The Road Ahead

In early 2017, I made a special quilt for a woman who's mother passed away before she could finish a quilt for her granddaughter.  Betsy was pregnant with her second child and moving her daughter to her big girl room.  Betsy and I worked closely together to create a big girl bed quilt that honored her mother and the quilt they had designed together before she passed.

After sending off the quilt, I still had lots of Betsy's fabric (purchased by her mother for the quilt).  Before returning her precious fabric to her, I offered to make a quilt for her new baby so he could have a quilt made from his grandmother's fabric too.

We talked through colors and ideas and finally decided on a road quilt, with little pieced pine trees sprinkled about, backed with fabric that Betsy designed (she's an amazing illustrator!).

I had such a fun time working on this quilt and working with Betsy to make it perfect for her child.  I'm so proud of how this quilt came out and looking back, I still can't believe how well all my curves match up.  I made a template for the curves, and carefully appliqued them by machine to each square before sewing the squares together.   

This quilt represents the height of my quilting skills...piecework perfection, applique, two challenging and precise quilting ideas executed better than I imagined.  There's no way I'd attempt this sort of quilt today.  

Looking back, I feel a tremendous amount of pride.  I'm proud to be the person who put in ten year's worth of practice in order to acquire these skills.  But more than that, I'm proud to have created something that honors Betsy's mother, a fellow quilter who's time was cut short.

It was an honor to make these quilts for Betsy, and to give her children a piece of their grandmother, whom they never got to meet.