Well Hello! I'm back after an unexpected hiatus that included a couple of weeks camping in Texas, taking care of my mom after a fall and surgery, three secret sewing projects, a 40-60-80 girls' birthday trip, and a family wedding. Whew! Where did the time go? I'm glad to be back to share one of those secret sewing projects that has been gifted so now I can share!
Last year, our quilt guild chose to participate in Border Creek Station's 2020 Stash Buster Challenge. I decided to pull all of my pastel floral prints from my stash to use in this challenge and as I was doing so, the boho shabby chic feel of the fabrics made me think of my niece who loves pastel pink. So I decided to make the quilt for my niece's wedding gift.
Making the blocks took much longer than I anticipated. I worked on them off and on last year, then worked on them during my mom's 80th birthday sewing weekend and during the three weeks I stayed with her after her fall and surgery.
When I had 200 blocks made, I decided to start laying it out to figure out the layout. I originally had planned to randomly place the colors in a double diamond pattern, but you couldn't see the design because of the random color placement. So I decided to start grouping the darker colors together thinking it would help to have a focal point and soon the final layout emerged. Of course, I didn't have enough dark blocks for the big X border in the design so I ended up having to make an additional 32 blocks. I added a border around the outside so the quilt measured 90" x 90".
As per my usual M.O., I was still hand sewing the binding on when mom and I left for our 40-60-80 girls' birthday trip on June 1, so at night in the hotel room, I would sew. Our birthday trip consisted of driving to Nashville (and lucky us, Hancock's of Paducah was right on the way!) where my daughter met us for a long weekend celebration. If you haven't figured it out yet, my mom turned 80 this year in January, I turn 60 in August and my daughter turns 40 in October - so of course we had to celebrate the occasion! After our weekend in Nashville, mom and I spent the next week traveling to Texas for my niece's wedding. One of our stops on our way was to visit Laurel, Mississippi, home to Ben and Erin Napier of HGTV's 'Home Town' fame. When I saw this blue truck beside Erin's store, I had to get a few photos of the quilt! If you look close, you can see that I still have part of the binding yet to sew down.
We were lucky to be able to squeeze in time before the wedding to give our gifts to the bride and groom and get to watch them open them up. I hope they love the quilt as much as I do and hope they enjoy it for many years to come.
~Happy Quilting
Sharla
