My Summer Sampler is finally finished!

When I decided to join in on the Summer Sampler QAL I had no idea what I was getting myself into.  Let me tell you that I learned so much while making this quilt.  I had always been scared of paper piecing and never wanted to try it but thanks to the brilliant tutorials written in that QAL I was able to figure it out and now I love it! I no longer have to avoid making a quilt just because it may have some paper pieced blocks in it.  Yeah!  The block below is called the six-pointed string quilt and it is by far my favorite block on the quilt!  It was a challenge to make and I love the way it turned out.

This was also my first quilt that I used all solids on.  Oh my goodness, I am completely smitten with solids, and especially these Art Gallery solids by Patricia Bravo.  They have such a nice hand to them and are so easy to work with.

The Grandmomma quilted it for me (of course) and I think she just outdid herself on it.  It is very heavily quilted and I love it!  I'm pretty sure she had a good time going crazy on this quilt. Thank you Grandmomma!

My youngest daughter laid claim to this quilt after she saw the top pieced together.  I guess she wanted to make sure nobody else would get it so she also asked to have her name embroidered on the back.  Smart little cookie, huh?  Especially since she's only 6 and knows that most of the quilts I make do not end up living in our house.

I chose an Art Gallery print for the backing but since I needed to have a space for the embroidered name I just made a strip of solids and offset it to the right.

I actually finished this top back in September, then I sent it off to be quilted, then I started a million other projects, then Thanksgiving and Christmas came and went.  So even though it's 2012 now I am counting this as a finish for 2011 since all I did this year was add the binding.  

Thank you Faith, Lee, and Kate for hosting such a wonderful QAL.  You guys are all awesome in your own individual way!

Have a great weekend! We are expecting a good bit of rain here so I'm hoping that means a pajama day with a lot of sewing tomorrow.

By the way, try not to be jealous of the dead grass in the background of all my pictures!  I didn't have another place to lay the quilt out that had decent light.