End Of Summer Projects: "Romeo's Starry, Starry, Night"

I finally finished this quilt!  I had everything but the trim done when my ex- split, and like so many things from those dark days, it got folded up and forgotten on a shelf.

Then my beloved Romeo arrived in April of 2013.  Still full of puppy juices, but such a good dog.  In all of his time with me, he only got into chewy mischief twice.  Once was with a roll of paper towels.  The other with this quilt.  Fortunately, I discovered his error before he had time to do too much damage.  At the time I just thought, "Well, someday I figure out how to patch it, and it'll be fine.  After all, it was made of patches, right?

Then my boy passed on into Ancestry in July of 2023 and those marks took on a different meaning.  So now I say, this is the only quilt that Romeo and I made together.  And his handiwork is now carefully preserved with borders--the singular hole in the middle in red like a heart.  Like a heart that still has, will always have, a hole in it.  

The exterior trim in blue with red thread.

The hole trimmed in red

The hole, the bite....

...and the three tears.  Sown back together with zigzag stitches by my little sewing machine.