New Years Day Mystery

This was a New Years Day Mystery quilt that was presented on Fabricaholics yahoo group by Marge. I did not have time to work it on NYD after working NYE all night. Finally got a chance to work on it a few days later. My husband has been fascinated by my sewing for many years. He has said many times that he might like to learn how to sew himself. He has helped me seam rip in the past. He is a wonderul man and a good sport. We both finally had time off at the same time and had time to just relax. I started cutting the 2 1/2 inch by 4 1/2 inch bricks out for this quilt and got a bright idea to ask my husband if he wanted to try to sew. He was all game for it and did! Taught him about the quarter inch and he took off with it. Taught him about chain sewing too and how we save thread that way. He picked up real fast and he was sewing as fast as I was cutting parts. LOL! I had to cut many layers at once to get ahead of him and I was only ahead by a couple of pieces. LOL! He was so proud of himself and keeps talking about his quarter inch. LOL! He sewed 400 2 1/2 x 4 1/2 inch parts together that night. The next night, he did 200 more. LOL! He sewed every part on this quilt top where there are 3 bricks together. I sewed the rest. Didn't want him to have to fiddle with putting on that connecting bar that goes across those 3 parts and then putting one block to the next and then the sashing..which he picked out the blue sashing from my stash..and then I made those piano keys for the border and I put those borders on. This was a 3 day event here. The day I finished putting the borders on I couldn't wait for my husband to get home to see his work all together. He was so amazed. I make a lot of quilts for charity. This quilt was going to be for charity in my mind when I started it. My husband took one look at it and asked who this one was for and I told him I had not decided which charity yet. I then saw a look on his face that looked like he was let down. I could tell immediately that he wanted this quilt because he had worked so hard and so well on it..it's his first. So, I decided right then and there that we will keep this because it's his first and he is so proud of it. It matches nothing we have but who cares! He even wants to try to learn to quilt on it next! He has the fever now. LOL! Almost forgot that husband also helped laying out the blocks. He has a great eye on color placement. He is so proud too of how he balanced out the colors.