Blogger's Quilt Festival - Hand Quilting

My entry for the Blogger's Quilt Festival is one that I finished just recently, so I hope you will bear with me and enjoy it again.  I call it "Secret Garden."

Secret Garden was a mystery quilt made from stash fabric, which becomes irreplaceable as time goes on and fabric goes out of print, so I was especially nervous about cutting into this beautiful butterfly fabric.  I've had one hit and one miss when making mystery quilts so I'm not sure I will make another one, but I really like how this one came together in the end!

I fussy cut some of the center squares and the border is 5 inches wide to showcase the butterfly fabric as much as possible.  I used every last scrap that I could!  The border was even re-worked a time or two because I started with a design that used more than I had.  Whoops!  I hate it when that happens.

For my whole time blogging I have been quilting on the sly, because this quilt was going to a very good friend of mine.  It was awesome to give it to her for her birthday last month.  I love when I can bring a happy surprise to the people I like.  That's what makes all the hard work worth it!

Circles are my go to quilting shape and there are 183 circles of various sizes in this bad boy!

This quilt took about 145 hours and is approximately 62x80.  It is bound in light green.

Thanks for stopping by and make sure to enjoy some of the other pieces on display.  Submissions are open until Halloween and voting begins on November first.