do? She makes a quilt! Since it has to be made quickly, I decided to make a lap sized quilt using my Checkerboard Stars Pattern. By adding a couple more rows, an enlarging the outer border a bit, for better proportions, it was good to go. I purchased the fabrics and cut the pieces the same night. At one point yesterday, I thought I might be able to complete the whole center panel in one day. Nope, I was wrong. Since I cut the fabrics when I could hardly think straight I was short sashing fabric, and I knew there wasn't any more at the shop either. Back to the computer. Now I remember, I had planned to use the stripe for the sashing and binding, not the inner border. There was enough fabric to cut the sashing and inner border with this change, so after ripping the other fabric off the blocks last night, I'm ready to attack the sashing again today.

Here's the quilt design that I exported from the computer: And here is a mock-up of the blocks with new sashing and the borders:
I'm hoping to finish the top today, but we'll see.....