Earlier this spring I gave my parents a special surprise anniversary quilt - a Swoon Quilt to be exact.

It was the most challenging sewing project I've made to date. As a quilter who is still learning (and one who hates cutting) this was a mammoth project to undertake. While I enjoyed making it I hit a lot of bumps in the road that weren't pattern related. Some oopsies (mental note to buy a 1/4" foot for my machine) and some piecing errors but overall, muck ups and all, I'm so proud of this quilt. I learned so much.

My good friend and amazingly talented quilter Jeni of Quilted on the Rock (she's a professional long arm quilter with some mad skills!) was the shining star of this project. She saved me and cut out all the white pieces for me (thank you again for saving my life Jeni), finished my quilt top, lovingly pieced my back with a fun off center strip of scraps, quilted this gorgeous beauty & more! I am in awe of her talents! Every quilt she makes is beautiful but this one holds a special place for me. I highly recommend her.

Jeni helped me push through this project when I didn't think I could finish it, never mind continue sewing it. With loads of deadlines, busy mom life, and other time constraints it was literally down to the wire to get it to my folks. She cheered me on the whole way and rescued me an infinite number of times! I sewed all front blocks together, the special message on the quilt back and sewed the binding on the quilt. Seeing this quilt come to life with her quilting magic on it will be a moment I will always remember. She did such a special job of hiding all my oopsies and making this quilt shine! My points aren't all perfect and some don't even line up correctly but guess what - I don't care! I love it anyways! And that's hard for the perfectionist in me to admit :)



You see this was a special anniversary gift to my parents from myself and my two sisters, but the quilt didn't get given to them in Sept 2013 as planned. It got gifted to them in May 2014 instead :) They don't live in town so it actually worked out in my favor to be with them when they opened their SURPRISE present! My mom is also a quilter - she hand sews all her quilts and it blows my mind, so I knew this would be a gift they would both treasure. There is a special message on the back of the quilt as well from my all of our families to them with a lovely quote that I stitched onto the quilt.

I wish I had a bit more time to do a "proper" photoshoot of the quilt while they were here to really show it off but the odds weren't in my favor. I'm just happy it got done and given to them so we did a quick shoot in the vacation rental they were staying in. With a hot, full sun day I had no choice but to shoot indoors (boo urns) but I hope these pics will give you a bit of an idea of my swoon.






A big special thank you to Jeni again for being such a special friend and for her awesome sewing and quilting skills! I love ya girl!

And to my parents - I hope you cherish this quilt and it keeps you warm and surrounded with love, always. I love you both.

Have you made a Swoon Quilt before? Are you also learning to quilt? I hope all my american friends have a wonderful 4th of July tomorrow!