Mario Quilt #1 DONE!

Photo Dated March 2, 2013...looking back, I am amazed
that in just a little over a year that I have one done!

I started about a year ago when I went to JoAnn's after seeing a really cool quilt pattern and thinking "finally, a quilt I can make for the boys".  I had made quilts for the girls' beds and the boys were wanting an upgrade to their old dinosaur motif.  When I saw the pattern on the "Cut to Pieces" blog, I knew this was the one that I would tackle.

A little extra...quilted "ZACHARY" on
the top middle of the sashing...he LOVES that!

Zachary and I went to the store to pick out the perfect colors to match Mario and all of his friends.  You see, this quilt is a series of one inch squares puzzled together to make squares of Mario characters.  I found many of them that others had used online but I had to make up a couple too.  For example, Matt could not have a Mario quilt without Toad and there wasn't a patter for Toad.  So, Dawn and I sat one night and she drew the outline and I worked with the grid to make it fit with the rest.  I am currently working on four Toads for Matt's quilt because he had to have Red Toad, Blue Toad, Yellow Toad and Green Toad all on the quilt.

Bound with bright primary thread
spelling "Zachary" all the way
around...he loves that too!

With a small interruption of breast cancer through the summer and fall months, I was not as quick as I wanted and since this was a different technique, it took a little longer than I would have liked.  The results were amazing!  It is very time consuming but I am blessed to be able to spend the time on my kids right now and I enjoy every minute!

The Bed is Made!

There are some things I will do differently as I work through Matthew and Ryan's.  They each picked the characters they wanted and we worked together drawing out where each character will be on the quilt.  I will report more on my progress on those as I do them (now that I know a little more about what I am doing)!  There are still a lot of squares to do for the next quilts but as I straightened my work area, I got things set up to be much more efficient this time around.

I can't wait to show Ryan and Matt the new squares as their quilts take shape.  For today, I will smile knowing that even though I have been fighting some battles of my own, I have accomplished a pretty big goal through all of the surgeries, the doctor appointments and tests.  It is rare moments in life that I think any of us really amaze ourselves.  I have amazed myself this week and I thank God for getting me through this last year and giving me something to do (a lot of things actually) and plenty to show for it!  Don't forget to praise Him for who He is today!