Thirty and Three

Those new babies sure mess with your schedule.  I had every intention of posting this quilt in time for Amy's Quilt Festival, but I missed the deadline while busy cuddling my new nephew. So I'm out of the prize running, but still happy to share this quilt.

I actually finished this quilt a few months ago.  And I started it almost 4 years ago.  The second I finished the binding it was cuddled under.  In fact, I think Hubby is under it nearly every night after I head to bed.  And my mother-in-law spent a rough couple of nights on the couch and snuggled under over Easter weekend, but she would kill me if I shared that photo.

The design for this quilt came to me like many of my designs - when I'm bored at work.  My notebook for work is filled with doodles and sketches of quilt ideas.  I sat on this design, however, until I had a machine that could do the circles with machine applique.  Hubby bought that machine for me for my 30th birthday.  This was the first quilt I started with that machine (but not the first one finished)!  The colours were chosen to match our living room, which is orange and cerulean blue.

The quilt was professional quilted because a) it is king-sized and b) I really wanted circles and my skills are not good enough for that.  She did an amazing job on it with circles and concentric circles sprinkled across the quilt. 

On the back I added a few more circles, including the label.  The square in square fabric is Robert Kauffman.  I pieced the back because, well, I like a pieced back.  Rather than mimic the front I did some large square in square blocks.

Oh, and I should explain the name, Thirty and Three.  Thirty because that's what birthday it was when Hubby gave me the machine that allowed the quilt.  Three because it took a little more than three years to finish it.