Finally — a quilt finish! May I present Celebrating Spring, a tribute to my favorite season of the year:

I started this project in early March, anticipating that my enjoyment of working with two lovely cherry blossom prints would be enhanced when the real things burst into bloom in Portland later in the month. Friends, I was not disappointed.

Weeks after the real cherry blossoms had faded, I finished the piecing and sent the quilt top off to a talented longarm quilter:

I made a bias striped binding to frame the quilt. . .

. . .and added my signature round label:

Here’s a look at the back, which features two leftover blocks set on point:

It’s been a challenge photographing this quilt because the colors look so different depending on the light and time of today. This afternoon I took this picture after Celebrating Spring had made its way through the washer and dryer:

To sum up:

• Celebrating Spring is based on the pattern Town Square by Fabric Café. I made the quilt larger and downsized the block from 15″ to 12″

• The two cherry blossom fabrics and the striped binding are from the “Orchard” line by Jill Finley of Jillily Studio for Riley Blake Designs

• The two green fabrics were pulled from my stash

•Karlee Sandell of SewInspired2Day quilted Celebrating Spring with an edge-to-edge motif called “Embellish” by Quilts Complete

•The quilt finishes (after laundering) at 60″ x 71″

Happy Spring!