A farmhouse style graduation quilt for Haley

In the blink of any eye, our spunky little girl with blonde pigtails is all grown up and ready to make her mark on the world. Last Friday our daughter Haley graduated from college with a B.S. in Health and Physical Education. She already has a teaching position lined up for next year, and we have no doubt she will be an inspiring and caring teacher.

Haley has always been a busy girl. Most of the memories that flash through my mind are of Haley in motion . . . playing t-ball or kickball, riding bike or scooter, jumping rope, rollerblading, waterskiing, tubing, shooting hoops, and setting her volleyball against the garage wall until the thump, thump, thump nearly drove me crazy. Even playtime with her dolls or stuffed animals was active, as she often marched them up and down the neighborhood in a stroller. In high school and college, she was a successful athlete . . . always practicing, always shooting for the stars, always pushing to be the best she could be. But Haley is also caring and nurturing, with a big heart for helping others to be the best they can be. I’m proud that she has chosen a profession that will allow her to encourage and help young people to be healthy and physically fit, to love games and to find joy in activity.

When I asked Haley what she might like for a college graduation gift, she looked at me quizzically and said, “Well, I thought you would make me a quilt. I am hoping for another quilt!”  Naturally I was happy to oblige. Haley was envisioning a contemporary quilt with a farmhouse flair, so we put our heads together and I think we hit it out of the park. Here is our girl with her college graduation quilt.

The pattern we chose is called “Arithmetic” by Jeni Baker. This fat quarter friendly pattern includes instructions for six different finished sizes (baby, throw, twin, double, queen and king). I made the 80” x 88” double size using 4 1/2” squares.  The pattern allows for you to make any of the six quilt sizes with 2 1/2” squares OR 4 1/2” squares OR 8 1/2” squares.  Talk about versatile! It’s also fun and easy to put together.

The black, gray and ivory fabrics in Haley’s quilt were pulled from several collections.  Most of them are wovens, which means this quilt is super soft and cuddly. Here’s the list:

• Low Volume Wovens (Jen Kingwell for Moda, available May 2021)
• Urban Homestead Gatherings Wovens (Primitive Gatherings for Moda, available September 2021)
• Midnight Magic II (April Rosenthal for Moda, available May 2021)
• Farmer’s Daughter (Lella Boutique for Moda)
• Black Dot Essential (Moda)
• Lollipop Garden (Lella Boutique for Moda)

• The backing fabric is Robert Kaufman Sevenberry Classiques Chambray in black (SB-4101D1-5).
• The binding fabric is a stripe from the Low Volume Wovens collection.

Once again, I sent my quilt top and backing to Katy at Woods Edge Quilting for finishing touches. Katy and I chose this awesome wave panto that softens the bold squares but doesn’t compete with them. Thank you so much to Woods Edge Quilting for turning this around so quickly so that I was able to bind and gift it to our girl on her big day!

I know I’ve mentioned this to you before, but graduation quilts are among my very favorite to make. A graduation quilt celebrates an accomplishment and enfolds the graduate in a fabric hug. What could be better than that?

~Taunja