Dreaming in Honey

I have to be the only quilt blogger that is TERRIBLE about posting the final post about quilts. Maybe it’s part of the emotional attachment of that last stitch of the binding where once it’s done its…done! Seems obvious but it’s weird. This is my piece of art that I’ve labored anywhere from 10’s of hours on, often times nearing the 100+ hours mark for some larger quilts. Not to mention the emotional time of picking fabric, placement, not sleeping cause I can’t figure out why the points don’t line up.

Well here’s one of my favorite finishes of a quilt I gave to my Aunt for Christmas in December 2013 (yes that’s 6 months ago) it’s called Dreaming in Honey.

I believe that every quilt has a story to tell. The one’s got a good one. I don’t think I’ve had the chance to share this story with my Aunt so I hope she enjoys it when I tag her on a Facebook post when this goes live!

This quilt is a pattern in the book Fat Quarterly Shape Workshop for Quilters: 60 Blocks + a Dozen Quilts and Projects! called Dream Garden Diamonds Quilt. I made it using a layer cake and jelly roll of Kate Spain’s fabric line Honey Honey. My Aunt grew up in and lives in Connecticut and Kate Spain is a fabric designer who lives in Connecticut, it’s a good match. That and I’m a Kate Spain fan girl: 4 quilts of her fabrics to date!

Anyways, when I started making this quilt it was for my Grandmother. The plan was to give my Mom her quilt Dusty Puzzled Yankee (to be blogged about soon too) and this for my Gram. My Aunt’s quilt would come next Christmas. Then life happened, as it often does and I knew that she needed a quilt for Christmas too.

I ordered the orange and when I opened it up I had the “Oh no, what have I chosen!?!?!?!?!” moment. But my gut said “Terri, cut the crap, go with it!” so I pieced the back and sent this one along with another quilt I quickly pieced together to the longarm for quilting. Quilting on this quilt was done by Brenda at the Fabric Stash in Charlton MA.

When the two quilts came back I looked at them and the last minute one suddenly had a name and I knew that name was destined for Gram even though the quilt wasn’t put together with her in mind. I was still on the fence about the bright orange though. It totally doesn’t go with anything at my Aunt’s house but she’s so bright and bubbly it had to work…right?

This quilt was bound by hand using a green Kona and because hand binding takes forever I took it with me on a business trip to California which was perfect, 6+ hours on a plane is a perfect way to bind a quilt.

Rolled and wrapped for Christmas I had the three of them open the quilts at the same time. It was perfect, turns out my Aunt loves orange (Phew it’s like my gut knew!)

This quilt finishes at 56″x72″ and I learned so much making it! I’m loving those x-shaped lattice blocks and will definitely be designing them into a future quilt.

Last minute addition: I decided what the heck and I’m entering this into the Large Quilt category of the Blogger’s Quilt Festival! Please do vote for me when the voting opens on Monday!

Also linking up with Finish it up Friday cause it is a finish and it is a Friday (technicalities work right?)

Dreaming in Honey