Adventures in Getting Married: Handmade Wedding Quilts

Aaron's mom, Kathy Grove, has been quilting for years. Recently she sent us the quilt Aaron used as a boy, which has some really adorable large stitches that he made all by himself.

Not long after Aaron proposed, Kathy offer to make him and me a wedding quilt -- a wedding lap quilt for us  to relax under. What a tremendous gift!

When we were visiting in Iowa over the summer, she and I pored over several quilting design books. She told me all about the different designs she has used and wonderful stories that accompany these designs. In the end, we chose a beautiful block pattern called Maltese Cross, which we saw in a book by Judy Martin. I loved the design pattern because it looked like circles (sort of like a traditional wedding quilt,) but was made out of a variety of non-circular shapes!  We looked through a variety of fabrics, and I got to pick out my favorites.

After a very busy summer, and a fabulous wedding, a very large package arrived in the mail from Iowa. Inside the package was not one, but two (TWO!) beautiful lap quilts. I have no idea what kind of magic she used to accomplish two quilts -- but it was a remarkably fabulous surprise!

Here are the labels attached to each:

 Making the quilts even more special, Kathy used scraps of material with a loving significance. In the pink quilt, Kathy used a fabulous pink-and-checkerboard fabric which had been left over from an apron she had made in  her junior high home economics class. The blue quilt featured a blue sky fabric, the same fabric which had been used in Aaron's college log cabin quilt.

Here are a few more photos, though these pictures certainly do not do them justice.