Strawberry Lemonade

I know, it sounds like a post for summertime, not the middle of January, but this bright sunny quilt is just the thing for a grey January day.  I started this quilt last spring when I first received this book.

I ordered the complete series to save money. It was a good deal. Also, I used it as a treat to myself for getting through the year of cancer treatment. One book came every other month and they were each a joy to page through and dream of the quilts to come, once I was ready to sew again. Now, the first one is done and on its way to the new owner.

 Vanessa calls this quilt Lemonade. I fell not only for the color, which is my favorite color, but I loved the slices of lemon and the way they were quilted.

 The quilt was easy enough to piece, and went together pretty easily. It only took so long because I wasn't sewing at all for several months.

 It was a chance to use a lot of yellows that were sitting on my shelf waiting for such inspiration.

 I would only have wanted to quilt it exactly the way Vanessa did. It was perfect. The quilting, however, was a challenge for me for several reasons.

 First, I hadn't quilted in quite awhile and I was rusty. Second, I hadn't had my machine serviced in two years and it was dust inside and had a couple of other issues. Once I had it serviced and talked to the technician about a couple of things, I was back in business.

 My stitching was still way less than perfect, but I just kept plugging along. Nothing in life is perfect and this was okay with me. I had a big chunk of Sweetwater's Wishes yellow for the back, and I added another off white print from that line, as well as this cute strawberry print from my stash.

 And that's how it got the name Strawberry Lemonade. And the imperfect lemon wedges are organic lemons, never perfect, but always tasty.

 There wasn't enough of the strawberry print for the binding, but a search of my scraps unearthed some lovely Heather Ross strawberry scraps to make a scrappy strawberry binding. It adds the perfect pop of color.

 A too cold, but sunny day yielded these pictures in my bedroom. I am very happy with the way this came out.

So, even though she might see it before it gets there next week, I am sharing this here. Sally, I love you and I hope you enjoy this quilt.