Playing Tag...

Woke up this frigid morning to find that I've been tagged by my friend, Jean, over at Jean's Page! The rules are go to your 4th folder of pictures and pick the 4th picture, then write about it. Well, I pretty regularly burn my photos onto discs and remove them from my computer, so the fourth picture in my fourth folder was one from Aaron's baptism just a couple weeks ago. Since I've already shared about that here, I decided to go into my quilting pictures and see what I found. Oddly enough, I think I already shared this photo, too, but I don't want to bend the rules too far, so here goes:


For years, I avoided scrapbooking like the plague. I carefully bypassed the scrapbooking aisles in the stores where I shopped, casting furtive glances as I hurried by. Miles and miles of stickers, embellishments, and luxurious papers called out to be ogled, but I just knew that if I started one more such hobby, I'd be doomed. I spent enough time and money already, answering to the call in the quilting department.

And then one day, I was chatting with my quilting friends about their quilt journals. Some kept detailed accounts of each quilt they made, from start to finish. They kept a swatch of each fabric in the quilt, sketches they'd made as they planned the quilt, details of measurements, pattern name, fabric content, and for whom the quilt was made. I liked the idea, but knew it was highly unlikely that I would ever be that organized.

That's when the quilting and scrapbooking muses collided.

I started my first quilt scrapbook in 2005, making a page (or sometimes two) about each quilt that I made. I found that I really enjoyed planning the layout, deciding which papers best complimented the colors in the quilt, and the challenge of trying to acquire an actual photo of the recipient with the quilt. Since so many of my quilts are given as gifts or to charities, I really enjoy having these pages bring back all the warm, fuzzy memories connected with each and every gift from my heart.

The page shown above records a gift to my son's fourth grade teacher just last spring. She was a very special teacher to us, as she taught my oldest child the first year we moved here, and taught each of my four as they reached fourth grade. She was also one of the kids' all-time-favorite teachers, so as my youngest child was leaving her class, I wanted to mark the occasion with a special quilt. We'll always have this scrapbook page to remind us of a great teacher and a special day.

So, that's the story! Now I need to tag a few more people to join in the fun. Let's see... how about...

Carol, at Giraffe Dreams
Jessica, at I'm Sew Happy
Angela, at this woman's beautiful life
and Barbara at Greetings from Nowhere

Hopefully they have time to play. I just know they'll have some great stories to tell!