This is the first quilt I made, hand-stitched and hand quilted. I call it my 17 year quilt because it took me that long to complete it. I first saw this quilt in a Herrschnerr's catalog when I was 14 years old (called an "American Sampler Quilt"), and fell in love with it. When I was 24 and working full-time, I ordered the quilt top with the DMC thread kit in blues/magenta/greens to do the cross-stitching (I'm so glad that I didn't get the golds/greens kit!), and started working on it. Then we moved, I had a child, got divorced, moved, moved, stopped working, got remarried, started college full-time, had another child, stopped college, and moved again. I completed the quilt top while living in England, bought a king-size flat sheet and lots of batting (3 layers in all), basted the quilt together and started hand quilting it using a hoop. Then we moved back to the states and I started college full-time (14-18 units year round to get through), completed a bachelor's and master's degree, went back to work, moved again, and finally completed the quilt in 1996. Of course, during the 17 years the quilt spent quite a bit of time put away in boxes and moving around the world.
Of course, I did lots of things that the quilt police would frown on while making this quilt (too much batting, using a sheet for the backing, stab stitching instead of rocking), but I love this quilt. I proudly use it on my bed for now (it's not quite large enough to drape properly on the CA King we have, so I have another one in the works and this will be displayed proudly somewhere else in the house).
