Project Quilting 12:3 Balboa Park Virtual Vacation

Project Quilting is the dream child of  Kim at Persimmon Dreams, who developed a challenge based on one of her favorite shows, Project Runway. Participants in Project Quilting have one week to create and post about a finished project based on the challenge prompt. The prompt for Challenge 3 was Virtual Vacation, and we were to draw inspiration from a past, future, or dreamed about vacation.

I've had an urge to make a quilt for my niece for several weeks, so I knew I wanted to make a quilt, not a small project. Although this is a flimsy, and I did not meet the Project Quilting deadline for a completed project, I am posting about it anyway and will provide the link to the completed projects of other participants at the bottom of this post.

In 1988 my widowed Mother got married for the second time to her childhood sweetheart. She moved from Oklahoma, where she had lived most of her life, to Riverside CA, and for 14 years enjoyed the good weather and mountains until my step-Dad passed away in 2002. While she was there she sent me plane tickets to visit her every few months - what a treat!

Balboa Park Rose Gardens

On one trip my teen-aged daughter went with me during her Spring break. Mom took us to visit the San Diego zoo and the rose gardens at Balboa Park. Mom and I shared a love of roses, and that park was a rose lover's dream. What a perfect day as we walked along the paths and oohed and aahed over thousands of roses in every color. I wish I could share one of the photos from that day, but of course they are in a box in the attic. Let's just say during that trip I was with the two women I love most, and it is a treasured memory.

Bouquet Splendor by Henry Glass

My quilt was planned around the roses we viewed that day, and I had the perfect piece of minty rose-strewn fabric by Henry Glass in my stash. I wish I had taken a photo of the full yardage before I cut into it! I made blocks based on this simple baby quilt pattern by Sedef Imer. and made it lap-sized. I placed colors as randomly as possible to emulate a true rose garden with varied roses. I know Mom would have loved this rose-inspired quilt.

Jack gently steadied my hand as I chain-pieced.

This quilt will be gifted to my niece once it is finished. It measures 54 x 72 inches so far, and the final details will be provided in a future post. Be sure to visit Kim's Persimmon Dream and check out all the other beautiful virtual vacations!