trees in bloom quilt :: complete

So this is what I've been up to for the last two weeks and I just finished it today.  This quilt is a birthday gift for my mother-in-law (which she would have celebrated over a week ago).  It was the hub who asked me to make one for her, and since that's a rare occurrence, I jumped at the chance to oblige.

I chose this tree design because it reminds me of her.  She is sweet and nurturing and has a wonderful love of life.  And she very much enjoys cutzie and colorful things.  I know she will enjoy the happy colors in all the leaves.

The tree trunks were patchworked into the quilt, but the leaves and sun were appliqued.  That's probably not how real quilters would have done it but I didn't have the time to figure out how to work the leaves into the quilt itself.  And since the sun was an afterthought (because I didn't like all the white space above the small tree), I had to applique that using some orange cotton and yellow fleece from my stash.  I am very pleased with how the sun turned out and I think the fleece adds a bit of extra texture.

And then comes the part that always stumps me: how to quilt it.  Instead of stippling (in which I lack confidence because I've only done it once before on this kid-sized quilt), I decided to quilt it in parts to give me more time to think.  I quilted the tree trunks first using staggered boxes; I used my darning foot and worked my way up the trunks in straight lines. 

I quilted the leaves next using a pebbling technique (very fun, but definitely time consuming) while adding a string of loops to the branches. 

Then after a full day of pondering, I decided to simply outline the trees in the white space.  I'm super excited about that decision.  I think it adds dimension and calls attention to the focal points.  Stippling would have looked great, I'm sure, but it tends to blend everything together.  I wanted the trees to stand out.

I hand-bound the quilt in a light green, large floral print fabric that I bought on a visit to a fabric store with my mother-in-law in January.  How fitting.  And because I love little personal touches, I added two of them:

A small strip of little birdie fabric in the binding . . .

And a personalized tag stitched with embroidery thread . . .

Here is the back.  This blue-green, small-flower print fabric again reminded me so much of my mother-in-law that I just had to use it for the backing.  And I decided to tie in some of the prints from the front.  Isn't it neat how you can see the outline of the trees on the back?  I wasn't sure how it would look from the back, but I really like it.

This is my seventh quilt but only my second adult-sized lap quilt.  I'm still getting the hang of my darning foot, but I was really surprised at how great the quilting looks even though the lines surrounding the trees are not evenly spaced.  I'm a perfectionist (and an engineer), so I thought I would be bothered by the uneven stitching or the accidental zigzags.  But I'm not.  Maybe I appreciate these small little errors because each of them makes the quilt handmade and personal.

This was such a great quilting experience!  I wasn't sure about quilting after my first one, but with each new quilt I gain confidence and knowledge and I can proudly say that I was a little sad to actually finish this quilt.  On to the next one then . . .

This quilt measures 55 inches wide by 51 inches long.

Just for fun (and because I love this quilt so much) I'm submitting this quilt to the Blogger's Quilt Festival Spring 2010! Jump on over to see other quilts handmade by fellow bloggers.

a second (belated) mother's day pillow

Last month, I woke up with the idea of writing a poem for my mom for mother's day.  I knew it would be about my brother who passed three years ago.  The words flowed very easily that morning and I quickly wrote it all down.

Now let me clarify.  I am not a poet nor do I write poetry in my leisure time.  Aside from a silly rap that I put together in sixth grade about some boys in my class, I have never written a true poem in my life.  But since the rhymes came very easily that morning, I thought I would take advantage.

I printed the poem on fabric paper (or printable fabric, whatever it's called).  My original intention was to stitch the poem to the pillow, but I also intended for the "poem" to be one stanza.  I'm getting better at understanding my limits and with no previous experience with stitchery, I figured that I just better find another way. 

I'm not thrilled with the print quality and the fabric seemed to shift slightly in the printer (can you see how some of the words toward the bottom of the poem are a little squished?).  But it did accomplish what I wanted.  For this pillow, I should have tea-stained the white fabric to make it fit the Americana look of the pillow but I was afraid of ruining the ink.  We'll try that next time.

I also thought for this pillow that I would try my hand at stitchery.  I need some more practice.  This angel is my own drawing and looks more like a second grader's work of art than primitive stitchery (I think it's the head.)  Oh, and the fabric that I used picks up lint like a mushy banana dropped on the floor, so I need to be more conscious of that next time.  It think most real stitchers use linen.

The pillow is backed with natural-colored linen and I love it.  I just wish I would have thought to use linen on the front border.  The two colors match, but I think linen on the front would have pulled the pillow together better.

And I used an invisible zipper as a closure again.  I really like the look of these.  At first I thought I could just sew this pillow closed because I don't imagine my mom using this pillow much; it's more for decoration and I can't imagine it attracting enough dirt to need a wash.  But it is a special pillow and I wanted her to have that option if needed.

In case you're interested, here is the poem I wrote:

My Special Angel

God delivered me an angel,
A special one indeed.
He taught me how to live my life
By helping friends in need.
But after all the time he spent with me,
God needed him back.
For there was bigger work for him to do
Especially in Iraq.
He was called to be a US Soldier,
A protector for the human right
To freedom and a life of happiness.
He took a stand to fight.
Then God needed him back again
For there was bigger work to do,
An angel on the other side
For soldiers passing through.
My heart aches to miss this much.
It just seems so unfair.
But this I know when my time comes
My angel will be standing there.

Happy Mother's Day, Mom.