A Real Lifetime-esque Love Story

January 2005 (Chicago)
Swimmer/Diver Reunion. We all meet in Chicago for a wonderful weekend of catching up, roaming around the Windy City, eating multiple meals at Orange, and picking up valentines from Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind.

However, there was one swimmer we could not track down in our planning. Where was Phoebe?

January 2006 (San Francisco)
Swimmer/Diver Reunion #2. We gather again, this time in slightly warmer climes and occupy two rooms for two nights for free (thanks, D) at the SF Hilton. This time we managed to track the Phoebster down, finding her hotmail account, and convincing her to join us in sunny San Francisco (I don't lie; it really was sunny that weekend, except when it rained while we meandered through the mission).

Amidst watching preening sea lions, playing with mimes, and catching up, Phoebe tells us a story (after all, she has extra information to impart, having disappeared for a few years). Phoebe is a nurse, and while working in the hospital, she encounters this state trooper named Tim...if this tale came from anyone else, I would swear they were relaying the plot of a Lifetime movie they half-watched while sick in bed, but with Phoebe, it was true. The nurse meets the police officer in the local ER and off they go.

Fast forward to the summer of 2007. We all met up in June for our 5th year college reunion and Phoebe and Time were still going strong. Then not much more than a month later, they're engaged. They got married this past weekend; unfortunately I couldn't make it, but I'm sure it was a lovely wedding. I did, however, send them a gift designed with their save-the-date and wedding invitation (and many of the swimsuits we wore back in the day) in mind.

Purple, gold, and white were the dominant colors, and I designed accordingly.

The table runner was about 18" x 38". The white border fabric is actually a creamy white with gold specks in it that picks up the golden yellow in the butterfly fabric and the darker yellow in the yellow-on-yellow fabric (used in the squares and for the binding).

I backed the table with a piece of purple and gold fabric. It's not quite the same shade of purple as the front (the back is more reddish, the front more blueish) but it draws on the same color palette and could be the front if Phoebs and Tim want to change it up at any point.


I designed the table runner around the remnant of the purple and yellow butterfly fabric I picked up on a whim. I rarely buy "realistic" fabrics, there's something about most "authentic" illustration fabrics that reminds me of biology textbooks so I usually desist. But the butterfly fabric was different, and the monarch-like butterflies against purple flowers worked for me. A handy fabric to have around when Phoebs' invitation came around.