The Happy Campers quilt is at its new home

I got to take some good naturally lit photos of Happy Campers after I gave it to my dad this weekend. He was pretty thrilled with the theme, he kept showing my relatives at the reunion how "every print is camping-related" :)

Doesn't everything look better in natural light?

I think the back looks great without the applique. I'm going to use my leftover charm squares for potholders for Father's Day (my dad loves cooking), my mom even said over the weekend that they need some new ones.

My mother also not-so-subtly hinted at wanting a king sized quilt for their 40th wedding anniversary. (Let me make a quick aside here... how many 24-year-olds do you know whose parents have been married almost 38 years? And I'm the oldest child.) Lucky for me she mentioned this when she did, because their big anniversary is in August 2012. I instantly decided to make a double wedding ring, but I want to make a more modern one. So I have some time to hoard fabric, learn how to sew curves and learn how to hand-quilt before I start this monster project. Unless I win the lottery and get a long-arm machine in that time, this baby will be hand-quilted. I want to do every part of it myself, and no machine I could ever afford would be able to handle quilting a king sized quilt. Plus, this is the type of thing that becomes an heirloom, so why not spend the extra time?

Those are my parents. My mom is holding a quilt I made for her five years ago. She'll need another one soon, because I didn't know about getting high-quality fabrics and using 100% cotton thread back then. It's looking a bit ratty.