20th and 25th Anniversary Quilt
My parents celebrated their 20th wedding anniversary when I was a senior in high school, and a recent employee of JoAnn Fabric and Crafts. I knew I wanted to do something special for them, and I knew I could save a few bucks on fabric with my employee discount. I decided, at the age of 17 that I was going to make them a quilt. A patriotic quilt because they liked Americana décor.
One of the older ladies I worked with, one of the floor supervisors, helped me work out how much fabric I would need. We figured I would make a quilt big enough for a California King (even though they didn’t have one yet). And I wanted something simple. I was new to sewing and didn’t have a lot of confidence. So we figured twelve rows and twelve columns of, I think, ten inch blocks.
I got it half put together by the time their anniversary rolled around. I had sewn all of the rows together, but only had half of them sewn together—with no plan of how to quilt it.
I laid it out on their bed before they came home from work that day so they could see what it would look like. I wish I had a picture of that version.
Yes, I said version. Because after the rush of trying to get it done (and failing) was in the past, I put the project away. Senior year got the better of me and I don’t think I ever looked at that quilt again until after I graduated with my Bachelor’s in English. The summer of 2012, and my sewing game had greatly increased.
We were at the State Fair when dad made a comment about how much more he liked quilts with smaller patterns for blocks—the exact opposite of the simple quilt I made for them in high school. He didn’t mean that he didn’t like the quilt I made for them—I think they both forgot about it.
So I went home and began devising a plan to remake the other quilt. I drew up a new pattern that was still squares, but with some more variation.
I started ripping seams that fall. I spent an entire day on the couch ripping seams. It took forever. I ironed all of the pieces and began cutting.
They celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary in August of 2013. I wanted to have it done by then, but I started graduate school the summer of 2013 and that really messed up my timeline.
So for their 25th Christmas I gave them, for the second time, their patriotic quilt. It still wasn’t done. I’m still quilting it—by hand.
It’s going to take me a while to get the hand quilting done on a California King sized quilt … hopefully by their 30th anniversary.
