Inspiration: Guest Bedroom

I'm trying to buckle down and work on my book. You know the book, the one about the letters and houses etc... There won't be any patterns, just techniques, ideas and inspirations (such as this one, this one, and this one). Well here is another inspiration. I haven't actually made a quilt along these lines, but I'd like to when we get settled down next year.

I can envision a couple of different ways to do a quilt for the bed in the guestroom. First would be to make a bunch of blocks for the center and do words in the border or inner border such as:

• You are welcome in our home
• Sleep well, sweet dreams
• May all your journeys be safe
• This quilt is made with all my love - may it keep you warm and safe.

Or, a humorous approach:

• Guests of guests may not invite guests
• Guests are like fish - they stink after three days

There are, of course, many other options to include. Think of specific visitors who might use that room. What would you wish for them? Why are you happy to have them visit?
And then of course the name of the maker, the city (possibly the street address), the date... all those usual things that look so marvelous on quilts and really make them personal.
Another way to make this quilt would be with the words as the focal point, just like the bed quilt I made. (Well, the top I pieced.) I think the letters in that one came out to 3.75" finished - if I were doing it again I'd probably make them smaller. I do like small letters and I would have been able to fit in more words that way and still fit them into the area I wanted them in.
Anyway, the words could be a heartfelt welcome or it could be fun. I was thinking something like a pretend B & B (using your own name etc):

Welcome to the Case de Ricardo in lovely downtown Burbank. Your hosts are Ricky and Lucy. Breakfast is served between 8 and 10 am. First one up makes the coffee. No noise after 10pm. Enjoy your stay.

If I'd thought about it I could have made this quilt:

Welcome to Cairo, my friends. Make sure you visit all the sights of our fair city including the Pyramids of Giza, the colossal Sphinx, the river Nile, and the mummy of Ramses II. No vacation is complete unless you spend much money at the Khan al Khallili. Thank you for choosing The Lazy Gal Hotel.

I tried to write that using the patter that you hear in Cairo, like "my friends." If I were actually making it I would start doing letters for the most important words and that way if I ran out of room I could leave out the adjectives like "colossal" and not change the meaning.
I might just make something like this for Paris, where I expect we might actually get some visitors. Now just because you don't live some place exotic doesn't mean you couldn't have lots of fun with this. "See the dining room chair that Tonya fell out of and broke her collarbone." Make it personal and meaningful and that's what counts. Or just pretend that you live somewhere else and have fun with it.
Somebody please make one of these. I need quilt pictures for that imaginary book. (If you want to go that route, please don't use anyone else's copyrighted patterns or blocks.) If you want help brainstorming or fitting it together, or anything, just let me know. Or if you have some fun ideas but don't want to actually make the quilt, I'd still love to hear them.