Joint Venture.....

Our daughter moved out a little less than a year ago and she took some things with her including the bedding from her bedroom (But she left the furniture for now).  Since then, we have just had an old comforter on the bed. It is no way matched the room at all, but it served its purpose to provide a cover on the bed.

I guess we got tired of walking past the room and seeing that old comforter, so hubby (a.k.a. the Mad Quilter) and I decided we needed a quilt for that bed.  We have toyed with the idea of making a quilt together for our bed, so this would be a trial run to see how well we work together on a project.  I mean we do things together, but usually it is one of ours project and the other is just assisting. This was different.  We would be working together through each step (OK.. I didn't quilt the thing.. afterall, he is the fast quilter around these parts and much better at man-handling the beasts!)

The walls in the room are a lovely violet.. not bright purple like Barney, more a medium plum or dark smokey lilac color. So we decided to work off that since we both love violets. We chose a simple pattern that would allow us to utilize scraps we had on hand by alternating 5" charm squares with four patches. Hubby determined the layout of the four patches.. using a light white, cream or tan in one corner to create a bit of a chain once everything was together. We also decided not to limit ourselves to violet. We used that for the 5" charms but the four patches have other colors.. greens, blues, etc.  Very scrappy... we love scrappy!

I think it turned out great! This is our first for us bed quilt.  There will be others... hopefully a King-Size one for our room will be on the list for 2013.

"Belle"

Happy Birthday!!!

Today is my sweet Mother's 80th birthday. She is a sassy Southern gal who is still going strong despite bouts with 3 separate cancers... arthritis in her hips and knees from chemotherapy.... damage to her heart and eyes due to an undiagnosed Thyroid disease... the woman will not slow down!  Active in her church.. busy with her friends... checking on others .... taking meals to them... does her crossword puzzle, cryptogram and jumble each day... reads... rarely watches TV... talks on the phone as much or more than any 13 year old girl... she is a hoot and I adore her and am thankful to still have her in my life!

A few years ago a group of quilty friends made a 1930s repro churn dash as a love quilt for a dear friend going through a tough time.  I had the privilege of putting all the blocks into a top and finishing up the quilt.  Mother saw it and thought it was for her!  She was very disappointed to learn I was mailing it off to someone else.  Well she has her own now and I think it looks great on her bed!

I whipped up the blocks... the mad quilter did the rest... quilting and binding (gotta love a man who will bind a quilt for you!)... we also made 2 throw pillows from some left over blocks (I got carried away and made a few more than I needed!)

We snuck over to Mom's recently and laid the top (without borders) on her bed to see how much drop we needed.  I think we did a great job with the size! I just love it.

Tonight we slipped over to Mom's while she was at church and got everything set up... we went back to drop off a mum for her (hubs heard her say she wanted one).  She was just getting home, so we stayed a bit. She never left the kitchen! LOL!  Couldn't think of a reason to send her to the bedroom. So we came on home. About an hour later the phone rang... she loves it!  I have no doubt she has been on the phone telling her friends about her birthday present.  LOL!

This is probably one of my favorite quilts ever... partially because it looks great... partially because it was made for my sweet Mother... and mostly because it made her heart sing!  I don't think I have done that too often in the past 49 years... more heart ache and stress and frustration etc. The joys of parenthood. So if I can make hers sing... WOW!  I have accomplished a great thing!

"Belle"