Monday, November 4, 2013

A Quilt For Hubby

My husband rarely asks for anything and is always such a giving man. At over six feet tall and thin, he and I constantly have differences regarding the temperature of the house with him always being cold and me of course having the dreaded hot flashes, I am always burning up.

Last Christmas, I made him a quilt he could cover under while watching television and I used Warm and Natural batting, flannel backing, but he said he was still cold at night, so he put it on his side of the bed.

When we moved, he wanted to put this old scratchy blanket on our bed and I said absolutely not. With a twinkle in his eye he said, then make me another quilt that is heavier.

Be careful what one would ask from a quilter.  I began to toss that old scratchy blanket into a pile for donating and then I thought I could cover it.  But that wouldn't be much heavier so I purchased the fullest loft batting I could find in a king sized batting, placed the blanket in the middle and began a rail fence quilt.


What was I thinking?  I wasn't!  Once I completed the top and added the fleece back, it wouldn't fit in my Singer machine, the presser foot isn't high enough and the depth of the throat wouldn't work!

So, with the help of the grands, I decided we would just tie it!  In the midst of this, I had foot surgery and couldn't stand and the kids said it was taking forever (they were right) and I have no quilt frame to work with so it took over 2 months to complete!

I would place it on our bed (which is a bit taller than waist high) and each time I went in our room, I would do a few stitches or sit in a chair and do a few stitches. On days my ankle would ache and swell, it would sit taunting me on my sewing table.

Finally, Friday evening, I put the final knot in it and then came the binding, what was I going to do for that?  First it was 324" of binding so I looked in my scrap box.  Sure enough, I still had some strips from the rail fence fabric and came up with a plan.

I took all the varying colors of the quilt and I placed the strips in the order of the rail fence blocks from 22" to 31" long and made the binding, to me, it actually brought the quilt together.

Now, my hubby is not one to take photos, he doesn't care that I like to document my quilts, all he cares about is being warm. So the above picture he posed for when he saw the camera.

However, being the patient wife I am, I waited and pretty soon, he emerged and I snapped this one of him watching television.
This morning, I asked him if he slept well, was he warm enough with his new quilt. Without skipping a beat and with that amazing twinkle in his eye he replied, 'I was a bit to warm, do you think you can take some of the stuffing out?' 

He then burst out laughing and said, 'I wish you could have seen the look on your face.' 

Hubby is happy, now I have to work on a few charity quilts this week and hopefully have one completely cut out for our grandson as his baby quilt has finally allowed his feet to hang out the bottom and it is time to make him one for Christmas!
 

5 comments:

Connie Kresin Campbell said...

What a precious quilt for your husband and I laughed at him telling you to take a little out as it was too warm! I love using Warm & Natural batting but I have noticed that my quilts are that warm.....so we just put more on. Thanks for sharing!

Sara said...

Very clever to "up-cycle" that old blanket as part of the lining. Just like something our great-grandmothers did in their day. Rail fence is one of the first quilt patterns I made, but haven't used it in awhile. Makes me want to make another. It turned out beautiful

Love Of Quilts said...

Oh my! I would love to have seen the look on your face too. Good he was joking. It is a pretty quilt. Hope your doing better with the ankle.

Farm Quilter said...

What a sweet wife you are! Beautiful, warm, heavy hug from you every time he uses it!! Brilliant!!

Unknown said...

Oh my goodness! What a big project! So happy for you that you got it done. What an accomplishment!