SWEET HEART: A new quilt!

I decided it would be fun to make a northwoodsy (since that is where we live and we love it here!) quilt for Ken for our anniversary. Our anniversary was in December and I did get started beforehand and almost had the top done but there was still quite a bit of work to be done. Oh well! Some day I am going to start projects WAY in advance!

The quilt is still not completely done but I have been enjoying it so much I was to impatient to wait until it was totally finished to tell you about it. I am working on the hand quilting of it now and that is going to take a while but I decided we would go ahead and use it while it was in progress. (I didn't follow the typical quilting rules and I already bound it together on the edges so it is basically done.)

This quilt has been especially fun for me because I was able to make it uniquely ours in many ways. Here is a close up of the middle and I will explain the signifigance:

There are two loons to represent Ken and me. The loon is Minnesota's state bird which is why I chose them- not because Ken and I are particularly loony! :-)
The white fabric on the loons is scraps leftover from making my wedding dress.
The dark green fabric is leftover from making the guy's vests and the bridesmaids dresses in our wedding.
The purple fabric for the Iris was scraps from other things from our wedding including the flower girl's dress and Candlelighters' dresses.
The Iris is one of my long time favorite flowers and Evergreen trees are Ken's favorite.

I did buy the batting and backing fabric (a soft brown flannel) for the quilt (using 40% off coupons at JoAnns) but otherwise everthing was made from things that I had on hand. Some were scraps, some from old (but not worn out) clothes and some were fabrics leftover from other projects.

Anyway I have had a lot of fun working on this project and last night when I was doing some quilting I found it extra rewarding to have a project where I have to just sit down quietly. It makes a great time to have fellowship with my family. Aaron came up to me and proceeded to tell me all about a story that he was enjoying, Megan loves to cuddle up to me and watch and I see potential for a lot more of that happening. Sometimes I can be so busy, always going here or there or when I am sitting down there is a purpose- read to the kids, work on the computor, write a letter. etc. It is nice to just have a quiet time when I can listen to them or just be close to them.

The inspiration for this quilt came from the book "Spirit of the Northwoods" by Debbie Field. It is a really fun book with lots of neat patterns. I enlarged one of the pictures and then added to it.