Our Very First Quilt

A couple of weeks ago I posted about going up to celebrate my dad's 70th birthday but I didn't show you his present!

We made a quilt! Neither Curtis nor I had ever made one before (though I will admit that I started one for my brother years ago and still haven't finished it). It wasn't TOO ambitious, we made a plan with big blocks and smaller dimensions (a 60" x 60" throw) so as not to get in too far over our heads.



The plan was hatched only a couple of weeks before the special day in question so we kept shopping local. We went to JP Knit and Stitch which is just up the street from our house. It was their birthday too so we got a great deal on the fabrics we ended up choosing (after hemming and hawing for a long time. I think we considered three drastically different palettes before settling on the choices above).

When we got home I made a color mock-up of our plan so I could attempt to keep the patterns oriented properly - I was about 80% successful once we were all finished.



We spent the evenings after work cutting and sewing (Curtis did the cutting, I did the machine sewing) and then we hand quilted the whole thing together.




One fabric choice was very deliberate...the herons! Down the road from my dad's house there is a swamp where herons live. When my brother and I were growing up, every time we drove by he would slow down and we would peer out the window looking for leggy birds on high-up nests.

The stitches are crooked and things don't line up perfectly but I really like it - and I think he did too!




I can't wait to make another FOR MYSELF! ...Maybe I should finish my brother's first.
xo
Sarah