Anniversary Quilt

Congratulations! To my parents-in-law, on forty amazing years of marriage!  Wow!

To celebrate, a whole bunch of us got together and made are making a quilt.

Last spring, we all went to the quilting store together to pick out fabric.  We took over the place with our scraps of paper and calculator-phones, pulling out bolts and fat quarters every which way.  It took a long time to choose.

Then we went to the four corners of the earth our respective homes, in four different states.  Many, many emails and Fed-Exes of replacement fabric ensued.  

Two people did embroidery, one person pieced the border, and another person pieced the quilt top.  They sent everything to me, and I sewed the border onto the quilt.  Now it looks like this:

 Here's a close-up of the embroidery:

I marked the quilt top with an off-center diagonal pattern and basted it with the batting and backing.  I did some of the quilting, but had some trouble with my machine, so did not finish the quilt in time for the anniversary celebration.  I think my parents-in-law were pleased to see the unfinished quilt, though, and will be glad to have it when I can do the quilting properly.

It moves me that we were able to pull this together, even if we didn't quite come up with a finished product.  I think it says a lot about my in-laws -- who are, indeed, a remarkable couple whom I have always known to "Choose life!"