Since my husband was turning 60 in March and our 40th wedding anniversary was coming in June, I decided it was time to use my stash. I spent the entire month of March gathering the items and cutting and piecing the blocks. I used 63 blocks each with five crazy pieces. These were assigned by rows to various members of the family. I used a combination of machine and hand embroidery plus trims and laces on the seams of each piece. I placed the blocks on the living room floor on his birthday and told him this was the largest birthday card he would ever receive. He cried when he saw some of the photos. My goal is to have it completely quilted by our anniversary.
I did lap quilting with three sections of three rows to make it managable. The bottom three rows were the first to be completed only because I used my most recent photos on them and was able to complete them first.
Shown here is a section from the first row which represents Don and his brother Dave in the Navy at the time we were married. That is Dave with his wife, Jane, in the block to the left taken in 2000 and Don is shown in his Navy uniform as he appeared when he boarded the USS Enterprise in early 1962. This quilt story was written in 2001.
