Mike and I have been collecting pressed pennies since pretty early on in our relationship. It started with this penny that Mike brought back from Crater Lake on a trip to Oregon in 2001. Since then we have collected them from many places including most of the national parks we have been to. It is fun to pack quarters and pennies in our hiking pack and ask park rangers for help. Funnily enough, every park ranger we asked always knew where the machine was. Pressed pennies were a very inexpensive souvenir which was good as we didn't have much spending money after saving for the trip itself.
For the last seven years they have been just sitting in a bowl that we would only occasionally look at whenever we would add a penny to the bowl. I wanted to make something for us and I thought these pennies would look great on a quilt. I added some pine cone buttons because I have a pine cone collection and we have many memories of my stuffing our pockets, packs, glove compartments and more with pine cones. It takes us weeks to find them all after we have been home from one of our trips.
I added a little embroidery here and there with important dates, like our wedding anniversary. I also put in a symbol of things here and there, like a sand dollar. Talk about stuffing your pockets! I have many memories of Mike and I negotiating just how many sand dollars Mike was going to assist me with smuggling off the beach. I have beach sand in every jacket I own.
I think I had more romantic visions of the piecing and quilting. However, I don't know what the vision actually was, I realize now it was out of focus. But I do like this project and can always make something different if my day dream ever comes into focus. But as we live in a rented house with furniture pieced together from family hand-me-downs, garage sales and multiple dumpsters I think it looks nice and we have definitely enjoyed looking at our pennies and recalling many good memories. Simple, just like the pennies.
For the last seven years they have been just sitting in a bowl that we would only occasionally look at whenever we would add a penny to the bowl. I wanted to make something for us and I thought these pennies would look great on a quilt. I added some pine cone buttons because I have a pine cone collection and we have many memories of my stuffing our pockets, packs, glove compartments and more with pine cones. It takes us weeks to find them all after we have been home from one of our trips.
I added a little embroidery here and there with important dates, like our wedding anniversary. I also put in a symbol of things here and there, like a sand dollar. Talk about stuffing your pockets! I have many memories of Mike and I negotiating just how many sand dollars Mike was going to assist me with smuggling off the beach. I have beach sand in every jacket I own.
I think I had more romantic visions of the piecing and quilting. However, I don't know what the vision actually was, I realize now it was out of focus. But I do like this project and can always make something different if my day dream ever comes into focus. But as we live in a rented house with furniture pieced together from family hand-me-downs, garage sales and multiple dumpsters I think it looks nice and we have definitely enjoyed looking at our pennies and recalling many good memories. Simple, just like the pennies.
1 comment:
For some time I have admired your pressed penny quilt and now I have managed to find your blog with close up pictures. I see where your Mum's birthday quilt was inspired from the "Quilter's Cache" site. Was your penny quilt inspired from there as well? What pattern? If not, was it inspired from another source. I REALLY like it and the many options for adding more pennies AND personalization.
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