Fred's brand new 20 year old quilt

Fred is so tickled to finally have it finished! I started working on that quilt nearly 20 years ago as something to do while on bedrest expecting Joshua (who turns 19 next month). I finished the top when Josh was a year old, every single stitch by hand and it's the first thing I ever pieced together from scratch. Jessi's first ever stitches are in that quilt too, she just wanted to help so I let her make a square for it. Originally I was making it for Jessi, that's who picked out the outrageously bright yellow and some of the flaming bright patterns in the quilt. But as she got older her preferences for colors changed and so did her taste in bed clothes and she didn't want it anymore so it got packed away in a box for a long time.

When Troy and I had Fred there were open shelves in our room and I hated the look of them so the quilt top hung over them as a curtain for awhile. Troy decided that he really really didn't like that bright yellow and he never wanted me to finish putting it together for our home so back into the box it went for another long time.

Finally close to Christmas of 2004 I was sorting through boxes of stuff in the attic and Fred saw the quilt top and fell in love with it. She asked me to put it together for her for Christmas that year..... well, life happened that year and ran over me and I just couldn't get it done but I did get a good start on it again. I kept working on it a bit at a time all by hand and was so frustrated with the slow pace of it that I put it up again.

Awhile back I had asked someone how to do machine quilting with a regular old sewing machine. I honestly had no idea it was possible to do that (that's how much of a sewing dummy I am). Finally I just pulled the poor old quilt out again and started on it, it took me less than 5 hours to finish it and bind it. It started out large enough to be oversized on a queen sized bed, but after realizing that I had hand stitched almost half of it with the backing and batting crooked it is now just right for a twin size daybed just like Fred's.


This is not Fred's bed, I just tossed the quilt over the sofa to get a better picture of it. Fred's happy with it so I guess it's not too terrible for a first ever mostly handstitched quilt. I'm just glad that now I can say I finished the whole thing.... and maybe start on another quilt someday. My friend Angela has gotten me hooked on this idea of strip quilting because it's supposed to be faster and even a sewing dummy like me can do it.... though I have my doubts. What you don't see on this one is the back, that's because all of the mistakes are so obvious there .... especially the one where I sewed the front to the back and was too tired to rip out the stitches so I just cut that part of the front off and left it there. Oh well, Fred likes it so that's okay too.

I just wanted to share this picture because I like it. We have always called Caleb "bugs" because somehow or the other he manages to make friends with them all the time. The other day this poor little butterfly would not leave him alone, it kept perching on his shoulder and in his hair and no matter what he was doing it just hung on to him. He decided it was too hot outside for the butterfly and brought it inside with him. He fed it honey off of his finger and gave it water in a thimble and let it sleep in his hat in his bedroom. That little butterfly was a house pet for a couple of days before I made Caleb take it back outside. That's just how things happen around here sometimes.

Well, I'm off of here for now to get some of my work done around the house. I hope everyone has a great weekend!