Back when we were newly-weds, Troy and I got it in our heads that it would be fun to each make a quilt for our moms for Christmas. At the time, I was a middle school sewing teacher, with a big classroom full of 23 Bernina sewing machines (swoon). I clearly remember the trip to Joann’s to pick out our fabric. I fell in love with some traditional, Americana prints. My husband, being the stinker that he is, said that if he was going to make a quilt, it was gonna be completely original, something that no one before had ever made. Haha. And then he found the African prints, and there was nothing I could do to talk him out of it! So we bought our fabric and batting, and spent the next couple of weeks hanging in out my classroom after hours, working on these quilts for our moms. That will forever be one of my favorite memories with Troy. I love that he wanted to try something completely random and outside of any of his hobbies, to create something to give away, and to spend time with me. Since then, I’ve fallen in love with quilting. One of my favorite hobbies looking at gorgeous quilts on blogs, instagram, pinterest, and flickr, and making a “list” of quilts I want to make. (Check out some of my favorite quilting bloggers on my sidebar…. its such a fun online community)! I haven’t finished any quilt from start to finish, but I do have 3 quilts in the making right now (basket weave, ruffle quilt, and pickeldish)!! I need to focus on one at a time, I just get to excited and I’m working on all three simultaneously. When I look at the quilt that I made, I find myself cringing a little. But then I cut myself some slack… I made this quilt before there were quilting blogs, and without any direction at all. I probably should have read a book, but I wanted to figure it out for myself. I really had no clue about quilting, even though I was teaching sewing. Its funny to look at it– hardly any of my corners match up, my binding is like 2 inches wide, and I quilted it by tying it with thread!!!! hahaha. It’s been nearly ten years since we made these quilts, and I think my husband was right– his is quirky and silly and awesome, just like him. Thanks for letting me share our quilting adventure with you! 🙂