Kyle's Quilt

I have (virtual) stacks of photos to share, and hopefully I'll make time to do that soon! For now, I have a  simple, but special, quilt to share.

You may remember the pillows that I made for some close friends two Christmases ago. Our friends include my husband's ex-coworker, his wife, and their two sons. One of the sons lives in Chicago now, and the other (Kyle) was living here. In the two years since we moved to New York state, we've grown really close to these friends. Addy loves spending time with them, and she especially loves seeing Kyle. He teases her and tosses her around like an uncle, and he is so patient with her!

We knew that Kyle was looking to leave the area, but we were still quite shocked to learn that he was taking a job outside of Salt Lake City, Utah! I wanted to make Kyle a quilt, but somehow his move date snuck up on me. When I realized that I only have a few days to make his quilt, I had to decide if I wanted to sew it up quickly or mail it off to him later. I decided to whip up something before he left, because I wanted to be able to give it to him in person. It also helped to keep the design simple, which suits him well!

I choose mostly batiks for this quilt, with a few prints thrown into the mix. My local shop has such a fun selection of batiks, and they have a bit of an Asian feel to them, which is perfect for Kyle. I started with a grey and cream feather print, because I remember Kyle telling me that feathers are significant in Japanese culture. (I'm pretty sure he told me that they symbolize good luck, although googling didn't turn up much. I'll continue to think that, though, as it fits the quilt well!) I paired the creams and greys with a few different shades of blue.

I really like to use rectangular blocks when I can. It's such a nice break from squares!

I quilted an all over square design, which I think works well with the simple piecing. It was really fun to quilt an all over design for a change, and it quilted up so fast!

Here's the feather batik that I began with:

On the back I used a mix of prints and some Essex linen (in denim):

I almost forgot to add a personal label. I didn't have the time to iron a scrap of fabric and hand stitch it to the back of the quilt, so I just wrote a short note on the backing fabric. I wrote this note right before snapping these pics, and shortly after that I was in my car to hand deliver the quilt!

Kyle loved the quilt, as did his parents! I'm so glad that I finished it in time to hand it over in person. I know that he'll love it and use it, and think of us often. (And I may have another stack of fabrics all ready to create something for his parents....if only I could find that free time that I seem to have misplaced!)

On a personal note, our family is moving soon! We're excited to relocate to Pittsburgh sometime in the next few months. I'm sure the sewing will slow down during the move, so I hope to spend a bit of time sharing more on here! In the mean time, I post often on instagram. I hope to catch up with you over there!