Michelle's Celebration Quit

My friend Michelle has been in town all week. She's decided to take up quilting, and wanted to learn some basics. I'll share that part of the story another day, but for now I'll share the quilt I just finished for her!

I've known Michelle for years, we met at Mass in college, and became instant friends. 

About a year ago Michelle asked me if I'd consider making her a quilt to celebrate 10 years since she quit a bad habit (one that she quit just before we met). I won't go into what that habit was, but quitting was a pretty big milestone in her life. So, we agreed to decide on a direction for the quilt, and she'd buy the materials. 

We had chosen Anna Maria Horner's Love Emblem quilt pattern. I decided that I wouldn't mind following the pattern, but it became a bit of a chore - I hate following patterns. I pushed through though, and the pattern came together really easily. The only real annoyance was having to enlarge all those pattern pieces - we took them to Fed Ex and printed them ourselves on a large size paper. 

I of course put off finishing the quilt - it wasn't exciting. Following a pattern is so different then creating it yourself. I'm not used to it. I knew it was worth it to finish... but it took a lot for me to come around to it. Finally this week I basted the quilt before Michelle came to visit, with the intention of getting it quilted before she got here.... That didn't happen. I did manage to quilt it up in the morning this week, while Allie was at school and Michelle was sleeping off our long night of sewing (apparently I don't require much sleep). 

It's completely finished now, prayers in the binding, pictures taken, and Michelle took it home with her! 

In the end I'm glad I pushed through and finished it. It feels good to make something for a friend, and it's nice to have it finished! :) 

Next time maybe Michelle can make me a quilt - she's well on her way!

Michelle's Love Emblem Quilt

I have to be brutally honest here - I've been putting off this quilt for about a year. I'm not sure why, but I just wasn't feeling very inspired to put it all together.

It probably starts off with the fact that I don't typically follow quilt patterns for anything. I design my quilts myself, and create them as I go. This project is different from my normal in so many ways. First it was requested by my best friend from college, Michelle (Schell). I don't usually accept requests for quilts, I make what I want to make in the order that I feel inspired. But, if anyone deserves a pretty quilt it's Schell. She quit a bad habit (which we won't go into here) about 10 years ago (just before I met her). That was a life changing thing and it's still hard and emotional. So - with that considered I agreed to make Schell a quilt.

We'd come to the agreement that she would buy the fabric and batting, and I would make the quilt. We decided upon Anna Maria Horner's Love Emblem quilt... and worked on pinterest and fabric.com to pick  out fabrics.

Here's the thing, if I would have started this quilt right now it'd be so much different. 1) I don't think I would go with a pattern at all - I would have sketched out a couple ideas and let her pick. 2) I have a much more defined sense of color and balance... these fabrics are not exactly having the balance I want.

But it's going to work and it's going to be beautiful!

Last weekend when Michelle was in town we went to fed-ex to enlarge the templates... then I cut them all out and we chose which fabrics would go where. Today I cut the pieces and assembled the center panel. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. Next up is adding the heart in the center and borders to bring it up to a usable size!