An Early Retirement . . .

. . . Quilt, that is.

You no doubt recall the circle of close friends and former co-workers I frequently reference here on the blog lovingly as the Frienzies. Well, as each of us has retired, we've surprised that Frienzie with a retirement quilt. So far, six of the eight of us are retired, and those two who remain full-time in the classroom have several more years before they reach that magic retirement date.

We who are retired got to thinking, though. What would it hurt to go ahead and get a jump start on those last two quilts? At least the one for Susan, who is up next in the retirement queue. We already had the fabric and since we use the same pattern for all these quilts, we decided to go for it.

And with that bit of background, let me introduce you to Frienzie Susan's retirement quilt, which we presented to her in late September.

The fabric is an older line by Joel Dewberry. We had a road trip maybe 4-5 years ago that included a trip to a fabric store where Susan selected these fabrics. I admit to having some misgivings as to the way this would come together, but by gosh, it looks awesome!

The back looks awesome, too. We didn't want to have leftover focus fabric, and we always put a signed block on the back, so we came up with this. That extra block has significance, too. The front of the quilt has 30 stars, and most of us retired at the 30-year mark. Susan will retire with 32 years of service, so the two extra stars on the back will represent all 32 years of service.

And here's our signature block. Susan's projected retirement is June 2017, if all goes as planned.

Now I will link to a previous post about retirement quilts, just because I think you might be interested. There will be some "throwback" pictures, as well. *wink*

Happy Quilting, Friends!