Flights of Fancy

Today we went up to spend the day with Grandma and Grandpa Ross.  We haven't been up for more than a month--life is busy, for them and for us!--and we had a few specific tasks we wanted to accomplish.  Bradley wanted to talk genealogy and get some of Eva's documents scanned, and Eva and I wanted to select the fabric for the quilt she is making for our family.

George and Eva are planning to go on another mission--a six-month, close to home type this time--and Eva expects a fair amount of downtime in the evenings, especially if they are called to Cove Fort, as they hope. She is going to make each of the families a gorgeous, hand-embroidered display quilt. She gave a bunch of choices, and both Nicole (Bradley's just older sister) and I liked the one called "Flights of Fancy" the best.  Eva said she didn't mind doing it twice, so, yay!

(In case you are wondering, Bradley doesn't have an opinion on any of this.  So he gave me carte blanche to pick whatever I thought best.)

It's a little hard to see on the picture, but each light-colored square has a bird embroidered on it.  Nicole chose to have hers done in reds, and some of her fabric (Eva was showing me today) is soooo gorgeous.  I decided to go for antique golds, greens, and browns, with just a hint of deep reds.  The birds are going to be in a rich dark brown.  We went through Eva's fabric today, and picked out nine types for the patchwork, and then we traipsed over to a quilt store to find the border (the wide flowery thing) and the stop border (the lighter colored square framing the patchwork and birds).  I wish I could describe the border fabric we found--it is patterned with blowing grasses and is just amazing.

My mother-in-law is an incredibly talented quilter, and she has already made several of these types of quilts for her own walls.  I would have never asked her to make one for us--I know how much time and work they must be--but I couldn't be more thrilled that she offered.  Obviously it is going to take her quite some time to create all of these, but I can't wait to see it on the wall of my (future, someday) new house!