the jessica quilt

Jessica and I recently had our 40th birthday (ugh, is 40 really the new 30, because seriously, 40 feels old) and I wanted to commemorate the occasion with a quilt!  Jessica loves reading as much as I do, probably more, and spent many a lunch hour with a "Sweet Valley Twins" or "Babysitters Club" book under the table.  Those books were published monthly, so we'd race to Walden Books in Pembroke Mall as kids, and get to take turns being the first to read the book we bought.  Even now, we'll mail each other books we've read and loved!  And, of course, Jessica is a librarian, which made this quilt all the more fitting.

                                         

I made pillows for Jessica's library in this pattern (Tall Tale Quilt by Kate Basti), and knew an entire quilt would be time-consuming.  The blocks are paper pieced, and so individual that much thought needed to be given to each book cover.  I wanted the covers to be something about Jessica or her life or kids or job, and make her smile when she looked at each one.

The background colors were mostly solid (I think I threw in a blue polka dot too), in greens, blues, tans, and whites.  The binding was a cross-hatch grey, and the backing was smokey blue cuddly minky.

I used "writing" in some of the page parts of the books - newpaper print, encyclopedia print, and a rare book print that is now out of print.

Jessica went to Gifted and Talented Art School for years

Who doesn't love mermaids?  A nod to growing up at the beach

Jessica was a science teacher before becoming a librarian

 Some of my favorites blocks:  the dogs, foxes for her school mascot, a cupcake because it's our birthday, mac and cheese because we both love it, Halloween because it's near our birthday and so many parties growing up were costume parties, coffee because Jessica introduced me to yummy sugary coffee drinks, and yarn because she crochets!

I added this tag on the back, and I found the quote after I made the quilt - it was fate to use it!

"Life is a book and your forties are the chapter where it all starts making sense."

It's one of my favorite quilts I've made, and it's already in use!