Well, it’s that time of year – graduation, and all the excitement that goes along with it.

My family was recently invited to a graduation for Kelly, the little sister of my daughter’s best friend. My first thought was – how did it come this quickly? My second thought was – I don’t have a quilt ready!
Honestly – we got the invitation in the mail, and didn’t realize she was graduating this year!

For her older sister, my daughter and I had made a very special quilt that was meaningful to us and the recipient, with pictures and memories. But with such short notice, there just wasn’t any way to do something similar for her sister. And yet she’s very important to us and my daughter and I wanted to make her a quilt.

After a little thought, we decided there isn’t anything faster than a Turning Twenty quilt pattern. We used book number 3 – Turning Twenty Around the Block. Yes, you’ve seen me blog about these quilts before, but it’s true – the Turning Twenty patterns make up quickly and can be very versatile, allowing for framed ‘pictures’ in each of the blocks if you choose. It’s also a vibrant pattern (at least if you use a good contrast color) that catches the eye of the viewer – perfect for a young woman.  If you’ve missed my earlier posts, just click on the link above, or check out the website of the designer, Tricia Cribbs.

Kelly grew up so fast, we weren’t sure what her hobbies were or where she was going to school next year, but we did see her drive by our house everyday in her yellow and black FJ Cruiser.

So we thought we couldn’t go wrong with a yellow/black quilt.  I checked out my fabric stash – can you believe I only had to go to the store and buy 1 fat quarter to make this quilt happen?!  (Okay, perhaps my stash is a little large.)  As you can see in the picture below, we decided to make black the predominate color, as a quilt with more yellow than black could be hard on eyes that were overworked from study!

My daughter and I got busy and made this a team effort. I cut out the blocks, she sewed them together, I quilted, and we both worked on getting the binding done. It took a couple of late nights (but to me that really was easier than going shopping at a mall).  After all the other guests had left we stayed and visited with her parents.

The last time we saw Kelly that afternoon she was headed to her bedroom with her new quilt wrapped around her, saying “I Love my new quilt.”. Was it worth the extra hours staying up late to get it done?  You bet! I also got the bonus of extra quality time with my daughter – which is always welcome.

Sheila Reinke, Heart of Sewing
Sheila