A secret revealed

Whew. I can finally blog about this quilt. So many people have seen this and loved it. It was a really fun pattern to do--my mom had it from a McCall's Quilting Magazine from 2001. The pattern is called "Sweet Dreams". The fabric is all Anna Griffin's Alix collection, except for the binding, which is Paula Prass Flights of Fancy.

It's fun because it is basically a bunch of building blocks of different sizes. Then you put them together into four large pieces that are then flipped around to make it look more random. It is a birthday present for my friend Sara, who was the maid of honor for my wedding. I've known her for a long time and yet I've never made her a quilt. She and I made two quilts together, both LARGE. One was for her parents' 25th wedding anniversary (we were in high school at the time) and another was a high school graduation gift for a friend who was a year ahead of us. I think it's high time she got her own quilt. I picked the fabrics based on the fact that she lives a few blocks from the beach and she loves to surf. I wanted to make something surfer-girl without being too cheesy. I really like these fabrics from Anna Griffin because they are fun and beach-y without being over the top.

I had a bunch of scraps left over from the top, so I pieced the back. It was really fun practicing my improvisational quilting.

I quilted it myself, and boy, was it a beast. I usually quilt smaller quilts, so managing such a large quilt was challenging. What made it more challenging was that I wanted to follow the blocks in echo quilting, but turning the quilt each time for the rectangles was tough. I might send it out to long-arm next time.

She just called me because it arrived in the mail today, and she loves it. I guess she just re-did her bedroom and the colors match perfectly. Am I psychic or what?!

I'm glad she loves it. She is a wonderful friend and quite deserving. Happy birthday Sara!