College Graduation! Creating to show how Proud you are of them!!

One year ago my daughter Kristen graduated from college.  Being the oldest, she was the first of our kids to graduate.  I began thinking of what I could make her that would show just how proud her Dad and I were of her...  At the same time I realized that this would become the standard as our other 3 children completed their education.  It didn't take me long to decide on a quilt! But I wanted this quilt to be special. Something to keep her warm, to hug her at the end of the day, and to remind her that wherever she is, we're still there for her. During this time she was setting up her first apartment and creating her first home so I wanted her to decide on colors and theme.

So off we went to one of my favorite Quilt Shops - The Quilt Patch :)
 


We walked in the door and Sue, the owner, greeted me by name. After introductions off Kristen went searching through the fabric and patterns for what would make her new apartment more homey.  Kristen is always very fun to shop with as she has wonderful taste and unique style!  She decided on a simple pattern named "Just Can't Cut It"  - but added her own flair with very exciting colors!

Kristen immediately knew the color theme she was after and chose several fabrics right off.  With the help of Sue! a pro at putting different textures of fabric together, Kristen made her final fabric choices and ended up with these 6 - don't they just BRIGHTEN THINGS UP A BIT!

Funny, I have two of these fabrics in my 'stash' and NEVER would have thought of putting this combination together.  I love to work with other people and see new ideas!  Always learning new things.  :)
 
The finished quilt front come together beautifully and after adding the borders and multi-colored binding this is the quilt as Kristen received it:

Kristen's graduation quilt 2010

Kristen loved the quilt! but she was in for a surprise...  I designed the back to also be a quilt!  Using all of the fabrics she had chosen I decided to go with more lights so that she would have two different 'looks' to choose from.  Here are a couple pictures of the back.  Aren't the pinwheels fun?!

close up pinwheel design

Full back of quilt.

Here is the Quilt folded so that you can see both sides.

This past May our son Mason graduated and has just made his fabric choice and being a boy...  looked at the several! quilt tops in process and said 'that one looks nice' to a 9 patch design.  He chose Hoffman's Sangria Bali Pops for the fabric :)      I'm heading out for a retreat mid-September with my girlfriends from SVQG and plan on this quilt to be one of my projects.....  What shall I do with the back???.... 

Girl Friend and Quality Quilting Time!  Can't beat that...  

And I would have to say that I've never seen a Bali Pop that I didn't want to take home and play with!! 

There... admitted ONE of my guilty pleasures!!