The General Conference Quilt

My quilt is finally finished!  I call it the General Conference Quilt because I only stitched on it during sessions of General conference every six months for the last oh, about six years?  I can't really remember how long it's been.  (Rebecca, can you help me?)  This is a lap quilt and has a special story (don't all quilts?)

My friend Rebecca is a true quilter.  I just dabble around occasionally.  But, I do sew ties and have made many ties for Bryce and for my son Matthew in holiday fabrics.  Also, when Bryce was Bishop, every Christmas I made ties for all the boys in the Aaronic Priesthood.  Ties have to be cut on the bias (diagonal) across the fabric and large triangles would be left.  One summer Rebecca was doing crafts with the Young Women for camp.  She asked for donations of scrap fabric and I dug out my tie fabric scraps.  When I gave them to her, I mentioned that they might be saved for a quilt.  A few weeks later, she brought me back a quilt top made with four inch squares of all my fabrics - a multi-holiday quilt top. 

I decided, since this was a lap quilt, that I would quilt it by hand instead of tying it or having someone machine quilt it.  I cut some holiday shapes from card stock and used them to trace a design in each square that matches the fabric (heart for Valentines, star on patriotic, bell, holly, egg, moon, snowflake, pumpkin, etc.)   I have a dear lady in my ward who loves to bind quilts.  I asked her for help in getting it bound (even before it was all stitched) and she begged me to let her just do it.  So, you could say this is a three person quilt.  Rebecca made the top, I put it together and quilted it, and Martha bound it. 

These are pictures of the backing with up close views of some of the designs.  Below is a shamrock and above is a star and a heart (upside down).

Thanks Rebecca and Martha!  I will enjoy having this quilt on my lap in my new TV room.