I'm a quilter!

It's official. I'm 28 going on 68. I finished my first quilt this week and I love it and I loved the process of making it! My grandma would be so proud.

I used 4 smaller prints from Alexander Henry - bats, cats, trees and spider webs. Plus one larger print - The Ghastlies - in 4 different colors. The whole quilt is 88 inches square. Every part of it is my favorite part, but my most favorite part is that it's Halloween but not bright orange and black. At first glance, it doesn't scream "Halloween!"

I am calling my freehand curly-q quilting design "bumble bee" because it looks like the path a cartoon bee would leave behind it. My friend Alisa was nice enough to teach me how to quilt on her mom's long arm sewing machine and we had so much fun! I can't wait to finish the other two tops I am working on so we can do it again.

For the back of the fabric, I used another Alexander Henry fabric with craggy and gnarly owls. The swirly branch lines that the owls are perched on are what inspired the bumble bee quilting pattern.

So what do you think? Not bad for a first crack at a quilt!