Love's Road Quilt

This quilt is technical the second quilt I ever made or at least the second quilt I ever intended to make. The name for this quilt is Love's Road and it the perfect name for this quilt, as its story is a long and bumpy one that took dedication, time, patience, and work to make it all come together. That being said lets start at the beginning. 

Long long ago, I picked up the yellow brick road pattern at the Road to California Quilt Show. When I say long ago, I really mean way back in 2000. I like the pattern because it was so different and bold (at the time at least). Right then and there I knew that I wanted to do something different with it. The yellow and blue on the cover was so blah... I think it would be called traditional now, but remember back then I was 12 years younger (a teenager) and there wasn't anything like modern quilting around.

So I bought the pattern (fine my mom bought the pattern, remember broke college student) and started searching for fabric. I really wanted to use white for the pop, but there weren't solids around like there are now, so my mom suggested white on whites and I went for it. I also love batiks at the time. Batiks had bold colors and graphic statements, but being the rebel that I am I mixed cotton prints with batiks and with white on white...At this point it might become slightly obvious that I wasn't following any of the "rules". However, I only had my moms support to tell me it was OK, and she is quite a rebel herself, plus there was no one to tell me it was wrong. 

I worked on collecting fabric for a bit... OK about 3 years. I was in college, there was this strange thing called studying and all the other things that are college life entails, that took precedence over quilting. Once I graduated college, I spent my two week summer break, before starting my teacher credential program, cutting the fabric for the quilt and started sewing it together. All the while being teased by my at that time boyfriend (also know as the now a days husband) for being an "old lady" because they are the "only old ladies quilt" (which by the way is still what I am teased about). That didn't stop me and I was able to piece all the blocks before I started my program. However, that program made me set quilting  aside again; not all the way, seeing as my cumulative project was a multicultural unit of study on quilting and story cloth and how both can be used to pass down traditions and stories. And then came teaching.... and the love's road quilt got pushed to the side and I became a great teacher who did nothing but teaching. 

That was until a couple years ago when I met someone who asked me "what do you do to deal with stress? and I said "nothing". The same person asked, "Any hobbies?" and I couldn't think of anything other than teaching that defined me. I knew I used to like to do things for me... but what. And then it came to me. I used to quilt! It didn't really define me, but it made happy. Even when I was just looking at quilting magazines or touching pretty fabric and imagining what it could be.

So 10 almost 11 years later I decided to try quilting again. I started searching for it online and found a whole community of quilters. I also realized how incredible bad some of my seams were on my blocks, but with the help of my mom and the mighty seam ripper we work through that. I sewed all the blocks together, it a 1/4 inch seam, and then I came back to my technical road block in the first place. My current machine would not stitch threw all the layers of fabric. I mean I did get the machine for about $125 when I was 18. It was the first machine I bought by myself and although I was very proud of that, it just wasn't going to help me quilt.

So I convinced my husband that I really would quilt again. That it was something really what I wanted to do and we got me a new machine (he may tease me, but he is incredibly supportive and really wants me to be happy). Shortly after getting my new machine I was able to finish the quilt top. I also went to my first Sacramento Modern Quilt Guild meeting, where I some how became the leader for the guild since the gal who started it was moving out of state. I met two lovely ladies who were opening up a quilt shop and who offered to host our meetings. The great thing about this shop is they have a long arm. I of course took the course to use the long arm quilting machine and brought love's road with me, but I forgot the thread, the beautiful multicolored red pink and purple thread. I put the quilt away in a storage container and then the worst happened.

Gus the fabric eating dog got it. He ate the quilt. Pulled out the folded corner and nom nom nomed it. So here I am 11 years later with 4 holes, one in each corner. I didn't know what to do. The following ideas came to mind: do I put heart patches on top of it, do I take the whole thing apart and hope that in my scraps I might have big enough pieces to fix it, do I just give up? My solution shove it back in the storage container and leave it as a UFO.

That was until this last month. This last month I gave a baby quilt to my friend Anna and I got this facebook post.

The more I thought about it the sadder it made me. I had made a baby blanket for her sister and now her brother, but nothing for her. I didn't know my friend before Sophia was born, plus I hadn't been quilting at that time. However, this little girl who yells "JENN!" and jumps up like a little pixie when I see her was loving on a quilt that I had made. I really didn't think I could make a new quilt any time so and then as I was driving home from work, completely blanking out, when it came to me.

Love's Road is nearly done. I bet if I take the eaten blocks out I could make it a little girl size and it is little girl colors. There was no way to repair it, but a way to make it something new. Something a little different but just as good if not better.

So I got to work and in just a couple weeks I finished a quilt for sweet Sophia. It only took 12 years to make, much longer than she has even been around, but still a great gift for her. I can't wait to give it to her and to see her smile. 

Quilt Stats:

Name: Love's Road Quilt for Sophia

Size: approx. 44" x 56"

Fabrics:  Batiks in pink and purple, 3 white on white prints and lots of cotton purple and pink prints. 

Binding: Moda - dark purple batik 
Pattern:  Yellow Brick Road by Atkinson Designs 

Quilting: by me an all over large loop-dee-loos 

Started : 2000 

Completed: October 2012 

Now although I don't think this quilt will win I am linking up to: 

Best Category : Favorite Throw Quilt, Favorite Home Machine Quilted Quilt 

Mostly because I just really wanted to share this story. Love's Road has been a process for me and I am really glad for it to have a home to go to. Finishing this quilt seems like a weight has been lifted off my creative shoulders. I hope that that means I will stop having my creative blocks and start accomplishing more, seeing as it really does make me so very happy. Thank you to anyone who is stopping by for the quilt festival and I hope you enjoyed the pictures and the story. Come back and visit at any time. 

Also Linking up to:
At the end of the hallway as my favorite October project at from the blue chair