It's been done, but it's been raining

I am linking up a quilt I finally finished at the Bloggers' Quilt festival at Amy's Creative side. After reading this post, please take an hour a moment to go over and look at all the amazing quilts and read their stories.
This is a 16th birthday quilt I made for my niece Allee. It is large, 98 x 90 inches (queen size). Allee is a vibrant, creative young lady who designs her own clothes, which she then sews and wears to Italy no less! Bravo Allee. This quilt was designed with her in mind- I did not use a pattern- and I "auditioned" the completed blocks when I put the final top together. I typically sew extra blocks and I always place blocks that did not make in onto the top onto the back, so really, nothing goes unused. I personally take a more-the-merrier philosophy for fabric usage when designing quilt tops and this quilt is no different. There are over 60 different fabrics on the top alone. All fabric came from my stash with the exception of the main backing fabric and the outer border fabric. The quilt is stitched simply using a variegated cotton thread, following the general outlines of the "squares",  keeping 1/4 of an inch from the seam lines. The outer sashing is stitched in concentric 1 inch rectangles.

I have one more, yet to be 16,  niece, but I have a few years before I have to design and complete her quilt. I have made 3, queen sized quilts so far- 2 will go with their owners to college this fall. It seems like it takes forever to make a quilt, but then again, it seems like only yesterday when they were on their way to  kindergarden, new lunch box in hand.