Kristen's Quilt

Back in 2013, my youngest niece had recently learned to sew. She wanted to make a quilt. She was in Girl Scouts and the leader had taught the girls simple patchwork.

My niece lived in Tulsa, I lived in St. Louis. She was about 11 then. So I came up with a very simple plan of squares, and she picked colors of purple and turquoise. I even found a background print for her with tiny dots of her colors, that she could use instead of plain white. Her Girl Scout leader would help her cut with the rotary cutter.

The plan was that I would make the same quilt, photograph the steps and email the instructions to her, and we'd make our two versions of the quilt together. Mine was pink and orange. 

We got as far as how many squares of each color to cut and what size to cut them. Then she got into band and robotics, and hasn't sewn a stitch since. She's now a senior in college majoring in mechanical engineering.

I don't know what ever happened to what she started, or even how far along she got. My start was just cut squares, and has remained a UFO all these years. I kitted it up to take to a retreat several years ago as my "extra project" in case I ran out of things to work on. That kit has gone with me to every retreat since, never touched. One time I found the perfect backing for it at retreat. Does purchasing backing count as moving a UFO along when the top is just a bunch of cut squares? 

Anyway, in July I once again took it along on retreat. And this time I actually assembled it. I have only this one photo of the top on the design wall there. 

I packed it up along with the backing and prepped binding, and donated it to PCQ for someone else to quilt and finish. It will go to one of the charities we support. It's about 49 x 59". 

I always thought of it as Kristen's quilt, even after she gave up on sewing. Now it has finally been moved along, closer to a finish. 

I guess now I'll have to come up with a new "extra project" to take along on retreats. 

Link ups: Alycia Quilts, Confessions of a Fabric Addict