Judy's Flower Quilt

It's hard to believe that I made this quilt in around 6 months start to finish, but when your client is an irresistibly cute 4-year-old, you work quickly. This twin-sized quilt with hexagon flowers was made for my niece Judy's bed. Her older sister has two of my bed-sized quilts, so it was beyond time for Judy to get hers too.

I consulted with my sister on the colors of the flowers, which loosely coordinate with curtains hanging in Judy's redecorated bedroom. We chose purple, pink, peach, aqua and dark teal, and each one got a yellow center to brighten things up a bit.

I pulled out my plastic hexagon templates and started making the flowers over the Christmas holiday. When Judy visited, I told her about the quilt that I was making for her bed, and she inspected my work. :)

In March, I finished making 49 flowers and started to machine appliqué each one to a 10.5" background block for an on-point layout. I chose a subtle print for the background -- flecks of color on white -- to make it more interesting and fun.

This was my design created (with a lot of frustration) in EQ8. I'm not great at using the software, but this gave me and my sister an idea of what the quilt would look like. I made a measuring error somewhere along the way, so the finished quilt doesn't have (didn't need) the borders shown here.

Here are the blocks as they went up on my design wall, for assembly into the quilt top. This isn't the first time my wall has been too small!

Finally I was able to assemble the top with setting and corner triangles. I got lucky with backing fabric at a local quilt show (held just before everything shut down due to COVID-19) and was able to get the yardage I needed at a great price because the vendor was liquidating their remaining stock right as the show ended. I had been looking for backing fabric online but wasn't finding anything that my sister and I could agree on, so my quilt show find was meant to be!

I can't manage basting and quilting a twin-size quilt on my own (and I didn't want to try!), so I sent this one off for longarm quilting by Sterling Quilt Co. in Myrtle Beach, SC. She's @sterlingquiltco on Instagram. My sister chose the design, and it turned out beautifully. Perfect for a little girl's bed.

Luckily, Sterling was able to get the quilt finished (along with another one I sent her - more on that soon) and returned to me in time to bind, label and wash it to give it to Judy in person on a family vacation. After years of making things for kids, I've learned to lower my expectations when it comes to their reactions -- they're never as excited to receive the thing as I am to give it to them. Except Judy! This girl delivered! She was so excited to get her own quilt, and her love of it made all the time and effort worthwhile. Look at that sweet face!