A Bright Green Farm

All of my Danish nieces and nephews were born after I started quilting.  As a result, I made baby quilts for all of them, they also each got a "big Boy or Girl" quilt at age 5, and I'm almost done making each of them a teenage quilt (only one of them has yet to reach that mile stone in life!)  My American nieces and nephews, on the other hand were almost all born before I started quilting - indeed most of them were born before I entered their family!  So they never really became part of the tradition.  However, by the summer of 2014, I had almost managed to make and give a quilt to each of my nieces and only Rob, the oldest, hadn't yet received a quilt.

Fortunately, several good occasions presented themselves, Rob had completed four years in the Army, including one year of combat in Afghanistan, and returned to us safe and sound.  We were all happy that he chose not to re-enlist.  Instead he entered college at UK and completed his degree, with the assistance of the GI Bill, in record time and with top grades.  Last, but not least, Rob who had always been a very determined bachelor, had started hanging out with and seeming awfully fond of a certain fellow student named Gretchen.

So, it was very fortunate that I finally had managed to finish this big quilt - which at 94" x 114" is definitely big enough for two - and could finally give Rob a quilt of his own.  It's basically just a scrappy monochromatic quilt, all 4" green squares cut from my stash and entirely hand pieced.  Then, as always, machine quilted by Regina Carter, who used a pattern called Swirling Ferns..

I named the quilt for the Bright Family Farm where Rob grew up, because I know Rob, like all the rest of us, is very fond of the farm, even though at this point in his life, he prefers to live away from the farm. And I was able to give the quilt to Rob at a family gathering on the farm, which happened to be the first time many of us met Gretchen.