Oh, me and my brilliant ideas. Sigh.
As you may remember, last summer I finished one quilt (the red one, waiting in storage for 20+ years) and started a second, which I finished in the fall. I was on a roll! The one I made in the fall, which I named Farmer Girl, is now on our bed. But I confess I'm not sure I'm totally happy with the colors. Sometimes when I look at it I totally love it, and sometimes I wish I could change a few things. I know also that Troy is a fan of deeper, richer colors than it has. So it made me start thinking....about making even another quilt....and then I saw the following instagram post:
That was it! I suddenly really wanted to make a Christmas quilt for Troy and I really wanted to keep it a secret and have him open it on Christmas Eve. I really wanted to see his face - and I of course imagined that he would go berzerk with adoration for this quilt.
So while it was still Christmas break 2023, I started hunting down fabric. Here's what I came up with:
Much more Troy's taste, and I love them too.
Oh. Side note. Troy texted me a photo of these shoes from LL Bean and said I should get them. He loves me so much. See? He deserves his own Christmas Quilt. I love my mushroom shoes.
So I started to stealthily cut and piece together this as-yet-unnamed quilt. It was so fun to pull it out for a couple of hours every few days. It's a beautifully easy pattern that came together so quickly. And every time I laid out the squares I got happier.
Well this one day I was chugging along on it. I had finished all the squares and had spread them out on the living room floor to finalize their arrangement. It took forever - no color could be too close to another block with the same color. I had just gotten it all right, and had even put a few columns together, when...the phone rang. It was Troy. He was calling to let me know that he was on his way home early from work, and wasn't far away.
Crap!!
Also I had to leave to go get Emma. I started trying to carefully pile the squares up in order, but also work as fast as I could. I decided to just move everything to Emma's bedroom floor and shut the door. Then as soon as I got back with Emma I could strategically go put it all away.
Stupid Mistake, shutting that door. Troy got home while I'm racing to get Emma, saw the closed door to her room, and of course opened it because our house needs open doors for proper air circulation. It's not stupid, our house really does need that since we only have one return air vent. I should have closed it half way - that never would have caught his attention. But in my haste I overlooked the shut-door problem.
I got home with Emma and Troy immediately asks who I'm making a quilt for.
BUSTED.
I was kind of bummed out at first but actually, I am now happy. Now I can just work on quilting it whenever there's time, and I don't have to hide it anymore. I still love it as much as ever and I think Troy really likes it too. I mean, he's never going to faint with ecstatic delight over fabric creations, but he really does like it.
Once the top was done, I came to the part I hate: basting. Oh how I hate basting. I tried something new and it has worked pretty well! I clamped all three layers to the ceiling by the stairs, so it could just hang down and I could pin it. I looked slightly crazy, but hey, what else is new?
As of this post I'm about half-way done with the quilting part. Whoever thought I'd fall back in love with this? I thought was a monogamous knitter, but I guess when it comes to the textile arts, I'm definitely polyamorous. Just don't teach me how to weave, spin or crochet. Or embroider.
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