The Retirement Quilt

Because this was such a big thing, I thought it deserved it's own blog post.

A little background...I took a quilting class just a little over 2 years ago. I decided that since I was so far from family, I could at least learn to quilt and carry on something that my grandmother and greatgrandmother did. Things have definitely changed since they first started quilting-I will fess up to not having done anything by *hand*...I machine piece my quilt tops, and they are quilted on the long arm machine at the quilt shop(maybe one day I can have one of those). At the time I took the class, I had never even touched a sewing machine-unless you count when I used to sit in the lid of my grandmothers and rock back and forth, which resulted in a scar in my eyebrow when I fell over into the china hutch and busted it open...lol. I absolutely fell in love with it though and had a new hobby. In the just over 2 years since I started quilting, I have completed 35 quilts. They have ranged in size from a 3 foot square wall hanging, to baby quilts, to quilts *almost* big enough for my queen size bed. I also have several other projects in various states of completion, not to mention fabric and ideas/plans for LOTS more.

Sometime last year, probably in the spring, I got the idea to do a retirement quilt for the man, whenever he retired. Of course that came upon us rather quickly and I had to set my work into motion. About 6 months or so ago, I started sending out messages via Facebook. I went through my friends list, the man's friends list and then because, as I have admitted before, I have stalkerish tendencies at times, I went through friends of friends lists. I got a good response from people and started sending out fabric, pens, instructions, etc. I did my best to include EVERYTHING I thought people would need-including a preaddressed return envelope...lol. Even with that, a few people had a bit of a challenge following directions, so they earned a special place on a soon to be completed wall hanging...lol.

I also enlisted the aid of my other husband, Rob, in helping me get people that worked with the man presently but that I didn't have easy access to. I was realistic and knew that I wouldn't get every single square I mailed out back, I know people are busy and have lives(which is also why I started so far out), lose things, can't think of what to write, forget about it, etc. So because of that, I was just hoping to get 25-30 squares back, as that would be the size of a lap throw. When all was said and done, I had 69 squares returned to me!! 4 of them are going on a wall hanging due to not being done to my specifications(yes, I was picky about the quilt), so I supplemented 5 squares with iron on Navy or Chief related quotes to round it out to an even 70 that are on the quilt. It is 7 rows across, and 10 rows down. With the borders on it, it is 73" wide and 102" long. I tried to lay it out my queen sized bed to take a picture and it was too big-it hung over the sides!

Somehow or other, even with mail coming from all over the country, Japan and Cuba; squares being handed off as crews were changing in the desert and brought back home; making all kinds of runs all over town to pick up squares(I was running out of excuses as to why I had to keep leaving the house...lol), I still managed to keep it a secret from him. At times, I worked into the wee hours while he was gone to get stuff done. And with the help of Rob once again, we managed to get the presentation of the quilt worked into his retirement ceremony. I truly think he was blown away by his first site of it.

The people who returned the squares are from throughout his entire career. There are people who were airman with him in his first squadron. There are people that were his supervisors and mentors through the years. There are his fellow chiefs. And there are current junior sailors that he has filled that mentor role to.

The things that are written on those squares are a testament to the kind of sailor and Chief he is. There was everything from simple 'hey man congrats', to funny stories(well, possibly questionable stories as the lady at the quilt shop said...'he may have some explaining to do'...lol), to a top 5 list, to some of the most wonderful, heartfelt sentiments that almost brought me to tears(Henry, yours is at the top of that list, I have bragged on your square to several people).

Thank you to every single one of you who took the time to send a message to Bill. He hasn't had time to sit down and read through them all yet(we're in a bit of a whirlwind time crunch...he's finishing up his last 3 classes for his bachelors and we're getting ready to pack out and drive cross country), but he's already mentioned how there were names on there he hasn't really seen/talked to in so long.