Kelly’s “college” quilt:16 years in the making

Back in 1995 Kelly decided that it was time to give up the flying business and go back to school, finish his undergraduate degree in music & get the teacher certification that he’d started in the late 70s.

To that end, he spent a year at Yukon College filling in the GUR gaps with 100 & 200 level courses and was making plans to either go back to Western in Bellingham (where he started the degree) or to transfer the credits to the University of Alaska and finish up there.

Either route would take him away from home for one – two years, coming home for the summer & mid-year holidays. So I decided to make him a quilt to keep him company, and to keep him wrapped up and warm in something created by my hands.

Michael helped me choose the pattern, and we chose stars because I’d just finished Michael’s “sky at night” quilt, and because Kelly loves astronomy, and well…because we just liked them.

We chose the colours red, white & blue because Kelly would be going to school in the States.

I finished the quilt top pretty quickly, and began the hand quilting. I was about 50% finished when Kelly decided that he wasn’t ready to give up on the flying industry after all and cancelled his university plans to stay home and go back to the air. With the deadline to finish the project gone, the quilt went on the shelf and there it sat.

Oh, of course I’d take it down and poke away at it now and again, but for the most part it remained incomplete. Until this summer. This summer I finished it!

The entire thing is hand quilted. Yes – HAND QUILTED. As in “by hand!” “By me!”

Now that’s called a labour of love.

This quilt inspected and approved by Samson.