Allison's Wedding Quilt

There are many quilts around and about that I have made but have not yet blogged about.  A few Fridays ago, on April 8th to be exact I was driving home from Costco and was thinking about Allison and Danny as I often do.  I wondered why I felt a sadness come over me and then realized that Friday, April 8th was the day Danny had his open heart surgery in 1988.  I can remember a lot about that day and the week leading up to it as well as the many weeks following.  That first week of April was also the time that Allison entered the hospital in 2006 to prepare for her bone marrow transplant.  I may not always talk about my two oldest children but they are often on my mind and I will never forget them.  So maybe because of that experience, or maybe because I turned 60 yesterday, or maybe because today would be Allison's 14th wedding anniversary, I have decided to share the quilt I made for her as a wedding gift.

The pattern is called "Star SA-lute" from the book "Star Gazing - A Collection of Ohio Star Variations" by Jackie Robinson.  Allison chose the pattern and the fabric a couple of months before she got married.  I don't think we bought the fabric before she got engaged but I could be wrong.  She was home for Christmas in 2001 but not engaged until February 2002.  She came home from school for a few days in February when BYU closed up shop for a week so that their students could volunteer and attend the Olympic Games in Salt Lake City (which she also did).  I remember ordering her wedding cake and visiting the florist and figure we must have purchased the fabric for her quilt at that same time.

There are only four fabrics and four different 9" blocks in this quilt - two star blocks and two almost plain blocks.  Before you can start on the star blocks, many 3" 9-patch blocks need to be made and they are not all the same.  There is one for the center of the all star blocks, a different one for the the corners of Block A with white corners and one more for the corners of Block B with red corners.  You will notice that the hour glass part of the block, which is another step before assembling the block, is exactly the same in each, just turned a different direction.

  Block A

Block B

The other two blocks have a narrow strip of matching fabric with a tiny 1" print square on each end attached to a large solid rectangle, making it a square.

The border effect that is created when the blocks are all sewn together is pretty cool.  With the addition of the narrow white border and outer red one, the quilt finishes at about 90" square.

Craig "Grumpy" Campbell did the custom quilting.  It's hard to even see the quilting unless you get up close, especially after multiple washings.  I used the floral print for the back of the quilt.  At some point, with Allison's help, we made some matching pillow shams.  She later made a boxed dust ruffle and the entire ensemble was quite lovely.

You might not believe it but I actually have one of the 9-patches turned the wrong way.  I remember Allison mentioning that once, so I went searching for it today and found it.  If you look closely at the entire quilt you can easily spot it, especially if you know where to look.  I'm not telling.  Besides, it makes the quilt much more valuable.

Allison was a beautiful bride ...

and a wonderful mother.   I am so thankful to have Mckenna as a sweet reminder of her beautiful mother.  We recently had Miss Mckenna spend a week with us and what a fantastic and happy girl she is.  We just love her so much and are so glad she has her dad and Jen and two little sisters to love. We really appreciate all the people in her life who care for her and love her as much as we do.