Funny What Makes a Quilt a Favorite

I just love it when hunting season arrives, don't you?

This is quite possibly my favorite quilt and it completely amuses me that my husband would mis-abuse it so badly when he knows how much I cherish it.*snort  It's just one of many to him!  I started this quilt in November of 2006 when all my sisters and I took my mom to Bandon, Oregon for her 60th birthday.  Including one sister-in-law, we were a party of 8 women (and 3 babies who were deemed too young to be left with daddy).  I asked everyone to please write something about our weekend on a small cream piece of fabric.  No big, right?  It was a special weekend, we were having fun, etc. etc.  NO, not my sisters.  Grumbles, moans and sniveling, and in some cases outright rebellion.  Too cheesy, mushy and too much opportunity for embarrassment!  In the end I resorted to begging them to please, PLEase at the very least sign their name and write in 'Bandon, OR' and the date.  So, my little keepsake quilt idea had been blown to pieces.  Arrghhh!  It took me another year or so before I came up with another plan, which cracked me up the entire time I was working on it, because I knew my sisters would not be happy with me for forging ahead.  I carefully cut up each of the cream squares that I had to work with and incorporated them into a new and (quite by chance, although I'd never admit that to them) better plan.  If you look closely, you'll see that the little cream berries are filled with handwritten names, dates and other words.  I laugh every time I think about taking their stingily given words and cutting them up! I love my mom and sisters to pieces and this just adds an extra dollop of sentiment to the quilt for me of course.

Thanks for being so stubborn girls!  You're the best.:)

*By the way, this quilt pattern is actually two 'Whimsical' patterns (one for layout design and the other had an applique pattern I liked better) plus an extra border I thought the quilt needed at the last minute.