{I'm currently writing a series, counting up and journaling every quilt I've made over the last 10 years of quiltmaking.}

Spring 2006:

This quilt. We're talking pretty grown up stuff here. :) A big departure from the last two I had made. Really - different from every quilt I'd attempted at this point in time. And speaking of "point" - the blocks in this layout are on-point. That was new... and tricky in execution for a first-timer, if I remember correctly.

I designed this quilt to have a large negative space in the center to play up some fancy quilting I was just itching to try.

I had devoured two of Diane Gaudynski books and was totally inspired by her elegant quilting and awesome instructions. That's why I could pull off this fancy quilting in only my 9th quilt.

I stitched an "M" in the center medallion. One important lesson I learned from this quilt was that fancy quilting on patterned fabric doesn't show up the best. Solid fabrics are really best for showing off the quilting.

I had to majorly play with the photo edits above to get the stitching to show up - this is the back side of the quilt. I didn't have great photo equipment back then nor an eye for photography, a dangerous combination indeed.

We gave this quilt as a wedding gift to my husband's cousin and spouse for their wedding. I wish I would have been able to keep up on giving wedding quilts to all newly marrieds, but I had to give up that ideal. Too much time and too much money required, especially for our single-income, baby-having selves 9-10 years ago.