The Quilt Diaries - Every Day I'm Hustling

This quilt is dedicated to my husband, one of the hardest working people I know. He’s always been ambitious, a bit of a maverick (which I adore about him!). He’s an early adopter, a change maker, and someone who works hard to make the best better. 

When I met my husband in college I was impressed on how focused he was and how he worked to pay his own way through school. At one time I think he had 3 jobs. What was even more impressive was when he’d hit a rough patch or set back, how he’d figure how to pick himself back up and move forward. 

During the first year of our marriage, we lived to the small town where I was starting my career and good jobs were scarce. Both of us had graduated from college. While I was able to use my degree in my job as an Extension Home Economist, my husband was not able to find a job where he could use his degree. That didn’t phase him. He opted to work a tough job where he had to crawl on top of railway cards full of grain and stick a 10-foot metal probe into the car to get a grain sample to be analyzed by the state grain agency. It was hard work, but a year full of fun memories as I would often ride along as he traveled to other area small towns for his work. 

We moved to Denver the next year with the intent of us both finding jobs that offered more promise and opportunities to use our education. My husband hustled during this time and found the first job that brought us here to Denver, only to find out it wasn’t going to work out once we had settled in. He didn’t worry and hustled again, finding a really good job quickly with a telecom company. I hustled, too, and found a admin assistant temp job to help make ends meet. 

Over the next couple of decades my husband continued to work hard and seizing opportunities. He kept learning and growing and doing what he needed to make a living for our family. Even during the recession, he drove an hour across the city one way to keep things going during that tough economic time. As a result he’s built a good career.

Before we dated and got married, I always said my husband would be the friend in our group that would one of the most successful we’d know. He’s still on that path and it’s priviledge to be by his side as he works to accomplish this. He inspires me every day with his work ethic. 

So this quilt is for him! The plaid fabric used for the border and backing is from one of his worn work dress shirts, a sweet reminder of him and his hard work. 

Construction Notes

• The lettering on this quilt was made with glitter iron-on vinyl cut on my Cricut Maker.

• The center heart is appliqued using Heat n Bond Lite iron-on adhesive.

• With this quilt, I learned that I can quilt on top of the vinyl lettering and the quilt looks like the lettering was part of the original fabric. 

Thank you for checking out this Quilt Diaries post! I hope you enjoyed it and hope you make your own mini quilt, too!