MK's birthday quilt

I have a friend named MK.  She's fabulous, and she's one of the big reasons why I love the community and town I live in.  We first met three years ago, and our first friend date involved me dragging her around from store to store in search of the perfect black dress (note: we both hate to shop.  and it was raining.).  I'm happy to say it's all be uphill since then: no more shopping, and lots of blueberry and raspberry picking.

She's a gem - really, absolutely, awesomely so.  I'm thankful for this gal in my life!

So, as the world's smallest token of friendship and birthday love, I made her a birthday quilt!  I'm excited at the final product, though I did run into some snags along the way.  (this quilt was inspired by Elissa's first-ever quilt!)

This was my first time trying quilting lines so close together over a whole quilt as well as making my own label for the quilt.

MK's birthday quilt - front (swaying in the wind a little bit)

back of quilt - detail

first time ever labeling a quilt like this ... so much easier than I thought

The quilt measures about 48"x48" and uses fabrics from all my previous projects (I will award you seven points if you can cross-reference at least three of the fabrics you see).  I used a blue-and-white striped sheet on the back, cut to size.  For the label, I used a little scrap of double-sided iron-on interfacing (I used Wonder-Under) on a scrap of white fabric.  I wrote the label with a permanent marker and ironed it to set the ink.  I ironed the label onto the quilt and secured it with a blanket stitch for looks.  So much easier than I thought it would be!

I'm excited to celebrate my sweet friend today!