What's On Your Bed?

I nearly missed it, but on Monday, Bonnie Hunter from Quiltville shared a photo of what was on her bed as she did her Monday morning routine and changed the sheets and quilt on her beds at home.

She also decided to ask "What's on YOUR Bed?" and host a little link up party.  I read her blog daily but she sometimes posts more than once and I had actually missed it - it wasn't until I was clicking over to visit Jo's Country Junction that I saw her post about what was on her bed that I found out about this linky party.

So where did I leave my camera???  LOL  Some of my readers will remember that last August we moved from Texas to a rental home in Southern Indiana.  This home we are in really has been enjoyable and it fits nearly all of our stuff.  Although we are looking forward to moving soon into something that is *ours* I admit that I'm gonna miss this old house! 

You really can't tell from the photo but our bedroom we are in is pretty small.  What you see is what you get - only room for 2 nightstands and the king sized bed.  The dresser/mirror and wardrobe cabinet are being stored on one side of the garage.

 

This is the only quilt I have that will fit our King sized bed.  After inheriting my grandmother's sewing machine after she died in 1995, this quilt was one of my first projects.  I was in college at the time so I worked on it off and on for almost a year.  I wasn't one to come home every weekend but when I did, I spent time tracing a cardboard square on the back side of fabric and layering it so that I could pin in the center and cut about 4 layers at once....  did not even know what a rotary cutter was back then!



I was enguaged at the time to my high school sweetheart who had a king sized waterbed.  Remember those TV adds, "...If you aren't sleeping on water... you oughter!"  lol  anyway, my goal was to make David a quilt for his bed using dark fabrics so as to not show dirt.  I'm sure it was so hard for my mother to resist sewing to make blocks for it in between my visits home from college.  When I was home and sewing on it she was there to help cut chain piecing and press seams. :) 

After I got the top completed, my mother found an Amish lady and daughter who hand quilted it.  I didn't actually know that this was going on and it was kept secret from me until Christmas when I opened a large box that said to Bonnie from Mom...  When I saw my quilt inside I was confused, but then noticed it was quilted!  My gift from mom was that she paid for the quilting :)

David saw it too that Christmas for the first time and loved it.... but because it wasn't bound and finished, he'd have to wait until his birthday the following April.  Not sure the year..... I'd have to google when the UK Wildcats won the NCAA with Rick Pitino as coach to find out - but that was the year that I gave him this quilt.  I know that b/c my mother sat each night during the final games and hand stitched the zig-zag binding around each square.... with denim blue fabric that I had chosen.... the UK Wildcats had also worn special denim blue uniforms in that final game and she said she'd never forget it.  (1996 b/c I googled it)

We've used it on our bed for the past 6 years now year round and I love it!  It's nothing pretty to look at but it's special.  When we moved to Texas in 1995, shortly after we had our first experience with evacuating for hurricanes and I was touched when David who was staying behind to lead setting up the area emergency response team and shelter said not to pack it with me and the other quilts, b/c he wanted to take it with him and use it for his sleeping area. :)  I know he'd thanked me for it many years earlier on that Christmas before we married and even on his birthday, but when he wanted to take it with him for the evacuation it meant more to me than any "Thank You" could have meant. :)

I do love seeing blogger/quilters who have a different quilt for their bed for each season or month even, and I think perhaps if my bed weren't KING sized, I would have different quilts too!  I do have another quilt that I've been working on called "My Blue Heaven" that I'm making large enough for our bed.  maybe you remember me showing it in this post in February?

If you haven't visited the other link participants already, click back over to Bonnie's post "What's on YOUR Bed?" and take a look. :)

Love from Indiana!