What's on Your Bed?

One of the blogs I read is by Suzanne Earley, a quilting book author and head of the Machine Quilters Resource webring. She encouraged other quilting bloggers to post photographs of the quilts that are on our beds. I happen to have some photographs handy of our bed at home and also in the mountain cabin. So, here goes:

The quilt on our bed at home is a blue and white sampler. I got twelve of the blocks on an Internet swap way back when Al Gore first invented the Internet! I saved them for years trying to think of what to do with them. Finally I arranged them so that the quilt would work as a topper across our king-sized bed. In other words, wider than it is tall. I made some more of the twelve-inch blocks, then created lots of eight-point stars for the sides and a narrow border for the top and bottom. Notice I left lots of white space for when I became confident with my new Gammill Classic longarm quilting machine! I finally got it quilted in 2005. You can see more pictures of it in my Webshots album.

The funny thing about this quilt is the fact that it is blue and white. My husband and I both attended North Carolina State University, whose colors are red and white. The two schools which are the arch enemies are University of North Carolina (light blue and white) and Duke (royal blue and white.) So, to make this quilt acceptable, I put the NCSU wolf logo in the window of the house block, and named the quilt Go Wolfpack!

The piece de resistance of this room, however, is not the bed quilt, but the mountain mural above the bed which serves as our headboard. My father, artist Pete Turner, painted this tranquil scene to hang over the kitchen dining nook in our home in Cary when there were nine of us gathered around. I guess anything that created a sense of serenity was welcome in that household! When Dad moved out of the family home two years ago, I spent weeks helping him pack and get settled in his new place. One of my rewards was this painting, which I adore. It reminds me so much of the farmland in Ashe County, where we have our cabin. Actually, it was based on a landscape featured in a Vermont magazine. Every night we can dream that we are in the mountains!

And, when we actually are in the mountains, this is our little nest. I made the quilt, called Olde is New, at a Capital Quilters Guild workshop by the same name. I can't remember the instructor's name, but we swapped repro-style fabrics and made nine-patch squares. This quilt was on one of our guest beds at home for years, but when we finished the cabin this summer, it found a new home. I like the subtle soft tones against the wood of the room.

Let me just say, I love both of our beds. You cannot spend any better money than to purchase the finest mattress and box springs that you can possibly afford. Then, get a padded mattress cover and some high-thread count satiny sheets, a down comforter, down pillows, and a lovely quilt to go on top.

"Oh bed, oh bed,

Oh delicious bed,

That heaven on earth

To the weary head!"

-Thomas Hood