Kim Diehl Warm Regards quilt finished!

I have been working on my version of Kim Diehl's Warm Regards quilt for over a year.  I started this quilt with two friends, after Lisa gave me the book Simple Friendships as a birthday gift and pointed out the patterns by Kim Diehl and Jo Morton were designed for friendship swaps.  

Instead of swapping blocks we each made our own version of this quilt.  I normally use a more subdued palette, but decided to use as many brights as I felt comfortable with, which turned out to be a lot!  I also stretched my comfort zone to include black in some of the pieced blocks.  Kim Diehls pattern calls for yo yo flowers, but I chose to needle turn applique mine (and only used red and pink) using the Perfect Circles and starch and was very pleased with the results.

Lisa made the Jo Morton version of the quilt (no applique just pieced cross blocks) but amended it to add a centre of yo yos, as she loves yo yos!  Vicki made the Kim Diehl version, also appliqued her berries, but she choose a black background but followed the scrappy colours theme of the berries. 

Vicki is a long arm quilter and texted me in late February to say that she had a custom cancellation for March and I could have the spot if I wanted.  It was the push I needed to finish the border and I got it to her in time.  In a nod to Jo Morton I found a piece of JM fabric in my stash that was big enough to make a backing from, which I was delighted about. There was lots of consulting as I have only ever had one quilt custom quilted before.

Post delivery of completed quilt I found this little wing was not completely stitched down by me..big opps!  So glad that the machine foot didn't get caught in it while Vicki was quilting.
I am delighted with the outcome!   

Happy quilting Sue