The top is finished!!!!

here it is ---


Off to the US this week and will buy backing fabric there, then have to decide --- do I try and quilt it (gulp!) or send it to my favorite long-arm quilter; she is suffering some health problems at the moment, so would likely be gone awhile if I go that route. Oh, but the quilting would sing if so!

Dilemma, dilemma.....will ponder, check with her, etc. and decide. Will buy the backing large enough to send to her just in case.

Many thanks for all the encouragement along the way!

Thanks Heather -

Neat to hear your quilts story, I've not done been doing that I should.

Barb

What a fabulous story/diary quilt. Soooo cool
Thank you for sharing it with us!

awww, thanks guys! Norma, no worries, the blog is there whenever -- I'm very wordy, so it's long! I originally posted each story behind each block as I first made the block, thus they tended to get long......I also wrote different letters to the individuals relating to each block, with a photo of their block. It was so so so fun to incorporate all of this into a quilt; this was the project that made me really want to try quilting --- an aunt and cousin made a Diary Quilt (using the same book) for another cousin, and I thought, "That's a neat idea.......if I quilted, I would like to do that..." Then I made a quilt block for Joyce (which was hilarious, I was so clueless), then thought "that wasn't so hard...." and got a jelly roll and a pattern for the red, white & blue, and then bought the Diary Quilt book and started that. I worked on those 2 projects at the same time. I'm a born story-teller, talker, artist, etc. (well, creative, not super artistic, though my grandma is) so this was a good way to join all my interests into one project.

I'm starting the next-to-last border today, and had a brainstorm for the outer/final border, need to work it in EQ7 and see if I have enough fabric to manage it. My hubby will be *thrilled* if I don't have to buy any fabric for the borders! So far so good.....all comes to that last one. We shall see.

And -- one thing I love --- the longer I quilt, the more people that Ohio Star/Tribute to my Quilting Mentors/Friends block comes to represent. Might have to put a little TQS symbol in there when I quilt it, to signify all of you! I could never pull most of this off without your help and encouragement, guys!

Heather, this is a touching story. I regret having not read your blog. I will some day in near future. You have done an amazing job. Really an artists statement.

Thank you for sharing a part of you with us Heather.

Wow, such a treasure this quilt

What an amazing life story you have sewn into your quilt, and thanks for sharing it with us.

Zarah wrote:
The (very very long) long version is on my quilting blog, if you want to read all you ever wanted to know about me and then some, LOL!

for the short version, you can read just the titles and the little intro about each row, at this link:

http://quiltingonawhim.blogspot.com.br/p/the-diary-quilt.html

for the long version, you can click the title of each block and read the full story about every block (I wrote up each block as I made it originally)

For the medium version, in case you don't want to click out to my blog, here's the basics....

Airplane block --- this is for my paternal Grandpa; he had a plane all my growing up years and we used to go flying, often. The (barely visible) tail of the plane has his plane's call numbers on it.

Christmas Star --- for Christmases spent with my paternal Grandma/Grandpa, and all the family.

Delectable Mountain --- camping with my dad. I put the orange triangle among the trees on the mountain to represent our orange tent. We camped with Dad every summer growing up, sometimes more than once/year, always to far away places.

Music symbols --- my mom. She loves music, and also used to do cross stitch & embroidery, so this made sense. I hand embroidered it, no hoop, 'cause I didn't know I was supposed to, LOL! I had never embroidered anything before (well the numbers on the tail of the plane are also embroidered).

Broken Dishes (the gray/black/red/green one) --- represents my parents' divorce, when I was 10

Crayon Box -- the obvious I *love* color. As a kid, I always had a new box of crayons. Into my teens/college years, I got a collector's tin every year at Christmas.

Puss in the Corner --- for my (late) stepMOM, Kelly, who loved cats, loved me, and brought much joy to my life

Thrifty (red/tan/"live, laugh, love") --- this was a tribute to my grandma again (same one) and to my (late) uncle Ron; we used to go "thrifting" -- aka, shopping at resale shops in Houston. Many Mondays in the summers, she would pick me up (sometimes my sister also), and we'd meet my uncle at a resale shop near his home and off we'd all go, searching for clothes, antiques, etc.

Card Tricks --- for my highschool sweetheart, who I"m now married to We began our friendship/pre-dating over a very long, on-going, informal "tournament" of the game Speed. We had lunch together, and played a few hands one day, in which he beat me 3 out of 5 games. So we extended to best 5 out of 7, and then best 7 out of 9, etc.... as we kept flip-flopping who was ahead. Three months later, 150 games in, he asked me to be his girlfriend and we declared the tournament over, though neither of us remembers or will admit the score.

Jewel Box --- (the turquoise, red & gray one) --- my Grandma (same one, again....) owns an Art Gallery in the Houston area that specializes in Native American art, including a strong focus on unique pieces of Native American jewelry (contemporary and traditional); it was my "2nd home" for years, and my first job, starting at age 15 and continuing through high school, weekends home during college, and then helping out "as needed" once I graduated/married/etc. I still help out sometimes.

Compass --- "finding my way" --- just represents the journey from kid to adult, and self-discovery we all go through during those late teen/early 20s years, for me, during college and a summer working at a church in New York.

True Loves Knot -- well, just what it says marrying my high school sweetheart & one true love.

V Block -- our last name begins with V, and also there are 5 of us so I sometimes say "just the V of us" (ala Roman Numerals), so this is one V in each of our colors (each person had his/her own color in the quilt) (well, the kids had 2 colors each), with the top V being a combo of DH & myself, then one V each for each of our 3 boys.

New Home --- because we move. A lot. Right now, 10th home in not-quite 16 yrs of married life.

Moon in the Window --- my oldest son; Sunburst --- my middle son (this is the block you all helped me with so much! I wound up piecing the sunburst itself, then appliqueing it to the background because I could NOT get Y seams to work out right); Evening Star -- my youngest son

---

when my oldest was born, I added verses to "You Are My Sunshine" (or changed the chorus, really) to include one about a moonbeam, and one about starlight. As the other boys were added, each one sort of became associated with a symbol, and they each know their symbol, what it means, etc. I used the colors of their birthstones, again, they know these colors and will often sign cards to me with their symbol drawn in their color. Also, I picked Evening Star because my 3rd son was the only one born at night

Pets Improv Block --- again, pretty obvious; just a tribute to all the many pets we've had over the years. Boys = animal collectors, LOL.

Ocean Waves, Books, Circle of Friends --- the stuff that makes me, me. I grew up near the water, so ocean/salt water is part of my DNA, or the DNA of my soul. Books, same thing. I've been a reader forever, and many of my best friends live inside books Circle of Friends is for those friends who don't live in a book, LOL.

Strength in Union -- did this half in US colors, half Brazil colors, for "a Texan in Brazil" because Brazil has definitely left its mark on me.

Ohio Star -- tribute to my closest friend, Joyce/She-Quilts, and all the quilting mentors/friends in my life, and my new love of quilting.

Trip Around the World --- sums up my love of travel, and that my travels aren't over yet

Dream Weaver --- using the colors from my boys' blocks, to show that while of course I still have dreams of my own, I am busy right now weaving together the dreams my boys have, and that just as my past is a part of me, my future (through my boys) is a part of me too. Something like that....it's hard to put this one into words, but just showing how my dreams are woven into their dreams, and their dreams into my dreams, and, well, I think if you are a mom or dad you get what I'm trying to say.

Whew! So, there it is! The antique block in the top row was made by the mom of the Grandpa of the Airplane block. Some blocks were easy to come up with, some hard, but I love love love this quilt. I plan to print up a photo book with each block and its story for my boys, so they'll each have that as well one day and the stories will remain with the quilt.

The blog posts have much greater detail, if anyone wants to read the full stories

Ditto to what Renata & Norma said. Loving this quilt!

and I agree with the other comments. Will you reveal the story this quilt is telling some day? I'm curious about the blocks telling what?

Heather, I agree with Renata beautiful quilt and so much family history!!

Love the way its turning out!

Barb

That is one beautiful quilt, Heather, and the fact that it carries so much of a legacy from the past and into the future is heartwarming to those of us who read about it and, I'm sure that sentiment will carry this quilt through beyond our time. You've done so fantastically since we started following your journey! I am so impressed with what you've done to-date!

Added a "top row" which makes the quilt a rectangle instead of a square, which is MUCH better for me as far as borders go, and now I think I know what I'm doing with borders

The top row incorporates an antique block, made by my grandpa's mom; the other blocks mimic her block but use the colors that represent each member of my family --- L to R is a joint block for my husband & myself, then my husband's color, then the antique block which "just to happens" to be my color, then each of my 3 sons in order. Whew! Just enough! It was meant to have another combo block on the edge, but I think the EQ7 measured it differently than I did, LOL. So, this works

Now I will add a solid navy border, then a piano key scrappy border, and then a solid black/gray/navy/something, I think. Sort of feeling my way through.....

Picture is looking from the side, showing that top row; the pink/off-white is the antique block and you can just make out the quilting in it (the block is cut from the whole quilt, so has the backing, quilting in tact, etc. and I appliqued it to a background piece of black using a narrow but tight zig-zag stitch so I wouldn't lose any of the block in the seam allowances and also to stabilize it).