Mario Quilt

It is finally done!  I have decided that quilts are a cruel beast.  Don't get me wrong, I love quilts.  I'd love to get better at making quilts.  But man, are they mean.  First, you get all excited when you finish cutting the many pieces that will make your quilt.  You've measured and cut carefully, feeling confident everything will work out perfect.  Of course it doesn't.  And once you've struggled through all the weird piecing mishaps, you feel quite grand thinking you are very nearly finished.  Except you aren't.  Once the quilt is pieced you have to actually quilt it...go figure.  Months later you once again start to feel the glimmer of hope that you are very nearly done.  You've finished quilting it, but then you have to bind it!  Will it never end?  I'm happy I haven't made anything larger than a sizable throw/ nearly twin size blanket, because hand stitching that binding all the way around it slow going and not super satisfying until the very, very end. 

But I am done!  It took much longer than I had planned, it turned out to be trickier than I expected, but I am done and very pleased that my son loves his quilt.  Technically I finished it before winter was over, too, so I feel a little good about that.  Nothing like giving someone a blanket in the dead of summer- nobody wants that. 

This quilt was a special one.  My son moved up to his big-boy bed and needed a quilt that would actually cover his bed.  I asked him if he wanted me to make him one and he was delighted at the idea.  Then he gave me the requirements.
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1.  It had to be a Mario quilt with nothing but Mario fabric.
2. It had to have Toadette on it.  I'm not sure if you are familiar with the cast of characters in the Mario world, but, while a great character, Toadette is not a leading lady.  This was a troubling requirement.
3.  For reasons known only to my son, the back of the quilt needed to be yellow.

However, with the help of the internet, I was able to find enough Mario fabric to create a quilt top that was fun for him to look at.  (I had to buy fabric from a lot of different sources, but Etsy actually turned out to be a lifesaver on this one.  I didn't know there was so much fabric available on Etsy.)  I also, thank goodness, found some fabric with Toadette on it.  Mustaches were allowed because Mario and Luigi both have mustaches.  And thankfully I was allowed the red solid and blue solid colors (because those are Mario's colors) to help fill out my slightly crazy palette.  I think the quilt is wonderfully ugly.  It is busy and the colors sort of slap you in the face, but my son absolutely LOVES it and that was the point.  I also got to try out free motion quilting for the first time.  I had to be very forgiving of myself, but I think if you take the quilting as a whole, it looks nice.  

I am proud of myself for finishing this project and being able to give my son something really special.  It is a quilt that has his favorite characters all over it and it was made specially for him.  I'd be lying if I said I wasn't tempted to hide this thing away in a closet somewhere and hope he would forget about it, but I am very glad I didn't.  

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