"think positive" quilt

I am a little behind on blogging about Christmas gifts made, and in fact I forgot to take photos of some altogether!  But today I will share my favourite, a quilt 2 years overdue.

I promised my sister and her husband a quilt when they were redecorating their t.v. room.  My sister is not much of a "quilty person", so I wanted her input on the design and colours. A year passed and I finally got a top made.  I decided on an improv cross/plus design, for several reasons- 1. their faith, 2. my sister is a chartered accountant, and 3. at the time, my sister and brother in law had been in the midst of a long, difficult struggle with infertility and adoption.  I called the top "think positive" and…again it sat in the closet for months.

And then- a baby.  A baby!  My sweet little niece. It all came out positive after all!   And then the top sat longer because, of course, a baby quilt took precedence :)

All of a sudden it was Christmas again.  Doh!  So I basted and did some wonky grid quilting, and did some of the WORST machine binding of my life (not sure what the heck happened there), but hey, done is better than perfect, right? And they seemed to like it regardless.

And seeing as it has been -30 degrees Celsius for much of December and January, I hear this has already been put to good use!

it's a good day for making quilts....

It's about minus bazillion degrees outside, and all I want to do is curl up under a quilt, knitting or making another quilt, with a big cup of tea and the fireplace on!  Here is the dreadful forecast for "Winterpeg" this week:

For those unfamiliar with the Celsius system, -30 C is about -22F, i.e., colder than your deep freezer.  There are only really a few choice words to describe it, and most of those have four letters.

But, on the "plus" side, I have managed to finish my wonky "plus/cross" quilt top, which is especially fitting as I am "crossing" my fingers that the temperatures will return to the "plus" side of the scale one of these days!  I sliced up a bunch of scraps and fabrics, no measuring, and made blocks of all sizes, which I then spliced together using neutrals.  I absolutely love how it turned out, and it was pure joy to make.  And I know just who to gift it to when it is all done.

It seems to be popular with the furry people, too.  It took all of 20 seconds on the floor before Bailey the Wonderdog claimed it as his own. Smart pooch!

Happy Monday.  Keep warm! ;)