I started Lisa's high school graduation quilt when she was a freshman - back then I was still piecing and quilting by hand, so it was NOT too soon to start. Since it was a surprise, that meant I couldn't work on it evenings, weekends, vacations, etc. so I was somewhat limited with regard to my window of opportunity. Her school colors were black and gold, and I'd found a panel of inspirational sayings (black on yellow) that was perfect, so once again the quilt more or less designed itself. Other fabrics were a variety of gold-on-black designs, and Laurel Burch for that splash of color I love so much.
I did finish it before the end of her senior year - and then my biggest problem was having to wait until her graduation in May (2008) to present it to her!
Even though Alex already had a quilt, I wanted to make him one for his high school graduation last month. He's always been quite the naturalist, and I'd been collecting great fabrics over the years for 'someday', which arrived this year. Joni's snowball class provided the perfect pattern for showcasing focus fabrics I didn't want to cut up! So there are snake fabrics (for Mouser), turtle fabrics (for Pokey), tadpole/frog fabric (for Fatso, Spotty and Littley - that's a story for another time), crab fabrics (to remember great feasts in Maryland), lizard fabrics (Alex has always been a whiz at catching them despite their speed), etc.
Here's the finished top at Show & Tell at Busy Bees, before I got it to Pennie (at the last minute, but as always she came through for me!) The only fabric I had to buy was the red/black for the border, which was perfect, with interlocking 'circles' that tied right into the pattern!
Since this was machine pieced (and machine quilted by Pennie) it didn't take nearly as long to make as Lisa's, but was still a labor of love. Alex (with Mom, who schlepped out from Maryland for the occasion, looking on) was surprised to get a quilt, since he already had the lizard one -
but happy!
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