I started working on this quilt six years ago, and now at last I’m finished.

When I started this quilt, John was a sophomore in high school. Now, John is a senior in college, and he is engaged to Bridget and I just designed the Save the Date card for their wedding.

Kim was not yet pregnant with Brock. Yesterday, Kim and Bob registered Brock for kindergarten.

I didn’t have much graphic design education six years ago, though I had taken something like nine semesters of life drawing.

I hadn’t met Tracy Harris when I started this quilt. I hadn’t taken a class from Mike Martin.

I was working at Land’s End in Cross Plains saying “Welcome to Land’s End, this is Ann, how may I help you?” about fifty times a day. During that time, I bought all the sheets and towels I would need for another fifteen years. I really loved doing that. When I got married I didn’t have a wedding shower and all our sheets and towels were from the Land’s End returns store and had other people’s initials embroidered on them. I hated that.

I painted watercolor paintings a lot more in those days, but I cried about it a lot. My paintings were never as good as I wanted them to be.

I didn’t take as many pictures.

I still thought DIY home improvement projects were awesome. But somewhere in the middle of the six years, I stripped all the paint from our porch ceilings with zip strip and a heat gun. Worst. Experience. Ever. I will DIY no more forever. I won’t even let my husband do things.

So a lot has happened since I started making this quilt. That makes me love it more, because when I look at it I think of all those things and I’m happy.