Happy Birthday Scott!

Okay, so Scott's actual birthday was on January 18th, but before you go judging me, hear me out! I have been working on this stinkin' present since Christmas and it turns out that it was a bit harder than I anticipated.

Before I go any further.. let me preface this by saying that, in case you haven't heard, Scott will most likely be getting deployed this year. And no.. I don't want to talk about it.. unless you want to see me cry.

That said, I have been playing with this idea for about 2 or 3 years now and now just seemed like the perfect time to go for it. It all started when I was working at the Assisted Living home and one of my favorite residents had a framed handkerchief on her wall with this poem:

SWEETHEART
I thought that you would like to know
That someone's thoughts go where you go.
That someone never can forget
The hours we spent since first we met.
That life is richer, sweeter far
With such a sweetheart as you are.
And now my constant prayer will be
That God may keep you safe for me.
-Author Unknown

This resident couldn't talk but I imagine that her husband carried this with him during WWII and I was so touched by the words. Scott had mentioned before that Army issue linens are not very comfortable and since I assume he will be sent to the desert, I thought that putting this poem on a picture quilt would keep him warm on cold dessert nights and keep him company when times got tough. So here it is...

And here is a closer look at one of the panels. The lady who did the actual quilting for us sewed little unique frames around each picture, take a look...

The quilt is approximately 5' wide x 6' long. It has 36 pictures ranging from 8x10 - 3x5. The pictures and poem are printed on off-white cotton, the poem has a red and white striped border, and the whole quilt has a border of blue with white stars (Get it? It's an American flag for my little soldier! Hence the patriotic border of the blog)

I know what you're thinking, "quilts are NOT very manly", but he loved it and I know it's going to help on those lonely nights when he's far from home to know that he has a wife and son at home who love him enough to spend hours and hours locking him out of the room, drawing and measuring over and over, and driving back and forth from Ogden so make him a girly little quilt of his very own :)

I will not bore you with all the details, but if you'd like to know how all this came about let me know and I will give you the scoop. Surprisingly, it was not too expensive!

A special thanks to my wonderful mom who did all the sewing, my family who contributed, and Norma Aston who did the beautiful quilting!

PS. If any body has any ideas about how to add more fabric onto the edges, please share. I know it's beautiful, but I designed it to have 4 inches of stars on the edges, but there was some confusion and it ended up being only 1/2 an inch. It still looks great but I am a perfectionist and I know it will bug me for as long as he owns the quilt.