Annie's Wedding Quilt

Annie married Bryce Kunz on May 21, 2011.  It's hard to believe that they will soon be celebrating their third anniversary.  It's about time I shared the quilt I made for them and the story behind it.

For some reason unknown to me, my husband Kent has a very hard time buying me gifts.  He has a hard time deciding what things I might think are "cute".  So for Christmas in 2009 he took Annie with him to a quilt shop and together they picked out a quilting book called "Quilts from Lavender Hill Farm" and a stack of 40 fat quarters from the collection "Patisserie" by Fig Tree Quilts.  I had recently attended a two-day workshop with Joanna Figueroa who is the fabric designer so I was thrilled to have so much of her fabric to work with.  Forty fat quarters is the equivalent of ten yards of fabric - enough for hours and hours of sewing and several projects.  There was a particular quilt in the book that Annie thought would be perfect to make with the collection and I agreed.  It did require some additional yardage so after Christmas I purchased some coordinating fabrics to use in the borders and began working on the blocks.

I divided the 40 fat quarters into darks and lights and there were about 10 pieces in the medium range that I decided not to use.  Even the darkest fabrics are not very dark and the light fabrics have a lot going on.  During the winter and early spring of 2010 I worked on these blocks completing all fifty of them and finished the center of the quilt.  Once that was done there was plenty of contrast.

I have made several log cabin quilts but this is the first one where the blocks are set "on point" or in diagonal rows with large setting triangles on the ends of the rows .  After I got the center completed I decided to put it away and work on something else.

Annie was in London that winter and spring and when she finished her semester there she went right back to Provo without coming home first.  She finally made it back to Oregon the middle of July and that was the first time I learned about Bryce.  They had only met a few weeks earlier but I think she already had an idea that things could get serious.  I showed her the partially completed quilt top and she loved it.  I told her I would not work on it anymore but would just wait and see how things progressed.  If it was going to be for her, I wanted to know that before I sewed another stitch.  In November Annie brought Bryce home with her for Thanksgiving.  They were not engaged at that point but there were clues enough to know that it wouldn't be long. 

Annie and Bryce became engaged shortly before Christmas and I got busy in the new year finishing it up.  She wanted the quilt to have a scalloped edge and to have very simple quilting.  I still had to find fabric for the back, but it wasn't hard.  John and June Macauley of "Quiltmasters" in Brownsville, OR did the allover quilting for me in their "Puzzle" pattern, nice and dense, just they way I like it.

 
This is how it was displayed at their wedding reception.  I think Annie had this quilt in mind for herself all along when she was helping Kent with his Christmas shopping because it blended right in with her wedding colors.  After the quilt was finished I was busy making green table runners for the reception and doing everything you do when you prepare for a wedding.  The day was lovely.

Annie and Bryce both graduated from BYU in the Spring of 2012 and wound up living with us for about 16 months.  We all got along quite well and enjoyed the arrival of Natalie on December 31st of that year.  While they were here, Annie was able to piece the matching pillow shams with the left over fabric.  I had fun quilting them and sewing them into pillows.  I think they add so much charm to their adorable iron bed.

I suggested to Annie when they moved into their new apartment in Tigard that she should try and make her bed everyday (something she did not do when she lived at home).  Just that small effort each morning would give her a lift every time she walked into her bedroom.  I am at her apartment at least once a week (in fact I am writing this today from her kitchen table) and for the most part she seems to have listened to my advice.  She and Bryce have created a lovely place to live and play.