University Bound with a Quilt, of Course

Hi everyone:

There have been a lot of changes this summer in my household and suddenly it's much quieter around here. Why? My daughter has started university and is now cozily ensconced in her own private room - with private bathroom - at Campus Saint-Jean at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. Although she isn't the noisiest one in our household (I think my son and I are tied in that respect), it is definitely quieter around here. It could be that with one child out of the house, the remaining one isn't able to carry on the sibling discussions that have been so popular in recent years. In any event, it was time for Sarah to take that big leap into adulthood and we reluctantly drove her up to Edmonton to settle into university life (yes, mea culpa: I did encourage her to accept that university's offer). 

I used the "Wordplay" panel for the centre of the quilt

When she graduated from high school at the end of June I decided to make her a quilt. Although I had grandiose ideas of what I would design for her, I realized that I probably wouldn't have that quilt made until she had graduated from university, so I opted to use a panel to make her quilt. It was a great idea as I actually finished the quilt in time for her graduation. Yay! I think it turned out quite well and I used an orange flannel for the backing as that is her favourite colour. 

A sample of the quilting on Sarah's quilt

When it came to the quilting, I really wanted to do something special, so I decided to free motion quilt a saying from Harry Potter (actually from one of the movies, for those purists out there) around the border as Sarah is a huge HP fan. 

I was pleased at how the words turned out

I wrote out the words in the appropriate scale and then traced then onto the quilt and machine quilted over them. I was pleased with the result - I didn't want the words to overwhelm the quilt, but to be rather in the background for the viewer to discover. 

"Always"

If you're wondering what I quilted, it is: "Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light" Albus Dumbledore. I also stitched a Deathly Hallows symbol on the border.

Quilting details on the back of the quilt

While I was pleased at how this project turned out, I then realized that Sarah would probably need some other quilty items for her birthday and dorm room. More projects to think up and create! I'll tell you all about these projects in a future blogpost.

Charlie approved