HAPPY BIRTHDAY & Quilt adventures in Wool!

Last Thursday was my birthday! My dad would say I'm celebrating the anniversary of my 29th Birthday! Someone reminded my mom - she always forgets, Seriously! My husband didn't forget! I got this awesome cake YUMMO! on a Happy Birthday Plate which came from none other than L.A. Burdick. http://www.burdickchocolate.com/ Go there I insist! Burdick is the best chocolate shop in New Hampshire and one of the top chocolate shops in New England. Trust me on this - I'm a Chocolate Expert!

YEAH!!

But enough about me - I started this project as a gift for my husbands' Birthday in February and just finished it. So I thought I would show it to you. It's a Wool Quilt. A really heavy quilt, because it gets really cold in Vermont. The wool blocks came from Johnson Woolen Mills. This mill, located in Johnson, Vermont has been in business since 1842. They have some very distinct plaids, and they make the warmest wool. I love in my warm wool pants from Johnson. The farmers used to bring their wool to the mill to have it woven into cloth. Here's their link: http://www.johnsonwoolenmills.com/. So I've taken the cloth and cut it into 6.5" X 6.5" blocks. I've stitched all the blocks together into rows, then each row stitched to each row. I backed the quilt with a very warm heavy weight and fuzzy flannel (gray).Here you are looking at all the quilt blocks, the two pieces of wool edging (black and Red) then the white is quilt batting and the gray is the flannel backing so you don't get itchy from the wool. The batting in between adds some extra weight to the fabric. (This is the kind of quilt that weighs 10lbs). So you can cuddle under it and keep nice and warm on a cold snowy night! So I've put all the blocks together, stiched at 5/8" seam. Then for the edging took made 1 1/4" for the edges (sewn on the bias as needed). I added both red and black for impact. I like the corners mitered (shown here). When you put a quilt together, you use ALOT of safety pins.


Did I mention when you put a quilt together you use alot of safety pins? You need alot more, when you quilt with Wool rather than normal cotton, because the quilt is so heavy all the layers try to move all over!

After I put all the rows together, I stitched each block in the ditch through all the layers on each block. I also stitched the ditch around the outer edges of the quilt to keep it in place.

Just for affect, I used some quilt ties (looks more authentic)!

So it's a few month late, but here is the finished product! Here's something to keep my honey warm in the winter! I love you Dan- Happy belated Birthday!

If this whole project seems too over-whelming, feel free to call Johnson Woolen Mills. They had some for sale for a while. I think they sell them in limited editions!