Three Weddings and NO Funerals: Part One

During the past year our group of couple friends -- the Good Guys -- has had a lengthy run of bad things. It started with Joe's heart attack in May of '08. Then another of the husbands was hit by a car with a lengthy recovery and life-threatening complications, causing his wife to have a breakdown; they ended up putting their house on the market (in this economy!) and moving to a retirement home. Another husband got cancer, another a serious infection that immobilized him for months. At least one elderly parent passed away suddenly and the worst of all was one daughter's abrupt need for a liver transplant. And just around that time, we lost yet another of the husbands. I think there were other things as we went along; it was just a year to forget, I think.

So now we're headed into brighter times with two of the daughters and one of the sons being married in the next few months. And of course each gets a quilt for a wedding gift.

I usually feel very confident as I select fabrics and patterns for these kids' weddings. Though I've known them all their lives, I go to their registries and assess their taste and preferences for style and shade, and go from there.

Emily's was a challenge for me. Her china is a Vera Wang white with an unusual gold design, and her mother has told me that she is into retro, scavenging up things from grandparents' attics. Comes from a family of florists, so we had to have some sort of flowers. On top of that, she's an architect and goes for a "spare" sort of look.

Gatsby in a simple pattern seemed the way to go for Em. Her wedding is the first of the three, later this month, and her quilt was finished this past week.

For Emily and Drew. With love.