Remodeling

Recently, or I guess it has now been a couple of years ago, I remodeled my childhood home.  I moved into this house when I was in second grade, grew up here, married living close by.  After my father passed away, my mom followed the tradition of don’t make any major decisions/changes for a year.  When she was ready to move to a smaller place,  I was still adjusting to loosing my dad and didn’t want to also part with the house I grew up in, so with a growing family I bought the house. Ironically we moved in when my oldest son was in second grade.

He came home from school and told me his P.E. teacher was a real old lady. Yes, you guessed it, she was the same P.E. teacher that I had and I didn’t think she looked a day older.

We raised our kids in this house. They all attended the same schools that my sister and brothers attended. The kids hunted Easter eggs in the same yard as I did, celebrated Christmas just as I did and now their kids are making new memories in this house.

Something as simple as playing hide and go seek wasn’t going to work for them. I knew all the hiding spots. Been there, done that!

 

So what does this story have to do with this quilt?

There is a builder that has been revitalizing our little town with wonderful new homes all throughout the community. He doesn’t do remodels!!  I talked him into doing a little remodel and I had plenty of time for him to do the work in between his new builds. He tried and tried to talk me into leveling the house and building new, but I didn’t have the pocketbook for that. The remodel turned into a much bigger project with slab leaks, electric rewiring, in addition to what was already planned and budgeted for. Remember, he doesn’t do remodels!

So what does this story have to do with this quilt?

This builder happened to be one of my neighbors growing up. He was from a large family and all the neighborhood kids were always at his house. So maybe I guilt-ed him into doing the work, but I knew I could trust him and he knew the history of our house and family.

So I decided to make his family a quilt as a Thank You. They are big fans of the show Fixer Upper, so I went with greys and whites, grunges and crossweaves and any other texture type print I could find.

The triangles are all going upwards as symbolism of all the hard work his family has done in our community. I built each piece one by one.

There is half a row of triangles going in the opposite direction so he can remember, 2 steps forward and 1 step backwards when helping out an old childhood friend making her wish’s come true.  Thanks Todd!!

Used  Moda Snuggles on the back. All the flying geese shapes were made with Bloc Loc rulers, FG4 x 8 and FG2 x 4.

                                   If you have not used any of the Bloc-Loc rulers yet, I highly recommend them.
They will be a basic in your quilting tool box.

 

-modalissa

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11 comments

  1. Little Quiltsong says:

    Loved your blog post, and the beautiful quilt you made as a thank you!! A treasure – as I’m sure your remodeled house is!

  2. Linzee says:

    Oh, my gosh, Lissa. This is an amazing story! I had no idea you lived in your childhood home. How incredible that your childhood memories and those of your kids intertwine. And the quilt story (and symbolism) is perfect. Didn’t think I could like you even more than I did, but I do! Thanks for sharing this.

  3. Karen Thompson says:

    Lovely story!
    I have a question. I am in the process of doing a similar quilt, but I didn’t think I could get the flying geese units to but up against each other vertically because of bulky seams. How did you press you seams? I want them to nest but the geese need to be flying the same direction. I used the no waste method for my geese.
    And I LOVE my Bloc Loc FG ruler

  4. Mary Andra says:

    Loved your story of your childhood home. My family also tried to keep our older family homes. Three different towns on Long Island. One our mom grew up in, one our dad and his dad built and last was the house my siblings and I grew up in. We were successful for many many years until work took all of us to other states. Your story brought back many heartfelt memories. Thank you Lissa.

    Your thank you quilt is fabulous.

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