Yes, I know it's March, but our girl was home for a few days and I finally had an extra quilt holder to get a picture of this quilt so you get a Christmas quilt post in March, plus the story of why I made it.
It all started 30 years ago. :) Cutting a tree for Christmas has always been a family tradition. When we were first married, we ran a ranch that didn't have many trees so sometimes we had a Christmas bush. :) One year we kept procrastinating and when we finally cleared some time to get a tree, we had a blizzard. Christmas has never been about the presents. I don't need presents and it's not about the tree either, but I need a tree. :) So we shoveled through cattle guards with fence high snow
to fetch a tree:
When we lived in West Texas, we lived and ranched in the mountains. Yes, Texas has mountains. And when December rolled around, we always looked forward to trekking up Mount Annie which was on the ranch:
and choosing the family tree.
I was always thankful that DH was at the wheel because it was a precarious climb: It was one of our favorite traditions and even in July, we would spot a beautiful tree and exclaim that it was perfect for our next Christmas tree.
Those are treasured memories
When we moved from Texas and left our dear mountains, we were devastated. And that's not an understatement. It was a hard transition and we missed our mountains.
We were loath to leave behind our Christmas tree tradition so we drove to the nearest mountains, 2 hours away, and continued our old tradition in a new place:
Bonus: my in-laws live there and we get to descend upon them and raid Granny's kitchen that always includes something delicious from the oven!
And I discovered that those new memories are just as precious as the old ones! So this quilt is a reminder of those special times and I knew I wanted to make it the minute I saw it online:
It's in this book:
I pulled all the reds and greens from my stash that felt like they belonged in this quilt in 2012. The stack on the right is also for a project I haven't started yet. :)
And enjoyed piecing each and every tree
Jackie's daughter, Sandy, quilted this pretty holly motif in all the trees:
And the Puss n' Boots blocks were stitched with a gorgeous snowflake:
I loved the plaid for the border when I found it and Sandy added these fun stars:
It finishes at 80" x 94". She did a beautiful job on it and finally it is finished!
