Gratitude Quilt

Before Thanksgiving, I had an idea. I had just seen a blogpost by Amy Smart about her gratitude quilt, and it lit a fire in me. The wheels turned quickly, and even though I usually mull things way longer than is necessary, I quickly jumped to work. I pitched it to my kids and they liked the idea too, so we went for it! 

I largely used Amy Smart's pattern for the gratitude quilt, but I made some changes. I think I made more blocks, but I omitted the border. And instead of using a sharpie to write on the blocks, I opted to embroider them. I had my girls all come up with 10 things they were thankful for and then I color coded the blocks and had the girls all sew their own blocks. So, my oldest daughter's blocks are all the same yellow fabric, and my second daughter's are all the same blue. I added their name to one of their blocks so we'd be able to figure it out easily later.

My girls have a whole week off of school for Thanksgiving and we never travel, so this was a great activity for them while they were off of school. I did need to unpick and resew a few blocks, especially for my seven-year-olds, but they mostly did great. And I sewed all my husband's blocks, of course. 

Once they were done, I laid it out quickly and stitched the rows together, and then I had a stroke. I knew it wouldn't be done by Thanksgiving, since we were sewing the blocks the day before Thanksgiving, but I still hoped to finish it before the end of the year just to wrap it up.

That did not happen. But I got it up to my quilter in February (I couldn't easily get down on the floor to pin rows together after I was discharged because I was so stiff), and I got it back this week.

I put it aside while I worked on my Sewtopia challenge quilt (will post on that later!), but once I had sewn the binding down to the front of that quilt, I opted to bind this one. I used the brown fabric that I used for some blocks, and I don't love the print (it was free from a neighbor's destash) but it's a great color, especially for an autumn quilt. I think it's a great binding for this quilt. 

I'm so glad it's finished!