And now for something (almost) completely different

When AJ and I first got together, he was much interested in my quilting. He asked questions, and wanted to learn different aspects of my hobby. After talking about it for a bit he suggested we make a quilt together. I was thrilled. The idea was that he would design it and I would construct it.
I showed him some of my quilty books, and photos, and we talked about fabric and design. It became immediately apparent the fabric would include skulls.
AJ likes skulls.
I took him to my favorite fancy fabric store, New Pieces, and we looked there. Then we looked at my favorite go-to store, Joanne's, and looked there. Then we went back to New Pieces. Eventually we got fabric from both stores to go with the design AJ decided on. We got a comforter from Ikea to use as batting, and set to work. The quilt would be warm, for winter-time, and big. AJ had a queen size bed and I tend to roll in my blankets, like a burrito. (I do it in my sleep without realizing it) So the quilt needed to be big enough for both of us to use comfortably when I spent nights at his place. It ended up being 3 yards square. Huge.
Here it is:

 

The only area large enough to spread this out, was on my living room floor. It's huge.
Here are some close ups:
This is the center block

And this is the corner block:

 
The fabrics here were chosen by AJ, except for the black background. It was a lot of fun doing this with him.
But that's not the end of the story.

I also wanted to surprise AJ, and make this his birthday present, so I decided to make the quilt reversible, and designed a reverse side. I wanted to use similar colors, and incorporate more skulls, but also didn't want it to be too similar. I ended up with this:

I did it by cutting 2.5 inch strips and sewing them in even-increasing lengths, to make the wedges.  I didn't really plan the order of the strips, and if you look at the quilt closely you can tell the wedges are not of the same size. There are nine of them, which is also unusual, and was not planned. The design is similar to the strip circles I made for myself years before and is, in essence, one giant strip circle, but with skulls, and a spider's web feel if you look at it a certain way. I sewed some decorative stitches on top of the main seams, in red zigzags, and appliqued the whole thing onto the backing.
Now the quilt was not only huge, but heavy! It is so heavy.

A close up:

I presented it to AJ for his birthday and he promptly named it "the coolest blanket in the universe", which is kind of funny considering how warm it is. He also declared it impossible to say which side was more awesome.
We use it now, as our winter blanket, and alternate sides, using it strip circle side up for a couple of weeks and then flipping it over to the AJ-design side for a couple of weeks.
It was great to share this experience with AJ, to have him be interested in my creativity, and to work on a creative project together.