Bloggers Quilt Festival, Fall 2012

It's that time of year again! I just love the Bloggers Quilt Festival! I have met some really fun bloggers through this festival and been SO INSPIRED by the quilts that are shared. I had to think long and hard about which quilt I wanted to enter into this year's festival. If you know me, you know making quick decisions is NOT my gift. Lots of wishy washy goes on around here. What can I say?

So after much deliberation, I have chosen to share one of my all time favorites:

Quilt size: 68" x 68"

Machine quilted by me

Designed by me

Categories: scrappy, home machine quilted, throw size quilt

It's called Mr. Knott's Neighborhood. It's a favorite for many reasons, but mostly because of the story that goes with it. My husband (Mr. Knott) saw some of these house blocks on the design wall and commented on how much he really liked them. He'll usually give an opinion if asked, but rarely offers one on his own. So I got to thinking about Christmas. My parents would be here and they would be getting a quilt from me. My sister would be here and she would be getting a quilt from me. Hmmm. Maybe I should make a quilt for Mr. Knott. We normally don't exchange gifts because, let's face it, Christmas is for the kids, we focus on them and spending time with family and we truly have everything we need.

Mr. Knott travels a lot, almost every week, he is an airline pilot after all. So while he was gone on his trips I would pull out the blocks and work on them. I tucked them away every time he came home. So I was easily able to finish the quilt without him suspecting a thing. I was so excited to give him such a special gift on Christmas morning!

A side note about the borders: Many years ago I made Mr. Knott a quilt for his birthday. I beautiful log cabin with no borders. He (jokingly) said that real quilts have borders. And over the years he would always coment on the borders of each quilt I gave away, saying things like...you must really love them because it has such nice borders. We love to tease each other, so this was a source of many laughs over the years.

I finished this quilt and put 3 borders on it, and the label says...To Bill, with Love and Borders, from your wife. I put three borders to show him how much I really do love him!

On Christmas morning after all the others had opened their gifts I gave him his quilt. He almost cried he loved it so much. Then he said to me, there's box under the tree for you too honey. I saw a very large box still sitting in the back, and though, oh how nice, we did need a new blender. So imagine MY SURPRISE when I opened the box and it was the little travel sewing machine I had wanted so badly for workshops and retreats. I hadn't said anything about it since July, when my friend got one, and I commented how happy I was for her. He researched it and found it and purchased it and got it gift wrapped all before the holiday! (this is huge since my gifts usually have a duty free sticker on them from a date past the birthday/ holiday etc. that he obviously picked up quickly on his way home from work)

So this quilt is really special for lots of reasons. Mostly, I'm just glad Mr. Knott likes it so much. He deserves lots of borders!!!