Way cool!

Very touching story and a lovely quilt. You've inspired me to do a simular project.

you took the words right out of my brain!

such a gorgeous quilt, and such a beautiful story!

Very nice I can't wait to see the finished quilt!! :thumbup: :XD:

This is gorgeous! I'm sorry about your cut finger and how it will delay you somewhat, but you've done an amazing job so far!

K

very good idea nice blocks

I had not seen this before either. So glad that I found it today. What an inspiration. We are celebrating our 44th anniversary this year, think I could come up with something by the 50th? LOL That's a lot of memories to cover. Thanks for the idea.

Thank you for the story and the pictures. Very lovely.

As a new quilter, I never thought about using quilting blocks to tell a story in a quilt. That is wonderful.

Thank you all so much....I'm so nervous about this project. I found all the blocks at quilters cache and it took me forever looking by titles. Once I get pieces quilted. I'll be able to post in progress pics! All the quilter's on this board keep me so motivated and keep me going. You all keep me so encouraged!

I am so happy that I saw your beautiful blocks and the quilt. What a great story.

What a very unique and lovely gift this will be. A memory quilt of the journey you and your husband have taken thus far. I can't wait to see the completed quilt. :)

What a true expression of love is this quilt you are making. So much thought, effort and work have gone into it. Your man is sure lucky to have you!!! It's a beautiful quilt but not nearly as beautiful as the heart of the woman who is making it. Hugs and smiles.

So happy to have come across your post, I was quickly scrolling down to see your next set of pictures with the stories behind each block. You have a beautiful memory quilt. wishing you many more blessed years ahead. and so sorry about your finger,

Very Beautiful Quilt. Thank you for sharing the pieces and your story.
And from one trucker to another Congratulations!!!

Thank you all agian so much. I hope to start getting some stitching in practicing with other fingers in the next few days.

My husband still trucks, but had to take 2009 off due to his health. When he went back, it's only local and he spends 90 percent of his time at the local terminal doing warehouse stuff and loving it.

Awesome. Had to stop running the road when my little girl was only 1 1/2 years. Was afraid that she would get her finger cut off by the seats. When she would use them to stand up. And then one day her Daddy wouldn't give her what she wanted (not sure what it was either). She reached up and grabbed the the brake button and There we were trying to release the brake and not get run over all at once. She is 20 now. Bless her heart.

What an AWESOME anniversary quilt. Something to always be treasured. Your doing a great job!

Such a beautiful quilt. I never would have thought about using a quilt to tell a story, my story but it makes so much sense. This is an awesome memento you and your family will always have! Thanks for sharing.

WOW. I loved your blocks as I watched you post them.. The quilt is lovely! Congratulations! A wonderful expression of a life filled with love. Blessings

D-Day is just a few weeks away! I made a goal to have all the blocks and sashing quilted by Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is Thursday and I only have 2 1/2 blocks left! I'm going to try and get as many pictures of the quilting as I can, but it's super hard because the backing is hunter green and my stitches are mostly tiny. I've put hundreds of hours just into the quilting. I was laid off this fall, and turned it into extra time to quilt. My fingertips are suffering, but I was able to practice echo quilting for the first time and some blocks are REALLY QUILTED! Not enough room for anything else with all the thread in the blocks.

It's coming along so pretty....I can't wait to show it to all of you! He still hadn't figured it out. I say had because the cat came out of the bag today. I've made it in front of him and quilted it in front of him and he didn't know....it was pretty cool.

I'll post pics soon!

This is such a great idea.....

I'll be waiting to see the pics when it is finished!

Great idea....

Put the last of the quilting stitches into it last weekend. I'm trying to take a bunch of really good pictures that show the quilting. Once I have those set, I'll post the pictures.

Melissa these are so beautiful and so much work...
can't wait to see your finished quilt :)

Thank you Dreamer. I finally realized that he does indeed like it. He's a man of few words when it comes to stuff like that. He posted it on facebook and told all his friends that his mom got me into quilting, which is true. That was when I knew that it meant as much to him as it did to me. I'm meeting with my photographer friend tomorrow....hoping pics are ready.

This is the first time I have seen your post. It is a really neat idea, and I think the quilt looks beautiful. Hope you put your drawings etc in the plastic page saver sleeves and comments on the quilt blocks.
My husband and I met in Omaha, and married there. He grew up in Il afer age 5, I mostly in Iowa. I will be looking forward to see the completed pictures. Congrats on the journey and the quilt.

I'm originally from Illinois. Met my hubby out there. He was born and raised here. I've been out here almost 15 years. Love it. Omaha is home. I'm a city girl in a country girl's body. People from back home can't get over that my nearest neighbors aren't corn or pigs.

He got his book when he got the quilt. He wants it bound over at kinkos or something to make sure it lasts.

FINALLY FINALLY FINALLY FINALLY FINALLY

The "final" installment of pics. My dear friend does a lot of photography, and while she wasn't able to capture the back of EACH block, she did most of them. These are kinda big, but I hope you get the idea. It was really hard to create a different design on the back of each one. Each block was different, but I didn't want to do all SID, I wanted them to be different from eachother.

Lots of hearts, more to experiment with different quilting shapes than the love in this quilt. What I put in on purpose were little melon shapes that look like wedding rings on their sides. In each cornerstone are two of these melon shapes crossed. These mini wedding rings are all over some of these blocks, but I used them in figure 8 format throughout all the sashing pieces and all 4 borders. I hope you enjoy these pics as much as I loved this journey.

Hand drawn crossed melon pieces. I couldn't find my templates, so this was just hand drawn:

[IMG]http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z...sdrawingAS.jpg[/IMG]

These are how big the double melon pieces are:

[IMG]http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z...ringsareAS.jpg[/IMG]

You can see these repeated figure 8's in the border. I showed the front with the sashing, then the back. The colors are really weird. The entire back is dark green flannel.

[IMG]http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z...dbindingAS.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z...ndborderAS.jpg[/IMG]

Here are a couple pics of the label. It says

"No matter what, no matter where, it's always home, when love is there"

Quilt Name: Memories
Made by: Wifey
In the year December 2010
To commemorate our 10th wedding anniversary

[IMG]http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z...1/ASLabel1.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z...1/ASLabel2.jpg[/IMG]

Here are the backs of the blocks. I've labeled each one so you can go look for the pic of the front of the block if you wish. I decided to foray into more than SID for this quilt. Some free hand shapes and templated hearts and melon shapes. Echo pieces....so many backs feel different because there is so much quilting. I've never done anything like this before, so I welcome your feedback. The handquilting took me 4 months. The quilt is 90 inches square. The hearts and melon pieces throughout go up and down, sideways and diagonal. I was playing with placement. There's a corner missing with no quilting in one of the blocks. I cannot remember which one. It has since been fixed.

Streak of Lightening:

[IMG]http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z...teningback.jpg[/IMG]

State of Illinois:

[IMG]http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z...llioisback.jpg[/IMG]

Solitaire:

[IMG]http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z...itaireback.jpg[/IMG]

Union Star:

[IMG]http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z...onStarback.jpg[/IMG]

Patience:

[IMG]http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z...tienceback.jpg[/IMG]

Love in A Mist:

[IMG]http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z...heMistback.jpg[/IMG]

Four on the Road: [IMG]http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z...ithabooboo.jpg[/IMG]

Four Corners:

[IMG]http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z...ornersback.jpg[/IMG]

Pennsylvania:

[IMG]http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z...lvaniaback.jpg[/IMG]

Cross Ball and Chain:

[IMG]http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z...dChainback.jpg[/IMG]

Courthouse Steps:

[IMG]http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z...eStepsback.jpg[/IMG]

Contrary Wife:

[IMG]http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z...rywifeback.jpg[/IMG]

Christmas Star:

[IMG]http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z...asStarback.jpg[/IMG]

Chinese Solitaire:

[IMG]http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z...itaireback.jpg[/IMG]

Card Trick:

[IMG]http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z...dTrickback.jpg[/IMG]

Bridal Path:

[IMG]http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z...alPathback.jpg[/IMG]

Baton Rouge:

[IMG]http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z...nRougeback.jpg[/IMG]

Arrowheads:

[IMG]http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z...wheadsback.jpg[/IMG]

Arkansas Crossroads

[IMG]http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z...sroadsback.jpg[/IMG]

Amish Star

[IMG]http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z...shStarback.jpg[/IMG]

All Ways:

[IMG]http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z...llWaysback.jpg[/IMG]

WOW~~~Melissa
what a wonderful memory piece you have taken your time to make.
You will both look back on this in old age and still have the memories of it.
Loved following the story :)
H*U*G*S

Can't wait for the "rest of the story", the completion of the quilt...all squares are lovely.

I only have a couple pictures of the entire quilt together. Neither of them are good enough to see anything. I tried uploading them and they are just awful. You can see pictures of the full top with the borders on. It's on page 3.

Thank you for your compliments. I learned a TON on this quilt. Lots about points, general piecing, cutting accurately and quilting. This quilt transformed me and I may be past a beginner now.

What a wonderful job you have done on this! I hope your DH appreciates it!