My parents are celebrating their 45th anniversary tomorrow. I wasn’t sure what to get them, and searched around the web, where I learned that is the Sapphire Anniversary.
They recently had a new deck built, and have been spending a lot of time on it, mostly feeding a chipmunk they named Teeny Weanie. So I decided to give them an evening meal out on the deck. Specifically a charcuterie board of goodies. I picked up a slumped blue wine bottle cheese board on Etsy. Then I went to Homegoods and found a beautiful pair of recycled glass wine glasses, a set of hand painted tile coasters, and various snacks that all were in blue packaging. (Pretzel crackers, wafer roll cookies, herbed nuts, salami, shortbread cookies, etc.) I found a Charcuterie board cookbook on Amazon with good reviews and lots of pictures, on sale for just $10.
Meanwhile, I had been trying to figure out how to finish a kids quilt, where some of the blocks had been misappropriated (by my quilting student), leaving me short. I didn’t want to buy more fabric, and @jellybean gave me the great idea of making a simple paper pieced block for the center. I hadn’t done any paper piecing before, and was nervous, but I found it fun and relatively easy. (Here’s the Hogwart’s Crest block I created for the kids quilt.) After my early success, I might have become recklessly optimistic. I decided to try a jewel block, to fit with my parent’s Anniversary theme.
This heart block pattern is from Jitka Designs on Etsy. Sapphires have always been special to them. They were married in October of '79, and had me in September of '80, so my birthstone is a sapphire. It was the early 80’s, and they were fascinated by Charles and Lady Diana. My dad bought mom a copy of Diana’s sapphire ring , and throughout my childhood bought her a few more pieces to match it. My dad has also always been a history buff about the Titanic, and they both loved the movie, and I thought the block looked a bit like the Heart of the Ocean necklace. Since mom isn’t much of a hearts person, I also created a round jewel block as an option, but ultimately decided to use this one as a table topper for their Charcuterie feast. (I’ll use the other block in a pillow.)
Just for fun, here’s the back, so you can see how I quilted it. I traced the lines of the jewel and the inner border, then did a very small stipple pattern in the white background and outer boarder. The photo makes the outer edge appear black, but it’s actually navy.
I sent it out a few days ago, and it should arrive by Tuesday. Hopefully they like it!
