Dear Daughter

During my hiatus I started working on a quilt that made me think about Brianna. It’s called the “Dear Daughter” quilt. I believe I started in sometime in 2018, and it is finally complete!

I love the patchwork look to this quilt and the variety of colors that came with the pattern. It was a 12 month subscription, of course life happens, and I ended up taking much longer than a year to piece this one to completion. The subscription was available through Stitchin Heaven, they are based out of Texas. I will say that if I had not chosen the block of the month option, this quilt could have easily been pieced using scraps from my fabric stash. Which I’m sure most quilters and sewers know, you end up having way more in your scrap and stash pile than you’d like to admit too!

As each month came, I looked forward to seeing what block I got to conquer and what cute and beautiful fabrics were to come. It is filled with extremely appropriate phrases like, choose happiness, have courage, and love deeply. I find that my favorites are the be kind, go wander and in particular with brave wings, she flies. This one more so, since Brianna is our angel now.

The main reason this quilt took so much time was due to the intricacy of each block. I learned many new techniques that I had not known beforehand. This is the first real applique I have ever done and I have found that I really enjoy it. It is quite rewarding in the end. Having to trace the words and shapes onto the steam-a-seam 2 fusible web, was time-consuming. I quickly realized that I could print right onto the fusible web and just copied everything that I needed directly to the sheets. The hard part was remembering to adhere it to the wrong side of the fabric so that the words were not backward. I made this mistake several times! Lucky for me I realized it before I pressed with my iron and stitched them in place. I also learned English paper piecing. I did not enjoy this as much, but can really appreciate the technique now that I have had to do it.

A while back I purchased a box of small spools of Gutterman thread. It had a variety of colors and happened to be at a very good price a Joann Fabric. After I purchased it and got home, I thought what was I going to do with this, as it was an impulsive purchase. I had not started quilting, the thought had not even entered my mind when I bought it. Thank goodness I did, it came in so handy when attaching the applique. I had every color I needed to match the phrases and shapes. It was fate!

With the quilt being finished, I attached my usual label, added a poem about daughters and a name label for Brianna. We have decided that this quilt will be a family heirloom. Hopefully, our son will have a daughter someday and I will add a name label for her and then her daughter and so on. This quilt has definitely been a labor of love and quite therapeutic. I have shed some tears piecing this one together. It really is fitting for Brianna. I asked my husband yesterday if he thought Brianna would like it and he assured me that she loves it. We will cherish this quilt while we have it and hope that our future grandchildren (hopefully, not until Logan is done with college and married!) will as well.