Blogger's Quilt Festival 2011

 

I've participated in Amy's Blogger's Quilt Festival the last couple of years and I have always enjoyed reading the stories behind so many of the beautiful quilts. And while my quilt isn't nearly as big and grand as some of the other amazing quilts (seriously, you should check them ALL out), after thinking about it for about two seconds I decided I was going to share about this quilt...

My little temple quilt measures 27.5" square. Each square of embroidery measures 3.75" square. I made it to enter into the LDS Art Competition. The theme this year was "Make known His glorious works", and I made this one as my testimony of what Jesus Christ means in my life as my Savior and Redeemer. He's the Good Shepherd, Fountain of Living Water, Tree of Life, and Light of the World.

With every stitch in this quilt I thought of all of the blessings I've been given in my life and how great and tender the mercies of God! I poured so much of my thanks and heart into this quilt I am kind of afraid of it actually ending up in the exhibit; I don't want it to come off of the wall of my bedroom! While working on it I couldn't get it out of my head, put all my other projects on hold, and I'd wake up in the morning having thought of more ways to make it as beautiful as possible. Each step felt guided, and when I'd get stuck or stumped on a problem or how to execute a complicated idea in my mind, I inevitably found an inspiring thought in the most mundane and beautiful things. I'm so happy it turned out as nicely as it did. Of course I see all of the imperfections, but I hope it is an acceptable sacrifice.

I actually bought enough fabric to make two more of these quilts. It was an accident of course, I was originally going to make the quilt much bigger! But after assembling a lot of it I just felt like the quilt would be better if I kept it small and simple... So I ended up with a lot left over and I just mightmake the extra two so I can give one to my mom (not quite sure who the second one would go to but I could probably figure it out). And fortunately I wrote down every stitch and thread that I used in making the embroidered squares, and I copied my embroidery sketches so I could turn them into PDF documents. I am so glad, too, because those patterns were trashed throughout the process of making the quilt! So now I've got a way to recreate the whole quilt and hopefully not make the same mistakes. I'll make another more beautiful but keep my imperfect one.... it suites me. :)