I'm in a quilting sprint!

I finished all the handquilting on a quilt that I made when I still lived in Ohio (so I think I've had it pieced for about 2 years).  I had it mailed to me during my six month stay in Vermont and made a lot a progress on it but I hadn't put any real work on it for about six months.  Then last month, I decided to get to work on it so when I saw my mother at Thanksgiving, we could put the binding on it and I could finish.  After about 2 weeks of intense quilting almost nightly (with episodes of Midsomer Murders keeping me company), I finished it rather quickly.  So spurned on by this success, I decided that I would finally finish the first quilt I pieced.  I have worked on the quilting on and off for about 8 years. I wish I were kidding but I'm not.  I set it aside for the first time to make a quilt for Bridget and then my sisters kept having babies (and I made a king size quilt for Rachel which took me about 3 years, I pieced that monster quilt throughout most of grad school).  Now I am closer than ever to finishing it, I have about 1.3 pieces of border left to finish.  Since this was the first quilt that I worked on, I can see how poorly my first attempts were and how much better my stitching has become.  I kind of want to rip out those old bad stitches but I sort of want to be reminder of how I started.  So now, I'm sprinting toward the finish line of Thanksgiving with a quilt that I made with my grandmother and for that reason alone, I will always keep it with me.