Wanderlust Quilt

I love to travel. Ever since got off of the plane to study abroad in Barcelona when I was 19, it's been in my blood. I lived abroad for 2 years and during that time, traveled to around 15 countries. This wanderlust inspired me to start my globe collection (currently at 7 globes and 2 big pieces of map artwork), my travel-themed scrapbook paper collection, and, though it's harder to find, my travel-themed fabric collection, the latter of which led to this beauty: 

I found the fabric with the cancelled postage stamps a while back and, though I didn't have a specific plan in mind, I just had to have it. 

My mom found these iron-on embroidery patterns on clearance at Hobby Lobby and knew I'd love them. I'd never done any embroidery before, but she was right, I did absolutely adore them. My initial plan was to only use the patterns for the countries I'd visited, but another plan began to take its place once I found this fabric:

I picked it up at a garage sale last summer, and the kitchy world landmarks print initially reminded of Roisin at Dolly Clacket, though I didn't think I was quite adventurous enough to wear it like I imagined she would. I snagged 3 yards of it and once I got it home, it all began to come together. 

I only used 10-12 different colors of embroidery floss for all of the prints - I really like that the instructions have you use colors that coordinate so well.

Once I got the idea, I could barely stop. Even when it came time for all of the tedious bits (interfacing, squaring up), I plunged through it like a champ.

I'm so so happy with the way it turned out, especially considering I'm a relative novice at both embroidery and quilting. I didn't cut many corners on this like I normally would - I wanted it as close to perfect as I could get it. (It looks much wrinklier in these pics than in real life.)

Will definitely approves, too. I barely got all of the cat hair off of it before he jumped on it again! Everything but the bias binding was from my stash - great start to the new year!

Where's your wanderlust taking you these days?

Oh! I also finally joined the bandwagon on Instagram - my username (is that what the kids are calling it?) is forwhoitsfor. Lots of sneak peeks on there, and I'm always looking to follow more crafty ladies (and gents)!