Signature Quilt - Finish

Just over a year ago a friend of mine announced that she and her husband would be adopting a second girl from China.  I, of course, needed to make a quilt for newest child.  You see, I made one for the first girl they adopted and you can read all about it here.

That was a huge undertaking, and while I enjoyed putting it all together, it asked a lot of the people who wanted to participate.  Its hard to go buy fabric for a project if you are not a sewist.

So, for this quilt I wanted to make it easier for our church family to be a part, so I decided on a signature quilt.

 I started with the Falling Charms pattern by Missouri Star Quilt Co - I got mine out of the Block Magazine that they put out.

 As you can see, I did planned the fabrics opposite of the pattern.  I used the charm squares as the signature blocks and the jelly roll strips in between. 

 I'm very happy over all with how it turned out.  I ended up buying two jelly rolls of Gooseberry by Lella Boutique.  This allowed me to get seven blocks with the same fabrics.  In hindsight, I suppose I could have made less blocks of each fabric and used more fabrics.  Eh. Whatever.

 A little bit about signature quilts, if you should ever think of doing one: Control is good.  I had all the charms cut and marked on the 1/4" line with clear instructions that anything over that line would not be seen.

 The fabric squares are ironed to pieces of freezer paper for stability in writing.  I purchased Pigma pens in a few colors and black and made sure that they were the only pens used for the signature blocks.  I tried to make sure everyone signed them in front of me - but two people actually managed to abscond with blocks and pens!  I did get them back, though.

 There is a single layer of Pellon cotton batting as this will be a wall hanging, mostly.  The quilting is a simple wavy stitch along the seams that make up the steps of the blocks.  I didn't want to worry about quilting over anyone's signature.  (also no close-ups of the quilt - privacy, you know)

 This is the back.  I have had the floral fabric for a long time.  Easily 10 years waiting for something special and this was it.  The colors matched perfectly.

 The green gingham strip is left from my three year old's baby quilt!

 Also a green gingham hanging sleeve across the top.  I used a leftover block for a label on the back.

 Binding is a matching pinky/red Kona Cotton.  I forgot to look at the name when I bought it, but its perfect.  I actually had a border on this originally that I took off.

  Finished size:  52" x 80"