Cooper's Quilt

I've made the grankids each a quilt when they were babies, for their first "big kid" bed, and another twin quilt when they were about 12-13 years old. As they grew, I promised a queen size quilt when they turned 18. Boy, does time fly...

Cooper celebrated his18th birthday in November of 2018. When he was 13-15, he traveled to quilt guilds and shops with me during spring break and summers to load and unload the car (and the quilters), help with sales of quilt patterns and precuts, and navigate for me. I also put him in charge of handling our daily food allowance to learn to budget. He saved enough eating frugally on one trip that we had a feast at Red Lobster the last night. Coop was the first grankid to really "get" what I did for a living ("Gramma makes quilts, not blankets".). He watched and listened in my workshops. When it was time for him to get a new quilt, he designed it - at 13-years-old - to look like a football field with a giant Nebraska "N" in the middle, using all NE logo fabrics. He was so proud of his quilt and his contribution to it.

Now, at over 6ft tall, his twin size quilt looks like a lap quilt and is love-worn around the edges. Last Christmas, he reminded me of my promise to make a new quilt for his 18th birthday. He also had a few requests - black flannel, red accents, simple blocks and LARGE size. I pondered over the next few months which block(s) to use to make it masculine, but simple. He wasn't interested in "normal" blocks like stars or churn dash or 9-patches. Everyone had those. So I pondered some more.

One night when I couldn't sleep, I started thinking about Cooper's quilt and how I could make it personalized & unique. Piece his name on it? Nope, too obvious. How about Morse Code??? I Googled Morse Code on my phone, started sketching, and made the 90x104 quilt over a weekend. Here's the happy recipient at Christmas this year.

I wish now I had made snowball blocks for the "dots", rounding off the corners, but it didn't occur to me until Joy quilted circles in them. She also quilted lots of straight lines to reinforce the feel of the quilt. Cooper was excited (hard to get that kind of reaction from a 19-year-old). He also loved that I used flannel as the backing and batting, too, for a super soft and cuddly quilt. He immediately swapped out the vintage quilt on the bed he was sleeping in for his new quilt. I think it was a hit!

Now, to figure out what Rowan might like in 18 months...

Do you make quilts at certain milestones in your family's lives? Do you over-promise, like me, and scramble to catch up? I'd love to hear your advice.