A Special Quilt for a Special Little Girl

For the past 2 years, I have been working in Appleton as a PRN Radiation Therapist.  While there I met some amazing girls and formed some fantastic relationships.  One of those relationships was with a fellow Radiation Therapist, Jackie.  I loved working with Jackie...she could always put a smile on my face!  But what I really loved, was that she would always ask me how my quilting was going...what I was working on, if I was going on any retreats, etc.

About a year ago she asked me to make a quilt for her little girl Brielle.  It was a complete honor to be asked to make this quilt.  It was not a baby quilt, but a quilt for Brielle's "Big Girl Bed."  She wanted a quilt that Brielle could use for years to come.  She had see a butterfly quilt at a local store and really liked the design, but the quality of the quilt was very poor.  She wondered if I could design a butterfly quilt for Brielle in the colors of purple, pink, and lime green.  She told me that homemade quilts are much more special than store bought ones.  Like I said, I was honored and immediately jumped on board.  I knew that it was going to be hard, since it was going to be all applique, but I was up for the challenge since I knew how loved this quilt would be.

Choosing fabric was so much fun.  There are so many amazing patterns in the colors purple, pink and lime green.  Choosing the fabric was the easy part...then I had to figure out how to design the quilt.  I have never designed a quilt before, so it was a bit of a challenge.  I enlisted the help of my dad who as much experience in the software that I would need to design this quilt.  It was easier than I though to design the quilt, but then I had to figure out how to print it in the size needed.  After much chatting with my dad, we decided to print out the entire thing and tape it together...yes all 74 pages.  It was the only way to get the size I needed to trace for the applique.

The background was easy to put together...12, 20 inch squares using white on white fabric.  Then came the first butterfly.  It was fun to put all the colors together and create a beautiful butterfly.  Then it was time to applique.  Each butterfly took me about 2.5 - 3 hours to complete.  Although they took quite a bit of time, before I knew it, the butterflies were finished.  Next was the flowers.  Each one of those also took about 2 hours to complete.  Just like the butterflies, before I knew it the flowers were done and therefore the top of Brielle's quilt was finished.

I took the quilt to my local quilt store, Patched Works, to have it quilted.  I found a fantastic pattern that had butterflies, flowers and little swirls that matched the background fabric.  It was like it was destiny   Perfect for this quilt.  I must say the staff at Patched Works did a fantastic job quilting Brielle's quilt.  It came together beautifully.

Brielle's Butterfly Quilt!

A close-up of the butterflies.

A close-up of the flowers.

To go along with the quilt, I made my signature gift bag to give the quilt in.  I found some fantastic purple flower fabric for the bag.  I quilted the bag myself, which is a skill that I am slowly building my confidence in, but every little bit I do builds my confidence.

The gift bag for Brielle's quilt.

It was a lot of fun making this quilt for Brielle!  And I think she will enjoy this quilt for years to come!!!  Here is a link of her seeing the quilt for the first time!!!

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10151093084712030&set=vb.526897029&type=2&theater

Happy Quilting!!! :)