Well, I'm not sure what inspired me to make this my first quilt. I guess I was at Joann's getting fabric for...something and I saw this cherry fabric in the center. I knew that Don's Grandma's 80th birthday was coming up and it seemed like the best idea for a gift for someone who has everything! I did not use a pattern, but I have been reading up on quilting and got some ideas. I sketched out a drawing and decided that I needed some more fabric.

I ended up with this design as I wanted the cherry fabric to pop out and be the focus. This was not a complex, designer quilt, but I like it's simplicity.

I chose to baste my quilt with curved safety pins. A lady at the store told me not to quilt with the batting I chose, but it was the best choice there, as I needed white batting, and not an unbleached one. She said it made her quilts pucker, but I had no problem when using a walking foot.

Here is the quilted top before binding is attached. I really like quilts that have a binding. I knew this would happen, but we had to have it ready for her birthday just after Thanksgiving and we were also visiting Delta for the holidays. I did all of the quilting there!

Free-motion quilting is on my list to try, but I needed simple, again for my first quilt. I love this diagonal pattern...

This is the finished product, finalized at Don's Grandma house about an hour before the party. WHEW! Don even helped hand sew the binding for me when I had to care for Inara, whom spent most of the week pretty ill.

The backing is a cute calico print that tied all the colors together.

Now back to the Cherries. Don's Grandma, Betty, spent most of her life in Paonia. Paonia has held a Cherry Days festival every 4th of July since 1947. Betty lived right across the street from the park where it was held each year. Her back yard held a few old cherry trees that produced the sweetest cherries that were ready to eat at previous 4th of July celebrations. Yum!

We of course, had to sign the back of the quilt. Thanks to Judy, my mother-in-law, I was able to use her machine, walking foot, as well as her embroidery machine to get things done. I really couldn't have finished it in time without that!

Betty is opening her gift!

I really hope she likes it. She mentioned hanging it on her wall for the 4th, but I hope she uses it as well. :) It measured about 40 by 60 inches. The perfect lap quilt and good size to start getting into quilting.

My next quilt is a cute kit I bought for Inara. It did not come with a binding, so I will need to find the fabric. It's smaller than this one, so it should go pretty quickly!