My first Quilt

l'm about to sit down to an episode to X-Files and my quilt but before l do l thought l would post some photos of the monumental king size quilt that l'm making for my brother's wedding present. Jason & Jessica were married 2 years ago this May and l have yet to give them their wedding present. This has become quite the bone of contention with my brother who now begins phone calls with "where's my present?"' in place fo the more traditional "Hello, how are you?". l have only one brother and he's pretty special to me,  so when he got married l wanted to make his something amazing. The pressure of that left me with absolutely no idea where to start or what to make them. My first idea was a photo album/scrap book. l had most of the pieces together, l was going to cover it in my bridesmaid dress, l had shells from the beach where they were married, etc, etc. Then l was visiting them and saw the monster of a photo album they had purchased from the wedding photographer. It was a masterpiece with all the best pictures in it. l was bummed and gave up the photo album idea on the spot. l mean how many do they need and how would mine compare to that professional vision of an album? l pondered on what was the perfect gift, something that would be as special as l want it to be, something that would commemorate their wedding, blah blah blah and l came up with the quilt last fall. l found a photo of one that l liked, planed it out to King Size, did some 'designer math' as we call it at work, fixed the mistakes in the math and went about getting the right fabrics. l ended up with a mix from Joann's & online, including some Amy Butler prints. (she's our neighbor over in Granville and l'm a big fan!). l cut it out, sewed 'er together and voila! Quilt! Then l had no idea what you did next. l mean l knew you had to quilt the 3 layers together, but exactly Ohio Weaver's Guild for the answer to those questions. They have some very experienced and talented quilters who were amazingly generous with their time and knowledge. Jane Droll and her 2 daughters helped me bast the beast together over 2 huge tables. It took us 4 hours and left us with very sore fingers. Now l have borrowed Jane's quilt frame and have been quilting away for about a month. the actual quilting pattern is my brother's airplane - he fly's a C130 Gun-ship bordered by spinal columns on the 4 sides. Say what now? Yep spines, my sister in law is an orthopedic surgeon who specializes in spinal injuries. So to re-cap here- he's a pilot and she's a surgeon and they met at a bar. What's that you say, you've never met either surgeon or pilot at a bar? Me neither, although l did meet a sushi chief at my 10 year high school reunion, but l digress.... Back to the quilt. These aren't the greatest photos, but you can see the airplanes and the quilt pattern. There's a lot of negative space around the airplanes so l'm filling it in with a pick stitch. l wanted to keep it simple and not take away from the planes, but kind of blend in with them. l figure this is going to take me about, oh 4 months to finish if l can work on it in the evenings like l've been doing. This is the gift to end all gifts, and l've let Jay know that after this, l never have to give him another present again. Besides l've been listening to his taunting now for 2 years, l had to make this the biggest, best present ever so he can feel really bad about all the crap he's been giving me!!! That's right all that hand stitching, the hours and hours of work, so l can make my little brother feel guilty :) heh heh heh - just what big sister's are for. 

All right, enough chatting- l've got X-Files to download and quilting to do!