Mandy's desert night quilt

I really really love Tucson, Arizona. There is something magical about the nights there, especially. I took advantage of the recent trend in southwest/succulent prints and collected as many of those as I could for the pieced blocks in this quilt. It was fun to hunt for low volume and orange/coral/pink versions, and vibrant turquoise prints for the centers. The large square blocks for the background were all nighttime themed.

This was also my very first attempt at appliqué and I loved it! It was really fun and not hard to do! I wanted to make silhouettes of stately saguaros and other Sonoran desert friends. I followed a tutorial by Luke Haynes on the bernina site and I feel it was a great success! 

It was really fun quilting each cactus differently! 

I backed this quilt with an old soft flannel sheet that fit perfectly and played nice while basting. I'm really glad I went with this choice, the quilt is SUPER warm and snuggly! 

I made this quilt for me to keep!!! This is my 15th quilt and I've given all of them away except the very first wonky small one. I am very satisfied with how this one came out and I love sleeping with it on my bed!