Comfort twice over

 Hi all! Is this the weirdest winter ever or what? I don't know about you, but the weather here has been really wild. So far, we've had only a trace of snow, lots of rain, and some extremely strange temperatures. Today it was 67 degrees! Which is great, but very odd in February. Do you think this means we'll have a snow storm in April? Gotta happen, right?

Today I'm showing off a finished quilt! Saints be praised, as my grandmother used to say. Here it is:

Totally not my usual thing, but I love it! This was a quilt I made in the depths of grief after my mother died. It's the Solstice Sampler, a sewalong organized by Alderwood Studio (patterns no longer available, sadly.) It brought me back and was comforting when I really needed it. I'm forever grateful.

It happens that I posted a picture on Instagram, and a friend fell in love. Could she buy it from me to give to her sister? Of course not!  I told her she could have it when it was quilted. But could it be quilted quickly? Sure! Not by me, but sure!

I fully intended to rent time and quilt this myself, but there was just no time. I have a whole stack of tops that I'm ready to quilt, and I keep trying to find the time, but there is a lot on my plate right now. So I sent this off to Alycia, who did an amazing job with the direction I wanted to go, and even did it in record time. The main pattern is very swirly, with "rays" around the center star. It turned out so great!

The backing for this quilt is a very pale blue batik, and I bound it in the very last of the bright blue that is in the quilt blocks. I had to piece scraps together and even finagle a couple of things to get enough binding, but I made it with about an inch to spare. 

The designer of the center star actually had a much more complex design, and I ended up making the block twice. Since I was sending this one off to my friend, I finished that block with the applique and quilted it up into a table mat and sent that along, too.

As an added bonus, I had changed my mind about the colors in one of the blocks, but of course I saved the corner pieces that I ripped out. Doesn't everyone? I quilted those up, too, and they became mug-size coasters. Of course those went in the box, too. 

So hurray! This quilt gave me a lot of comfort when I needed it, and now my friend's sister has a warm and cozy comfort quilt to wrap up in when needed. Comfort times two, and awfully pretty to boot.

Hope everyone has a warm and cozy weekend. I think we're getting rain, which we all know will be wonderful for some flowers. I wonder if any are sprouting yet? I better go check, don't you think?

Sharing at Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Brag About Your Beauties, Finished or not Friday, and the Quilting, Patchwork, Applique linkup, too.