A Berry Special Gift

Mom loves to pick berries–especially wild strawberries!  Ever had one?  If not, it is a delicacy to behold!

These teeny, tiny little berries are packed with unrivaled flavor and sweetness. 

Every Christmas, we each get a small jar of wild strawberry jam.  It is such a treat!  Wild strawberry jam is great on toast, let’s say mid-January when the snow is blowing and we get to stay inside all day.  My husband likes it as a sauce over vanilla ice cream.  This small jar doesn’t go very far and needless to say, it takes a whole lot of tiny berries to make even a small batch of jam!

Growing up on the farm, we always picked wild strawberries mid-June, right before the hay was ready to cut.  When my son and my nephew were young, mom always took them on a wild strawberry picking bonanza, they loved this time with Gramma!  In my quilt shop travels, I saw the Strawberry Fields fabric collection by Joanna Figueroa of Fig Tree & Co. and I decided that Gramma would be getting a quilt for Christmas from her grandsons.

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The fabrics are so feminine and pretty with images of strawberry blossoms, tiny strawberries, leaves and spring flowers.  I decided on a pattern called “Nest and Feathers” from Janie Lou’s book entitled Precut Quilts.  It’s an easy pattern that uses fat quarters cut into 6 inch x 6 inch squares.  The squares are sewn together in random order, re-cut and then sewn together to make larger blocks.  The solid brown sashing helps to showcase these bright, fresh prints.

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My quilter, Ms. KB, quilted a sweet leaf and vine pattern for me.  You can see some of the quilting on the front and the back.   I just finished adding the label and the binding this morning.

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I know mom will love her quilt and cherish the memories behind it.

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