Free at last

This is THE quilt I've been alluding to for such a long time. My best friend from childhood had a baby this summer and I really wanted to make her a special quilt. I worked on this for months and months. I put it down frequently because each time I came to a new step I stressed over how to proceed. The design was stolen from April at by small means. I loved the quilt and actually emailed her to get some ideas on how to construct it. I probably would have gone about it a whole different way if I had not communicated with her first (thank you)! I used the fabric Katie Jump Rope by Denyse Schmidt. I was holding onto it for a long time and since my friend's name is Katie, it just seemed perfect. I enjoyed making the top, as I always do and then I just got STUCK. I never know how to "quilt" a quilt. So I put it off and probably didn't work on it for 6 weeks. Then I finally kicked myself in the butt and got going. Basting is my least favorite aspect of quilting and this is a bigger quilt than I'm used to so that was one of the things that kept me away. My second least favorite part of quilting is choosing a quilt design and thread color. I have no confidence when it comes to that. I ended up finally choosing an all-over zig-zag design that I used once before. I actually used a Crayola Washable Marker to mark the quilt design. I did that once before too (same quilt) and it came out in the wash but I ended up having major anxiety dreams about it last night! Once I marked the top I wanted to get it in the wash as soon as I could so it only took two days to quilt it and two days to do the binding. Into the wash last night and here is the final product. I still have to clip some threads and add a label. I know it's going to be appreciated and I'm very proud of it.