It's about time I blogged again, eh?

Beuller? Beuller? Anyone out there?

I can't believe four months have passed since my last post. Well, I guess I'm not surprised. 2014 was a crazy year for me. I started grad school, got laid off, found a job, had a parent pass away, had another child start school, and ended the baby stage in our family. I still managed to make things, but the documenting part fell by the way side. I'm not sure I'll be any good at blogging this year, but I do hope to keep track of my projects better throughout the year. Here's my first attempt at catching up.

After seeing Angela's Arkansas Crossroads quilt she made out of Denyse Schmidt's Chicopee line, I knew I had to use my DS Florence fabric to make one of my own. I pieced the top several months back using Florence, coordinating solids, and Kona white.

Once it was all put together though, it didn't quite feel like "me" so I let it sit for a while. As Christmas neared and I hunkered down to finish gifts, I realized that this quilt was begging to be given to my son's teacher. My son is high functioning autistic and has attended a specialized school for the last two years. He's been blessed with a saint of a teacher and I wanted her to know how much we love and appreciate her. What better way to say that than with a quilt?

I really love how the quilting worked out with this one. In the main patchwork blocks, I quilted fairly tight meandering loops. Then, in the white sections, I quilted squiggly lines. The texture it created is so fun, and you can see it pretty well from the back.

The scrappy binding is made up from several pieces of leftover binding strips from other projects that coordinated well with the colors in the quilt itself. (I love it when things work out that way!)

My son delivered the quilt to his teacher's house, who leaves only a couple blocks away. She was touched by the gift and he said he was glad to have made her feel happy. And I was very happy to hear him say that.