Mario!!!

In February I decided that I wanted to do something special for Ryan's birthday. I knew we'd most likely do a party of some sort since it was his 30th, but I also wanted to give him something special. About a year ago he saw a Mario quilt online with directions on how to make it. This was about the same time he bought my quilting machine and frame and some comment like, "Hey, here's something you can make me..." was made, which I responded with a "Yeah right. Keep dreaming."

Well, in February I thought, "Hey.....why not?" I've been sewing for quite a few years and I'm getting better at this quilting frame so...yes, I'm gonna do it.

The crazy person in me looked at the quilt on the lady's website and decided that it wasn't exactly what I wanted to make for him. I started looking for various pictures of the original Mario Brothers game characters and drawing them on graph paper. The ladies in my craft group can verify, it was an ordeal. Next was cutting the fabric pieces. Now I was going to use tiny squares for each "pixel" but I quickly realized the insanity in this and decided to use strips instead. Some of the squares still ended up being 1.5"x1.5" squares, but where practical, I used strips.

And here's the finished product...not the best picture, but it's the best I've got right this moment.
Now here's the thing that impressed me the most about the whole project...Ryan had no clue. I mean...No. Clue. I was actually able to keep this whole thing a complete secret from him...since February! I worked on it on our weekly craft night at a friend's house, when he was at band practice (thank goodness for those extra practices for the special July 5th music!), and was even encouraging him to go play cards on Thursdays. I would sew in the front room with the blinds open and quickly hide it when I saw him drive up. I stored it in a plastic container and later had to move it to a big zippered tote bag (hidden in the middle room's closet) when it got too big for the plastic box. And he had no clue. Success!

When I gave it to him Sunday morning and he opened the box and removed the tissue paper...he wasn't a thirty year old man...he was 8 years old again. He was a happy boy/man. And that made me happy.
Even Sebastian likes it...when it's on the couch or if Ryan's got it on him, Sebastian wants some part of himself on the quilt...it's really quite cute.





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