Sassafras Leaves (for college)

This is a sweet and celebratory day, for my quilty heart.

Approximately 3 home addresses and several years ago,  I began sewing the petals for what would become my favorite quilt to date.  At the time, I lived in a small apartment, was still practically a newlywed and was getting to know the wonderful modern quilting community online. 

Much has changed in that time, namely, the recipient of this quilt went from a sweet kid to a bright, kind and sassy young lady. Rae has always had a special place in my and T's heart, and that will never change. From competing at horse shows to captivating an audience with her voice, she is talented, poised and strong. Watching her grow up, explore her passions and develop friendships has been an absolute blessing and we are beyond excited to see what great adventures lie ahead for this High School Grad.

 Like Rae, this quilt is unique and special in many ways. 

The fabric for the leaves come from a charm swap, from dozens of kindred quilty spirits across the country, a reminder that our passions can connect us to people from a wonderful array of backgrounds and landscapes.

The design changed and evolved over time, and was heavily influenced by my dear husband, who  curated fabric for and designed the borders. 

The piecing challenged me and required me to stretch both my skills and my comfort zone.

"Oh here there, bias borders! Nice to meet  you! You kind of scare me but I think we can work this out. "

The quilting was done by a lovely local longarmer, who took my vision and exceeded it, bringing the top to life with her custom swirls, flowers and loop design.

The binding was attached the night before we flew out to surprise her and I finished sewing the label down while she ran out for grad party decorations  (nothing like cutting it close!).

This quilt is everything I love about my craft... bringing together people, flexing creativity and expressing love for my friends and family.  I am so proud of it and of Rae. I cannot wait to hear it has been worn and loved to pieces, so that I can make another for my Sassy friend.

Quilt Stats: "Sassafras Leaves"

Size: 60 x 80"

Fabrics:  Stash, Literary by Windham, Tabby Road by Tula Pink 

Pattern: Orange Peels
Quilting: Custom Longarm Quilting by Diane Cerny

Completed: May 2017

Prescription: Orange Peels

Well, I don't tons of fun quilty updates to share with you today. But I do have a photo from of this week's work in progress!

Confession time: I've been sewing while on drugs.  Fortunately mine would be of the lightweight prescription painkiller variety.  In my defense,  the Rx says I shouldn't drive or operate heavy machinery, but it said nothing about operating a sewing machine!

Anyway, the meds are working well, and I'm bouncing back quickly from my minor surgery.  But the drugs do make me a little drowsy and unfocused, so when I got a creative itch, I needed a simple repetitive block to work on.

Enter, orange peels.

I'm seriously in LOVE with these orange peel quilts, both feature scrappy low volume backgrounds and fun bright peels: Emily's Rainbow Orange Peels and Jessica's Scatter Quilt. I just saw that Jessica lives and quilts not to far from where I grew up, in NJ. She doesn't know it yet, but I am pretty sure we need to be best friends. Just sayin'.

I'm using the fusible interfacing technique from this tutorial by Emily.

Apologies for the slightly unfocused fuzzy cell phone photos. Let's go ahead and call that an intentional sneak peek into my foggy state of mind. 

So, the bad news is I technically started a new project but the good news is that it's scrap friendly, there's no deadline and I don't have to worry about messing up if I'm a little loopy.

Let's call this one a win.

Linking up: