Up until this endeavor, Lois only made whole-cloth quilts. This was her first machine-pieced quilt, made for our 11th wedding anniversary. Several people in my family contributed to the making of this wonderful work of art: one of my brothers drew several of the "interest" blocks, another brother and some aunts and cousins hand quilted on it with Lois while my folks were vacationing in Minnesota. The summer she gave it to us, Lois brought it with her on my parents' bike tour of the French wine country, working on it every night in their various hotel rooms. The entire tour group kept close track of how the quilt was progressing! After the bike tour my folks visited us for a few weeks in Berlin, Germany, where she finished the quilting and binding and presented us with a treasure!
The Double Wedding Ring pattern was much harder than Lois ever thought it would be, and was the hardest part of the entire quilt.
The circles contain my, Steve's, and our sons' (Carl and Miles) names and birthdates, and the middle circle has our wedding date. The four corner blocks of the quilt itself have the names and birthdates of my and Steve's parents stitched inside.
I had a request to show all the blocks, so if you'd like to see them up close, click the picture.