Jane's Liberty Quilt

Just a little over a week ago, we dropped Jane off for a three week summer camp at a college in North Carolina. Back in the early spring, I thought that maybe I should make her a quilt to take because she sleeps in a full size bed here and because the only twin bedding we have belongs on the beds in Kate's room. And because she was going in July and I wasn't sure if the dorm would have air conditioning, I decided that a lovely, summer weight Liberty quilt would be just the ticket.

I ordered a bunch of fat eighths from Dee at Pick Click Sew on Etsy. I have ordered Liberty fabrics from her before and she is extremely attentive and so nice to work with. She also cuts her fat eighths at 10", which makes for a wonderful value. I wanted bright, cheery prints in pinks, reds, blues, greens and yellows and that is what I got. Finding myself a few prints short of what I needed, I took a few pieces from my stash and from my first Liberty of London club installment from Westwood Acres Fabrics. They also cut their fat eighths at 10". Nice, right?

I started cutting for this quilt a couple of months ago, fitting in one or two pieces when I had a small block of time. The fat eighths were each subcut into two 10" squares (for this quilt) and two 5" squares (for another project) and a 1 x 10"-ish strip (that I put aside in my scraps). Jane and I laid the squares out on the studio floor in a 9 x 7 grid and then I sewed them together. Easy, straightforward and fast, the sewing took much less time than the cutting.

I enlisted some help for the basting. Mind you, they each put about eight pins in before moving on. But, it's a start!

The back is a pink Free Spirit voile that was in my stash, most likely purchased for clothing or lining, combined with a larger piece of Liberty to make it big enough. I'm am trying very hard to use it or lose it and this goes for everything in the stash including the precious Liberty, not just the quilting cottons. But I digress... The batting is Quilter's Dream Cotton Request, a very lightweight, 100% cotton batting. The entire combination - Liberty, the batting, the voile back - is the same I used on our Liberty bed quilt and is one I will repeat again. It makes for the most beautiful, soft, drapey, lightweight summer quilt.

The quilting is loops, per Jane's request. I used a hera marker to make a grid on the front of the quilt sandwich and it worked very well as a guide for the free motion stitching. Each loop is about 3 inches tall. The large pattern made for relatively quick machine quilting - it took a couple of hours tops. For the binding, I used another Liberty print from my stash that we didn't choose for the top. It seemed like the right finishing touch.

The quilt, before washing, measured 66.5" x 85.5". We gave it a good run through the washer and the dryer (cold water and then ultra low heat) before packing it up and taking it to camp. All reports are that it is doing its job quite well - keeping her cozy at night and providing a virtual hug from mom, when and if it's needed.

The house is so quiet now. I put Kate on a plane to her camp yesterday.

Boy, do I miss those girls.