The Leaving-For-College Quilt

Many, many, many years ago when I left home for college, I brought with me a quilt that my grandmother had made for me. That quilt went everywhere with me . . . . my dorm room, picnics, camping, movies, sleepovers . . . literally everywhere! I loved that quilt . . . almost to the point that it is now unusable. The batting has started to peek through in spots. The edges are tattered and torn. The squares are coming undone. I really have loved that quilt.

I have a really great friend whose daughter is leaving for college this week. She's not going too far from home, but she is moving in to an apartment and starting her own life. I wanted to make a quilt for her to take with her. Of course I didn't have this idea until Tuesday night. I sat up for a few late hours drawing out my quilt idea on graph paper. The "quilt math" was pretty intense for a while - and then I had my yardage and layout ready to go. I was at the store the next afternoon picking up fabric in her favorite colors - orange and lime green. By Wednesday night I had everything cut and the first four rows sewn. Thursday night my friend and I went up to Park City for the night and I didn't sew at all. Friday night we came back to my house and sewed until about 1 a.m. By Saturday morning, the quilt top and a really fun pieced back was dropped off to the machine-quilter. It should be ready to pick up this week - a little bit of binding added and Madi should be ready to take it off to college with her this weekend. How's that for a quilt!

This is the quilt my Grandmother made for me. Some of the fabric was leftover from projects and clothes she sewed for us growing up. If this quilt could talk - I know it would have some stories to tell!
Here's the fabric I chose for Madi's quilt.

And here is the quilt top all pieced and ready to go. (The lighting wasn't very good in my family room at 1:00 a.m. on my phone camera.) It's a queen size quilt, so I kept the squares large. Some simple strip sewing and it came together just as I imagined. I'll post a picture after it is all bound and ready to give away.