I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to work on this quilt. It was a lovely process to work with L and I'm so happy with how it all came together. It turned out even more beautiful than I imagined it would be. It's a queen size custom panel memory quilt, which is the largest I've made to date. Although my long arm is large enough for me to quilt a quilt that size, it turns out it's hard for me to get a photograph it. Normally my partner holds up the quilts for me outside so that I can grab some photographs, but this quilt is far too big for him to do that. Our house also isn't the largest so we did our best and hopefully the photos I got give an idea of the details involved.
The garden is filled with an assortment of colourful flowers. I made a number of appliques and various types of flowers as well as a custom applique based on a photo of V, the little girl who will be receiving this quilt shortly. There are also a number of appliques that came from items of clothing like the cute little bunnies and deer and the lion sitting amongst the flowers (such adorable clothes).
I often name the quilts I make and when I was working on this one I felt a name come to me. When my beloved grandma died, I held on to a few of her records. You know I'm nostalgic and I wanted to have something that she had held and listened to. I love the tactile feeling of putting a record on, the need to get up and flip it over, the sound of the crackles and the occasional skip when one of my kids gets too rowdy or starts busting out some major dance moves. I also love knowing that she did the exact same thing, she touched those records, she listened to that same record. One of the albums is Elvis Presley with the song 'In The Garden' on it. After talking with this family I felt it was a fitting song, and they happily agreed it was a fit.
