Quilt Accomplished

"Listen! My Lover! 

Look! Here he comes,

leaping across the 

mountains,

bounding over hills.

My lover is like a gazelle or

a young stag.

Look! There he stands,"

~ Song of Songs 2: 8-9

 He comes home today. After a week of leaping mountains in northern New York. 

In my Bible I have the scripture above underlined, and in the margin is written: Reminds me of The Mister!

I don't know when I wrote that note. Which is strange, I almost always write a date... but I guess that's how love should be... timeless.

While he was away, I had several goals - make dinner every night (when he's gone I'm tempted to eat toast or cereal for dinner), watch lots of movies with the kids, and finish the 16th Anniversary Quilt. 

I managed to accomplish all three. (Smoothies are a meal, right?)

I'm most excited about the quilt. My mountain-man enjoys a good back-packing trip. He loves his ultra-light and warm sleeping bag on the trail, but at home he enjoys a good quilt.

Several years ago, he kept hinting that I hadn't made anything for him, and that he would love to have a quilt for his office. So I made him this one....

Its not beautiful or fancy, and it isn't even "quilted" but its a favorite and often in the winter on weekend afternoon, I'll peek in his office and he'll be napping on the floor... wrapped up like a quilted burrito. 

Makes me happy. 

This week I only needed to bind the Anniversary Quilt. I tried to do it the "correct" way. By hand. But in the end it was all machine sewn. I'm a quilting newbie... plus, I was running out of time and just wanted it to be done.

When the last stitch was sewn I put it on the bed, just to see what it looked like...

...and, of course, take some pictures...

I kept thinking to myself... I can't believe it I did it... I can't believe I finished it... I can't believe it all came out... just the nearly the way I wanted...

Its made from fabrics that have been repurposed so its already amazingly soft and light.

I spent a good chunk of time looking at it, admiring it. Wondering if The Mister will like it too...

...and then I took it off again.

Because I won't sleep under it until I'm with him.

Sixteen

I don't normally post on Wednesdays (usually I'm cramming lesson plans for my afternoon history class at co-op) but since I have been MIA in the last five days, I thought I'd pop in.

In true CoffeeGal style, I got bit by a crafting bug last week and have had tunnel vision of epic proportions. Any free time has found me at my sewing machine.

In my last post I wrote about Log Cabin Squares for quilting. Well, that's what I've been doing: I made twenty Log Cabin quilt blocks....

Some of you may remember chuppah I made a couple years ago for a friend.

For eight months I put my heart-and-soul into that project, embroidering every monogram by hand. Quilting old family fabric into a quilt-of-sorts. A tapestry for a young couple to marry under.

I tried to explain how this project felt in this post, but here is a small glimpse of the work involved.

This project was challenging and brought great personal satisfaction, but when it was completed it wasn't mine. I handed it (and everything about it) over to its rightful owner.

One night last week I was talking to The Mister and showing him the sample quilt blocks I had sewn, and he said emphatically, "I love quilts!"

When my husband speaks emphatically, I listen. He tends to be a pretty even-keeled guy, reserving passionate verbiage for things he truly feels passionate.

And it got me thinking....

I often make things for the kids, or myself, or for friends. I almost always make things for those who ask me to, and every once in awhile someone will actually pay me.

Very rarely do I create things for my man.

And he deserves something.  Especially since one-month from today we will have been married 16 years.

As I have been sewing, I've been thinking about that chuppah, what it meant in the days of hard work, and the lessons I learned both during and after the project was complete. It made me want to make something like it to celebrate our marriage; The joy. The hard work. The crazy and the calm. I want to make something that shows the depths of beauty that comes from a relationship that isn't always easy, but is so worth the effort.

This is the beginnings of the quilting project I am calling Sixteen. It is to be a gift to The Mister. My hope is to hand-embroider some of my favorite things about our life together (thus far) and give it to him when we go away (to a log cabin in the NC mountains) sometime next month.

My plan is to use only fabric and thread I already own. And we won't be boxing this baby up - we'll sleep under it. Hopefully for many more years....