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.

This is linked to:

 Reinvented's Trash to Treasure Tuesday
 and
A soft place to land's DIY day
and
Today's Creative Blog's "Get your craft on"
and
Market yourself Monday at Sumo's Sweet Stuff