I love him—any way you slice it.

About a year ago, I was trying to think of great gift ideas for my sweetheart for our fifth wedding anniversary. I was drawn to the thought of creating something handmade for him but realized that there were really only a couple of months to pull something together and that that probably wasn't enough time to tackle a big project and actually get it done. I'm not really sure how it happened, I knew there was no way to make him a quilt, but one day I found myself diving into my stash of Midwest Modern fabrics and cutting—with reckless abandon. It seemed I was about to tackle Amy Butler's Electric Quilt Company Any Way You Slice It Applique Quilt.

I still can't believe I did it. I don't really know how it all got done. But, in a flurry of weeks full of secret sewing in the few minutes after I'd get home before Chris would get there and on Saturdays while he was at work, I somehow managed to get it all pieced. I even managed to slip the longarm quilting bill through our checking account without him noticing.

We've been wanting to go out and take pictures for me to share here but every time we seem to have a few minutes to do it, something else comes up. So, this weekend I finally forced us to go outside and snap a few shots even if they weren't quite in the setting we had planned.

I was really glad that I pushed myself on this quilt. I chose a pattern I normally wouldn't have tackled in such a short time and I pushed myself by not following the "easy" directions (which were to applique the small blocks of strips onto giant halfsquare triangles) and rewrote the pattern to be entirely pieced. It was a big quilt (80x80) to finish in such a short time.

The cool thing about this quilt (to me, anyway) is that it really was my first finished quilt. I'd finished a couple of quilt tops prior to this but this is the first one I'd had quilted and then bound since I'd begun sewing—aside from a couple of small baby quilts, that is. It was special for me to give my first finished quilt to Chris for such an important occasion because of his constant encouragement of and interest in this growing hobby of mine.

 I was really fortunate to find an amazingly talented longarm quilter in my area. She did an amazing job with this quilt and is someone I am glad to know I can trust with my quilts.

I haven't really figured out my quilt "signature" yet, but it was fun to come up with something unique for this quilt.

Because this quilt was in celebration of our wedding anniversary, I wanted to inject a little of myself into the design with a splash of pink in the midst of all the blue and green. Oh, and that heart . . . it's a little hat-tip to the traditional fifth anniversary gift—wood. It's a piece of pink taffeta from our bridesmaids dresses embroidered with our initials, wedding date, and fifth anniversary date and then pieced on top of a piece of Joel Dewberry's Woodgrain. I don't think I totally pulled off my vision, but it works.

Nothing warms my heart more than to see Chris curled up with it nearly every night as we settle in from a long day at work . . . or when he's not feeling well and needs a little touch of comfort and warmth.

 

Be sure to stop by Canoe Ridge Creations today to check out all of the other lovely links for {Sew} Modern Monday.