Daughter's Graduation Quilt

My oldest daughter has graduated from college.  Hurrah!  She is now a Funeral Director!

While I was in Florida this past March I naturally stopped in the local quilt store.  There I found a panel of eight horses.

 My daughter spent many a summer at horse camp and still dreams of owning her own horse.  Since she would be graduating in another few months I thought this would be the springboard for a quilt. 

When my husband and I drove from Michigan to North Carolina for her graduation I brought the panel along.  Knowing that I hit every quilt shop along the way she already had a few lined up for us to go  visit.  The second shop was a gold mine.  The owner had a fabric estate sale going on and her shop was loaded with material plus sale prices. 

My daughter found two pieces of fabric that she loved but worried that they wouldn't go together.  They were both bubble fabrics so I figured we'd see what happened.  I could always take one out.

Next we found some fabric with variations of blue with a little bit of purple thrown in and a hint of green.  Okay, there was some of that going on in the panels.

Now how much to buy?  I had no idea what pattern I was going to use so I guessed.  And boy, as you'll see I lucked out.

I came home and found a pattern that I thought would show off the panels nicely in the 100th issue of QuiltMania entitled Eleanor, which I had also purchased in Florida.  Slight problem though, the panels were too small.  Hence, the black line that you see.  The quilt also needed something bright.  Going through my stash I found the yellow/orange piece.

And then -- what do you do with eight blocks?  I needed one more but what?  I went through many ideas and eventually decided to quit this quilt for awhile and go on to my fairy quilt that I had lined up next.  I actually had backing for this one: huge flowers that I found in a shop a few years back. And that's where I found my last block to do. Since my daughter's middle name is Rose I thought that would be apropos.  

The banner that runs along the bottom was ALL that I had.  I have one inch left over.

I have a little of the other fabrics and hopefully enough of the blue left for binding.  My daughter also liked a panel of foxes with matching fox fabric.  That will go on the back.

Hope to have this done for Christmas!