A quilt for Joseph

 So what do you do when some of your best friends in the world have their first baby? Why you make them a quilt! Dave and Ivey are great people. They were the first friends that my husband introduced me to back when we were still dating (was that really 15 years ago?). They are the smartest couple we know, thank heaven they reproduced! If Stu and I are ever on "who wants to be a millionaire?" (is that show even still on?) they will be our lifelines...they know everything. And I mean everything. Ivey was who I called to come stay with my 6 week old Emma when I had to go back to work in Heidelberg (She lived in Ramstein at the time. We had a Lithuanian nanny set up to tend her, but she got scared after 9/11 and left us the day after Emma was born) before my mom could come over from the US. She would take Emma on the bus down to the hospital so I could have nursing breaks...What a wonderful friend. She was a godsend.

Well, I had planned this quilt back in July when I found out she was pregnant...I planned it, put it together and quilted it. It was folded and stacked up on the finished quilt stack. But it was the finished quilt stack in my mind, so I had to make it a reality! I wasn't moving fast enough, so my dear husband stepped in. I had the stack of fabric all pulled and sitting on the cutting table, so he decided that he would do the cutting for me. That really saves time, folks! Have someone else do the cutting and it frees you up to talk and sew.

He said that if the surgeon screws up his back next week he will come work for me and we will make quilts...all he will do in the operation is the cutting mind you. But he is taking sole credit for this quilt.

I will let him.

 So, here is my little assembly line...

 Here are some of the blocks

 Here is the layout before piecing all the blocks together

 Here is where I had to pull out my back up Bernina because my big beautiful 820 forgot how to tell there was a bobbin in the bobbin case....it is so freaking smart that IT WILL NOT WORK when the sensors can't pick up a signal. Needless to say, I was freaking out a bit when my husband got home because I was thinking about all the bags I have cut and need to sew up and I have been spoiled by using the 820 and how wonderful it is when it works....I was planning a 10 hour trip to Austin when he calmly took down the manual and fixed my machine.....(keep the sensors free of lint ladies, if you have a 820).

So back to business!

 Isn't it pretty? Oh I love it! I want to make a great big one now! It isn't quite finished, but I have to go take my middle man out on a date and go to the post office.

 The yellow centers will be hand quilted.

And I am embroidering his name on the bottom square. Embroidery is harder than I thought it would be. A note on what I used for the back of the quilt... Dave and Ivey gave us a really nice set of sheets for our wedding. They were really high thread count cotton so felt like silk. The fitted sheet was worn thin so I used some of the top sheet for the back. It is impossibly soft. When this quilt is washed it is going to be awesome! All those soft shot cottons, the thinnest loft cotton batting and that wonderful sheet on the back. Wonderful. I hope sweet Joseph Reese Rhoades has many sweet dreams under this quilt that Stu worked so hard on.

xo,
Tia