Winter Vacation

For me, one of the best parts about living in Minnesota is the glorious winter. The skies are blue and the pale sun is always shining. The snow sparkles and the frigid air takes your breath away. I absolutely love it here in the winter. I wake up smiling and look forward to the day ahead.
Unfortunately, this past week the skies overhead have been gray and dreary. The temps warmed up and the snow was alternately slushy and icy. It totally threw me off my game and I had a really hard time getting motivated. So today I am going to take a break from the gray skies and re visit a quilt that I made last spring.I made this quilt for Alex, one of my most favorite girls, who was graduating from high school last May. I wanted her to have something pretty that she could take to college with her this past fall. I've known Alex since she was a tiny baby and consider myself so lucky to have been able to watch her grow up into an amazing young woman.
Over countless sleepovers at my house Alex learned to sew and knit and be creative. She took her first canoe trip with Adrian and I when she was still in diapers and learned to paddle my kayak on a trip up to the Boundary Waters. We've has so much fun together over the years and it goes without saying that this quilt was stitched with a great deal of love for it's recipient.Because I wanted this quilt to be special, I decided to use my beloved stash of florals from Westminster Fibers. Most of the fabrics that I used are designed by Kaffe Fassett or Phillip Jacobs. The pale turquoise pansy fabric in the above picture in probably one of my all time favorite fabrics. It came in several different colorways and I confess that I bought every single one. The nine patch block is one of my favorite quilt patterns, I love it for it's simplicity and versatility. The blocks are six inches square and alternate with solid florals and nine patch blocks. I free motion quilted a loopy pattern with variegated thread. I finished off the quilt with a hand stitched tag on the back:In December, when Adrian and I went to visit Alex at college and I was happy to see the quilt scrunched up on her bunk bed in her dorm room. It made me happy to think of her sleepy and warm, curled up underneath the quilt that I made for her. Covering up with a handmade quilt is like a big fabric hug from the person who made it.