Nan's 60th Birthday Quilt

It's my mums 60th on the 22nd and about a month or two ago, my sister Jo suggested that we should all do a project for Mum, the problem is that I am the only stitcher in the family. My sisters though are all very quick learners and perfectionists so we finally got it done (the binding was finished the day after we gave it t her :) but mums are usually just a quilt top when she hands them over, so not finishing it was quite appropriate. sorry mum :)

I designed this with the plan that we would each do 3 hearts each. 1 blanket stitch applique, 1 reverse applique and 1 embroidered. The coloured squares were going to be plain, but we decided to put little quotes (modified to make them about our mum) on them. As I was running out of time to finish them, my eldest sister Tracey ended up embroidering 1o of the 12! Not bad for a non sewer. The back is all Nan's grandkids hands (60 fingers, very appropriate), I was going to put them in a circle with fingers touching, but couldn't work out how I would quilt it, so after a suggestion from a fellow scquilter I put them on the border. The border became very large as we had to fit sean's hands (Traceys son) on it. He's nearly 15 and is extremely tall. (A basketballer with very big hands) But it worked out perfectly because you can see the quilted shape of all the hands on the front.

This is Tracey's embridered heart. I think we may have converted her, I think she secretly really enjoyed doing it.

This is 5 of the 6 grandkids, Molly and Chloe are at the back and Jo's kids Reilly and Leah at the front.

I decided to make it a quilt as you go quilt in the end, because Nic and Jo hadn't finished their embroidered hearts and I was stressing about getting it all finished in time, and after reading all the fellow scquilters qayg storys I thought it was worth a try. It worked out perfectly and I gained an enrmous amount of confidence with free motion quilting. It was so easy not having to hold a big quilt in the machine, just a 6 1/2 inch square. My only suggestion though is don't do this if you don't like binding!!!!

Here's my angel with his little hands... too cute!

THE last stitch!

I got some of the Matilda's own Ink Jet printable fabric to do the label. It turned out beautifully, but because the backing of it is plastic I had no end of trouble getting my printer to pull it through, but I eventually got it and it looks amazing!!!! I think so anyway, what do you think?

This is the very first Quilt that mum has been given, she is normally the giver, not receiver.

Happy Birthday Nan! I love you!!!