The month of Sara

Ok, one of the many reasons I have not posted recently is because I've had a secret.  Every time I've sat down at my computer, all I've wanted to do is write about this but couldn't until Sara was in on the secret too.  My secret probably doesn't seem all to exciting, but the fact that I was able to keep absolutely anything from Sara as long as I did is a minor miracle.

For anyone who may not know, May is the month of Sara.  Yes, she is one of the only people that call it that, but we let her have it anyway.  It makes her so happy.  I knew I had to do something awesome for her.  She's one of my dearest friends, and I think that when you're as awesome as she is, it's important that people show you how appreciated you are.  Also what you need to know about Sara is that she LOVES Pearl Jam.  (I may be understating that a little.)

About six months ago, I made a dinosaur blanket for Sara's daughter Avery.  It was a huge hit with Avery.  At that point, Sara started telling me that I needed to make her a Pearl Jam blanket.  The wheels in my head started turning.  How was I going to pull that off? It's not like I can go to the store and buy Pearl Jam fabric. 

After about 2 months, I fin ally had a rough idea of what I was going to do.  I could make a quilt.  Unfortunately, I needed information.  What were her favorite songs? What were her favorite albums? If I put images or lyrics on this quilt, what would she most want to see? I tried to enlist her husband and many of our friends to somehow get information while still being sneaky. I got nowhere.  So, one night I just started asking her.  Luckily for me Sara 1. had had several beers at this point and 2. is ALWAYS willing to tell you what she thinks about Pearl Jam.  I want everyone to realize here that I must really love Sara because it was at this point that I willingly watched a Pearl Jam concert DVD.  I got all the information I needed as Sara rambled on and on about her favorite songs and why different things were meaningful to her.

It was finally time to get working.  Please know I am NOT artistic.  Here's the rough sketch of what I was going to make:

That turned into this:

  

Then this:

 

Then my awesome friend Kyle got a hold of my files and made them AWESOME.  Seriously, this couldn't have been done without him. I mean, the squares looked fine when I did them, but Kyle made it look like a professional had made them.  I sent the files to print, and the rest was easy.

 Here is the finished product:

I had this finished 3 weeks ago.  It has been eating away at me for that entire time! I have wanted to tell Sara and show her, because I was just so excited about how it turned out.  Finally, I was able to give her the blanket.  

Pretty sure her grin means that she likes it.