A Nicey Jane quilt for Samantha

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If this wasn't going to one of my very favorite people, I don't think I could part with it....
But there is no better feeling than making a gift for another crafter, who understands the work put into it, and responds with the appropriate squeals and exclamations!! Samantha and I have been bosom buddies since basically the first week of dental school in the '90s, and have bonded over school stress, vacations, breakups, weddings, 3 babes a piece, and many-o-crafts over the years. She lives in Toronto, so we don't get to see each other often, but she is the kind of friend I know I can always count on. We have already declared that when we are both 95 years old widows (bless our wonderful husbands, we will have surely worn them out by then!?!), we will move in together and craft and drink wine and eat cupcakes until our time comes :-)

This is the second quilt I have made with Nicey Jane- the other is for me, and is stuck on the back burner at the basting phase for the moment while I work on things for everyone else! I like this one better. The bold prints on this line are softened so well when in smaller squares, with the neutral grey and white.
I have never done a squares quilt before, and I love the look of this. Didn't realize how hard it is to match up all those corners! I did, most of the time.... It was all the more critical with the quilting I wanted to do, with the single diagonal lines over the grey squares and double lines, 1/4 inch apart, over the patterned. The back was left rather simple. I wanted it to be a nice backdrop to highlight the quilting. The white thread looks great against the grey.

I used the striped Welcome Road fabric for the binding, and love it! I think I will be hoarding more stripes from now on....

I decided to do something a little special with the quilt label, so I used my circle cutter (addicted to that thing!) and made a little flower, and centered it with an inscription. I put a funny friendship quote ("Friends are like bras: close to your heart and there for support") and a few words, then hand stitched on the lot with Perle 8 thread. The edges are raw and again frayed up nicely in the wash. The quilt is lap sized, measuring 60" by 65", which is ample for my shrimpy-barely-5-feet-tall friend! It was so nice to be able to give it to her in person this past weekend at our reunion. Here we are holding it up among the beautiful Banff Rocky Mountains!


I will be sharing this quilt over at Quilt Story, Sew and Tell and A Crafty Soiree (which also featured my reversible bird bib- thanks Malia and Katie!).