For Linda...

I have a lovely friend in Indiana named Linda. We met in person all the way back in 2005 at a wonderful quilt retreat in Hutchinson, MN. We were part of the same online group at Yahoo, a group built around our mutual love of Thimbleberries patterns and fabrics. The shop in Minnesota used to put on a retreat every year in late September. I was able to go three years in a row, and then they stopped holding them. But my first year was probably the best and it is the year I met my good friend - we were actually roommates!

Linda loves and pieces the most beautiful Civil War quilts - she is very talented - but when I literally woke up morning all switched on about modern quilts and fabrics, I think she figured I had finally (officially) lost my marbles.

So this photo is especially for her.

I first saw this quilt made up way back in 2004 and loved it on the spot. My daughters (who were much younger, and not even teenagers then!) were with me. One of them fell for the design too and when I got the pattern, she determined I would be making it for her. Fast forward quite a few years and she had developed her own style and figured it was time for me to get my act together and get this made. So I started collecting fabrics to go with a piece of art she had purchased for her bedroom. It took me awhile to collect those fabrics, so long, in fact, that by time I had enough my daughter was engaged and declared this should be her wedding quilt.

It has actually been done for several months now, but the weather and lighting have not been cooperating or else I've been too busy (why does the sun come out while I'm at work??) to get over and get some pictures. Still not the best lighting, but you'll have to take my word it is a very pretty quilt. And she loves it. And her hubby does too (he gently reminds her "it is OUR quilt honey, not just yours"). It is enormous (nearly king size) so I really needed to take it outside to have enough room to try capture a picture.

So there you go, Linda, I still know how to work with more traditional fabrics. I hope you like it! I'll share the pattern with you, if you want!

But I am kind of thinking....I bet it would look really, really neat in modern prints and solids...

e.