When my friend at work, Beverly, forwarded an email to me in Oct ’14 with a subject line that said “Make the nifty, efficient 5-yard Everyday Quilt,” I was intrigued. The email was from our local quilt store, Threadbear, and it provided information about the three-evening class for “confident beginners” to make the Everyday Quilt top. I was far from confident but decided to take the leap and sign up for the class.

I bought my fabrics at Jo-Ann’s which I had no idea was considered mid-grade fabric. I just knew it was a fairly affordable way to see if I liked quilting and wanted to invest more into it. (Yes and Yes!) I really like the way the five fabrics compliment each other. I was advised to pre-wash these fabrics prior to cutting them, something I haven’t done since buying better quality fabric at Threadbear and online.

By mid-November I had all 35 blocks completed and three rows sewn together, but I was really struggling with lining up my blocks so I decided to put it aside (my first UFO!)  to work on mug rugs for Christmas presents. When I picked this project back up in April 2015, my quilt-piecing skills had improved from completing three other quilts, and I finally did feel like a confident beginner! I even felt like I could modify the design slightly and feature the beautiful fabric medallions used in the blocks as the outside border and threw in an inner border of dark grey to set off the outer border.

After finishing the quilt top, I decided to piece together a solid turquoise back and turn my quilt top, batting, and back over to longarm quilter, Peggy Lopez O’Neil, requesting a simple stipple design. I was a little nervous about it, but after I got it back from Peggy a few weeks later, I was pleased with the end result. And I definitely felt relieved to have skipped the quilting part of this project. I then squared up the quilt (ugh!) and got the binding hand-sewn on minutes before I had to leave on a trip to Michigan to see my sister (and visit Pink Castle Fabrics!).