Sweet Dreams and One More, Version 2

I've been having writer's block.  Not that the words have spewed forth effortlessly in the past, but this post has been my next planned for weeks and what I need to do is just jump in and do it.  In fact I intended to blog while I was in Arizona last month (some of you may have seen my "accidental" posting) but I did not have all of the pictures on the computer as I had thought.  Enough said about that.  Here are two beautiful quilts, the patterns of which you have seen before.

I made the quilt above for my parents in 2006 and gave it to them that Christmas.  They had told me that they were buying a new mattress and were ready for a new quilt.  They weren't planning to change the wallpaper in their bedroom or anything like that, so it needed to look good with what they already had going on in there.  They got the new mattress set before they received their quilt and had warned me that it was pretty tall and were worried the quilt would not be big enough to cover the mattress, but I assured them it would.

In case you don't know, or have forgotten, I spent most of the first 7 months of 2006 in Utah.  I bought most of the fabric for this quilt at an adorable quilt shop in American Fork called "Quilting Cottage".  My sister Karen was with me.  The pattern is called "Sweet Dreams " and might look familiar.  This is the second time I have made this pattern.  The first was Abby's red and yellow quilt seen in my April 16, 2012 post.

 

There is very little actual piecing in this quilt.  Just a 4-patch sewn to a square.  Once those are assembled, you are ready to lay out the rectangles and start stitching up the rows.  It was the first week in July and I remember all three of my girls helping with the layout while we were in West Valley City (which is a job I loved having them do).  Allison observed from the comfort of the couch and Abby and Annie did the crawling around on the floor until we were all in agreement that the placement of the blocks was just right.  One thing that I especially remember about this quilt is Allison coming with me to "Piper's Quilt Shop" in Salt Lake City to look for two more blue prints.  It was the only fun outing we had together, and I'm not sure how fun it was for her.  She could not hurry across the street when we were jay-walking and had to sit down almost as soon as we arrived.  But I know which fabrics we purchased there and it just makes the quilt all the more meaningful to me.

Almost a year ago now, my parents moved across the street from their home in Magrath, Alberta to an assisted living facility.  I took these pictures when I visited them there for the first time last June.  They were able to bring all of their own furnishings and their room looks just like home, only smaller.  They tell me that people are always commenting on their beautiful quilt.  Dad is always quick to share that his oldest daughter made it and shows them the picture of me.  My dad is my number one fan.

And this is the back (above) and as you would expect, Quiltmasters did a fabulous job of quilting as usual.  The quilting pattern is called "Feather Meander".  June picked it out and it is perfect.

So, as was the case the first time I made this quilt, I had a lot of fabric left over.  What to do with it?  I think my inspiration came to make another queen sized quilt when I found the oversized print seen below (from the same collection as many of the fabrics I had left over) on a sale rack at "A Common Thread", a local shop.

This was the third time for this pattern and the largest version (92" square).  To see pictures of the other two versions, go to my June 27, 2012 post titled "Favorite Vintage Style Quilts".  I didn't really enjoy making this pattern the first time,  but it just seemed like the perfect option for the fabric I had available and the finished product is so pretty.  As it turned out, we painted David's old room this robin's egg blue color back in 2007 and the quilt looked beautiful in there and was fresh and welcoming to our guests.  Annie and Bryce are in that room now and their quilt doesn't match as well, but I've enjoyed this quilt on my bed as of late and recently bought some pretty blue pillow shams to go with it. 

I didn't realize it until now, but I've used the same fabric on the backs of both quilts.  Guess there is no reason not to stick with a good thing.  The quilting pattern on this one is called "Poppy Fields" by Quiltmasters.

I've got three quilts in the works right now and have decided that it's just more fun to tell you about the new ones and who they are going to.  But I can't show you any until I've actually given them away, so you will just have to believe me when I tell you that I'm up to my eyeballs in new projects and my recently tuned up machine is noisy again.  My sewing room is a jumble of fabric piles and patterns and it's a good day if I can eek out an hour or so to do some stitching.