Memories- Christmas in October?

Dear Blog-
I promise that I haven't forgotten or given up on you. These last couple months and especially the last couple weeks, have been filled with other wonderful things. I hope that you can for give me in neglecting you. I will do better from now on. Common on..its my favorite time of year!
More blogs soon,
Sarah

So, as you can tell, I have been preoccupied as of late. Hayley and I have been working since April, but especially hard these last couple weeks on a quilt for my mom. We wanted to do a quilt that would show her how much we appreciate all she has done for us, all the memories we have made together as a family, and all the things she has taught us over the years.

We started talking in April about what we wanted to include on the quilt. By June, we started sewing. Hayley was the first to start on a square and have it completed. We took our time and slowly the squares began to be completed. In total, there are 25 squares.
They are as follows:
-Braden Reed (the grand kids each have a square in the four corners with their hand prints),
-Tom would take us to the hospital to visit babies when we were little..it made the quilt
-when we were little, our parents didn't have furniture in the living room..it was used as our playroom and we had 2 balance beams
- We loved to wear dresses when we were little and jellies (wonderful shoes)
-Gracie Christine
-Alaska- the cruise with a whale tail
-EVBC- the church's early logo
-Mom and Tom's Anniversary
-Cheer
-A letter from me
-my mom would take us to the grocery store with her. Hayley and I would follow her through the store reading our books
-2071 E. La Jolla Dr- our home for 20 years!!!
-the center square simply read: Shrader Family Memories
-Hayley's and my anniversary
-Disneyland for all our wonderful trips
-A letter from Hayley
-RN and NUC MED- our graduation squares
-our family- everyone drawn to look like a family picture
-Sea Ranch- wonderful family vacations
-Summers Swimming- we would swim from sunrise to sunset, everyday in the summer, it is a square with Hayley, Shannon, and me on rafts in the pool
-Yale James
-a square with all of our pets growing up...and there were a lot
-Christmas-so many wonderful memories of that special time of year
-Iowa Hawkeyes- wonderful fall traditions
-Reagan Mercy

I spoke with Shannon and her mom early on in the process. They agreed to help us put the quilt together once we had all the pieces. The plan was to have Shannon come to Phoenix on Friday, we would work all day Saturday and give her the quilt during halftime of the Iowa game on Saturday. It sounded like a great plan. The game was at 6pm Central time!!! That makes for kick off at 4pm.

Along with the quilt, we made a scrapbook. We wanted mom to be able to share in all that we had been working on. It has pictures of our counters filled with fabric and basically the making of her quilt. Then, every square got a page of the book. We were able to share with her why we picked that square as a memory or why it was special to us. We also put pictures of the memory. We had pictures of us walking on the balance beam, on the beach at Sea Ranch, swimming in the pool etc. It was a lot of work, but fun to reminisce as well.

Friday, Shannon drove over from California. Shannon and her mom were gracious enough to help us put this together. We met at Shannon's parents home at 6pm. We started working and were able to finish the top of the quilt by 1am! Yikes! We got a little sleep and were back at 9am. We worked hard and the quilt and scrapbook were finished around 3pm. 13 hours later..one beautiful quilt.

We were so excited to give her the quilt and we also didn't want to ruin the surprise so we gave it to her on Saturday. Our family all came together at Hayley's house to watch the Iowa game. During halftime, we gave her the quilt. There were lots of cameras flashing and video cameras rolling. I think she was very overwhelmed. Of coarse, she loved it. We took pictures and told her all the stories we had of her almost seeing parts of the quilt or telling her about it. It was a wonderful time. I think the more she looks at it, the more she loves it.

Thank you to Shannon, her family and her mom for helping us make our square turn into a great quilt. Thank you to Aunt Susan for sending fabric from Iowa. Thank you Mrs. Taylor for help with the pictures. Thank you Tom for getting pictures while you were sick. Thank you to Tyler and Tim for watching the kids. Thank you kids for putting up with all your mom's hard work. Thank you Hayley for helping me with yet another crazy idea. You worked really hard, stuck with it, tried new things and it all paid off. Thank you mom for your hard work, sacrifice, and love through the years. We love you so much!

Here are the pictures from the weekend! Enjoy!

Getting Started




Hayley Working





Me working



Shannon's Mom, Carol putting some pieces together




And Shannon working too!




The first night complete with the top of the quilt finished!



The next day, once the top was finished, the bottom and batting were cut, we took it all outside to put it on a quilting frame and began to tie it together. It was fun to look across the street and see our old house!









Hayley and Shannon rolling the edge of the quilt




I stitched all the way around it and...tada! It was finally finished!




Starting the BIG REVEAL



What is it?



You girls made this?



Reagan helping Nana look at the book and the quilt



Sisters making sure we caught it all on camera



Are you getting all this?




Sisters exhausted after a long week..but worth every minute!



The three girls with their kids: Braden(3), Hayley, Yale(2), Shannon, Jack(14mon), Gracie(2 1/2), Me, and Reagan(17mon)



A good look at the squares




Mom and her girls with her wonderful quilt!!!



Wow! That was a lot! Mom, I know you loved your quilt. It was so much fun to work on this project and even more fun to give it to you.

More updates to come from the last month. Hope everyone has a wonderful week and a Happy Halloween!!! Love