Flower Garden
August 2008
Machine pieced
Hand Quilted
by daughter and I
70″ x 90″

My youngest daughter and I worked on this quilt during the summer of 2008. The summer after she finished her first year of college.

If you remember, this was the year nice reds were so hard to come by…. Isn’t it funny how colors come and go, but who would think red, such a staple would be a rarity?!

We’re always looking for a new creative project to fill the summer days. She came to me wanting to learn to quilt and wanted to make a twin sized quilt to take back to her dorm room. As an art major, this is what she came up with. Though I quilt regularly, she hadn’t made a quilt in 10 years…. She did actually take a quilt class when she was six and completed a quillow, a quilt that folds into a pillow. (I need to get that out and photograph it!) Not sure if she remembered what all went into making a quilt……. I cut most of the pieces because we all know rotator cutters are far too *dangerous* for college kids. She did the layout and then machine pieced it.

Then it was my turn to teach her to hand quilt. Let’s just say she prefers to create and to use a sewing machine vs. nursing bloody fingers. Personally, I thought it would be a great hand quilting learning experience, mostly nice straight lines, lots of practice…. But she *did* want to take it to school in a month. Soooo, I hand quilted it on the diagonal about every inch and a half. The flowers were quilted in a spiral from the center outward. It turned out beautiful, but it was most fun to spend so many hours sprawled out on the sewing room floor with one of my favorite girls!