Preston's Second Quilt

This quilt was a long time coming.I started making this quilt before my son, Preston, went to Japan a couple years ago. I thought it would be great for him to have something from home while living so far away.The reality of getting a quilt to Japan is difficult and expensive. He was only allowed a 50 pound suitcase to take on the plane and shipping it would cost a fortune. This queen-sized quilt weighs a ton!So, instead of rushing the process, I put it on the back burner and planned to get it completed while he was gone. He'd have a great quilt when he came home!Although he LOVED Japan, the school didn't work out as well as we thought and Preston came home six months early. Timing as it was, I didn't get the quilt completed. The joke soon became that I wouldn't get it completed until his wedding day and, no, he's not engaged.So, just to prove my husband and son wrong, I got serious and finally finished it. After completing it a month ago, I was finally able to get some photos today.My son just walked by and said, "Oh my gosh, you're posting pictures.  Does that mean I can finally use it?"Preston jokingly said he wanted a quilt that was 50 shades of gray (Yeah, old reference. That's how long we've been talking about it) and one triangle. Well, I found 12 shades of gray Kona Cotton by Robert Kaufman. I love how green and brown some of those grays look.I just cut 5-inch squares with a 2-inch sashing between the blocks and semi-randomly sewed them together.I ended up calling this quilt Zen Garden and quilted rows of curving lines as if you were dragging a rake through sand.Quilted on my dining room table with my regular domestic sewing machine, it was a wrestling match to fit shove the quilt through the harp.But, it's done and ready to be used just as we've finally had a cold snap. The back-stop at the park was a great place to hang it and snap some pics.I made Preston's first quilt in 2009. My skills have come a long way since then.