My spousal unit makes quilts for a hobby. Her latest project involves making an embroidered "square" (actually a hexagon in this case) for each state with the state name,state Flower, state Bird, state outline, with a star to show the location of the state capital, the date and order of each state's admission to the Union. The birds and flowers are just not outlines but are filled with the true colors of each bird and flower. My wife had to print out pictures of each to get just the right colors.

The squares will all be pieced together around an embroidered outline of the United States. The outside border will be red, white, and blue. The quilt's pattern came from her mother who ordered it from a catalog some time ago, but it appears to be still available. The pattern, the 50-State Americana Hexagon Quilt, Design 533 was probably printed after 1976.

Each square took 10 hours to embroider. She did these during her daily commute to work in downtown Phoenix. She estimates that she has spent at least 550 hours working on the quilt over past 2 years. At her normal rate of pay that makes the quilt worth over $10,000.