A Quilt for College

My youngest son graduated from high school this May. I had been saving an issue of Quilter’s World, June 2009 for years until the time came for his graduation. In it I saw a quilt called Sign On Me by Colleen Granger in that issue and just loved it.

So while he was away for two months internship in Boston, I had all his friends come over to sign a block with fabric markers. He adores his special middle school teachers so I left blocks and markers for them to sign and they did an excellent job….see the bottom row. So talented!

Two years earlier I started by collecting signatures from relatives and friends from Germany and all over the country and didn’t start sewing it until he left town.

Boy fabric is difficult to find! I shopped my local stores and found a jellyroll of Juggling Summer by Zen Chic/Moda that I thought was perfect.  My first jellyroll and I love the convenience and the range of the collection that I got.

Also I wanted the entire family represented, even his deceased grandparents that he never met so I had to dig for photos and ask others to send me photos.

I used Printed Treasures Photo fabric sheets in an epson printer with waterproof ink. I had a friend help me as they had to be sized to fit into 4 inch squares. Basically it was very easy to do. I stitched the blocks, put them on my wall to try to group family together and friends together and not have the same two fabrics next to each other.

The top was ready for the graduation party and was placed on a table so we could get a few more signatures. But the quilting and binding wasn’t done before the night before we took him to college in August!  It is just quilted in the ditch on every seam because I didn’t want to stitch through the photos or the writing…nothing fancy.

When I gave it to him, he was shocked! His jaw dropped and he couldn’t figure out when and how I did it!  Yeah! I was happy!

P.S. More on the International Quilt Study Center soon….