My 25 Year Old Quilt

Once upon a time there were 2 young girls that were best friends. Their names were Val & Vicki. They were in their 20's and each one decided to make a quilt. Their children were toddlers. They went to walmart and bought a book that would teach them how. They each picked out a pattern out of the book & fabric and got started. Well Vicki (the smart one) finished hers in no time at all. It was beautiful. Val was so sad. She didn't think hers would ever get finished. She had it all put together and sandwiched together but that is as far as it went. Over the years, her children thought this unfinished quilt was a part of the family. They would make jokes about it because they knew that it would never be finished. Val would laugh too, because she knew how many projects she had started before and never completed. One year Val had even thought about putting it in a yard sale hoping someone would finish it but her husband wouldn't let her. He said that it was "his" quilt. So she packed it up and then one day she decided to get it back out and hand quilt it. She really didn't know how to do this but was determined to get it done anyway. Val visited her Granny one day and helped her roll a quilt and put it on the machine to quilt it. Her Granny even showed her how she puts a chair behind her and lays the quilt across it as she machine quilts it. She thought to herself that she could do this. So she started removing the hand quilting and follow grannys directions in machine quilting. Then she went to Amanda Jeans Binding Tutorial
and learned how to put a binding on! Things kept interfering with her working on this quilt and then this past Sunday she said that this was the day! Her husband helped her figure how many inches of binding she needed. She got the binding cut and started and it took her several more nights to hand stitch the binding on but she finally got it done. It is finished.

This story of course is about me and my best friend. Her quilt is the big beautiful star. Mine is the calico fabric (shoofly pattern) which was really popular 25 years ago. I am so proud. The quilt is not perfect by any means but it is beautiful to me. I took it to my grannys house today. Her and my dad were eating lunch. When I told her I finished my quilt and showed it to her--she cried. She said that I was the only grandchild that knew how she felt when quilting. She said she is so happy that I would be carrying on this tradition of hers. She never noticed the imperfections. My dad saw it too and I could tell he was happy for me too. I can't wait until my Mom & Vicki gets to see it. They will be as happy and proud as I am. When my "sweet honey" came home I presented him with "his" quilt. He loves it. He said he never thought he would see the day that it could go on our bed. But today is the day that the 25 year old quilt is on my bed. This for sure has been a long journey. Granny gave me some advice today--she said take a short break but get right back at the sewing machine and get another one going. So since she makes at least 1 quilt a week, I think I will take her advice and get another one done. The next one will not take me 25 years though. I have the "quilting bug!"