My New, Old Quilt

Back in 1999 I started teaching myself to quilt. Now, I'm not one of those intelligent people who picks a new hobby and starts small for my first project. No, I decided that my first quilt would be queen size to fit my bed. I purchased the book, "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Quilting" and picked my first pattern, a Double Nine Patch. Back then I had very little quilting knowledge, and rudimentary quilting tools. I drew each of the over 400 blocks by hand, with a ruler and pencil, onto my fabric, and then painstakingly cut out each one. And, as if that weren't punishment enough, I pieced the entire quilt together by hand and then also hand quilted and finished it. (With a newborn child to take care of as well!) I know you must be thinking, "Oh, poor thing didn't have a sewing machine." No, I just wanted the satisfaction of making something completely with my own hands. About a year later I finally completed my first quilt. I can remember being ecstatic---I think we even celebrated by going out to dinner! : ) But, my enthusiasm was curbed when I went to spread my newest masterpiece on our bed. ***It was too small*** Our bed has a double pillow-top mattress and I now know that I have to buy king sized items to fit it. Honestly, at the time I was a little relieved because now I would not have to worry about something happening to it! But, it did feel like a shame for it to be hidden away. My good friend Rachel gave me a quilt rack and my quilt has graced that piece of furniture for the last 7 years. Until today, that is. I was looking at my quilt today when the idea came to me. We had to put all of our furniture into storage when we moved here, so we are sleeping on a government mattress. As you can imagine, this does not come with frills like pillow-tops. So I thought maybe, just maybe, my quilt would fit on this bed. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it fit perfectly. Now I just need to get some new sheets----I don't think the red really matches!