What Quilt's on Your Bed?

Lynette from Lynette Anderson Designs asked this question on her blog yesterday, and inspired me to share my own bed quilt story. I first became truly hooked on quilting back in 2002, by way of an online quilting group's invitation to join in my first quilting round robin. There were six quilters in my group, and we each started with a center block, sending it away to the next person, each adding a border and then passing the quilt down the line. I was fairly new to quilting, but really enjoyed the excitement and challenge of adding a new border to each quilt that came my way.

Little did I know just how beautiful my own little center block would grow to be. When my top was finally returned to me, I just knew it belonged on my bed. It would be years, however, before I actually got it finished. Here's a photo of the quilt in 2007 -- five long years after the round robin was completed. I added the wide checkerboard and final solid borders to make it big enough to fit the bed.


Finding fabrics in colors that would blend with all the others was a bit of a challenge, but I came across a piece in my stash that worked perfectly for my final border and gave the quilt even more special meaning. My mother told me that my grandmother had once made herself a dress from this fabric. There was just enough of it left to add a border on three sides of my quilt. It was meant to be!


Here is the label, with the names of all the ladies who added borders to my quilt:


And finally, a picture of the quilt on my bed. Doesn't it look like it was made for this room?


It took me years to finally make a quilt for my own bed, but it was well worth the wait. No store-bought comforter was ever as cozy as a homemade quilt!