red and blue quilt

At 12 Melissa, my oldest, really wanted to go to quilt guild with me. I told her she could go when she finished the quilt she was working on. She finished it on her 13th birthday and went and got to show her quilt in show and tell.

During that meeting we had a 'sweat shop' where we worked together to make a red and green Irish Chain quilt. At the end of the meeting there was a drawing to see who got to take home the wall hanging; Melissa won that top and then for Christmas I made it large enough for a double bed, maybe queen. 

Anyway, back to her red and blue quilt. Since I was going to fabric stores and children do not particularly like going to fabric stores I would let her pick out a piece of red or blue fabric for her quilt. Then after that got pieced I'd get her another...She wanted this quilt to be big enough, but NO bigger than her body. She'd lay it down on the floor and then lay next to it to see if it was long enough to cover her yet. (Her previous quilt was a small doll quilt; not big enough to cover much of herself.)

She tied the center and machine quilted straight lines in the border and hand quilted stars in the outer corner. She even sewed the binding on herself.  After years of use the ties were coming untied and she asked me to long-arm it. We are both happy with the way it turned out. I figured it took 6 hours to just do the blocks, I didn't time the sashing or borders.