Farm Quilt - inspiration to finished!

"The Farm" - finished!

!

I had so much fun with this project, from inspiration, to design, to completion.  Much love was sewn into the quilt!  Made as a gift for my cousin, Julie, to honor the memory of my aunt, Marilyn, and to my grandparents' farm in Wisconsin.  After my grandparents were gone, my aunt and uncle moved to the farm after their retirement.  

Starting the design process.  For the most part, I made this quilt with my scraps ONLY.  I feel it pushes my design skills to use what I have, and I feel connected to my grandmothers, who were both quilters, and did not usually purchase fabrics for their quilts.
I started designing the sky in horizontal strips of hand-dyeds and batiks, but not loving the look.  The rust batiks would become the windmill. 

It is so quiet at the farm...you can see so many stars...and the sky is so blue!  The air is so fresh!
I spied these quilts by Terry Kramzar on the internet (you can find her website here) and was just drawn to them!  I love the pieced background technique, which I adopted for my sky.

Sky completed (much better!), starting to add the borders.  The log cabin scrappy blocks below are leftovers from my grandma's quilt!  

I kept my inspiration pieces close by while designing.  The farm's actual windmill is at the top - no vanes remaining!

Getting there!  The dark blue print edge triangles were in my stash - leftovers from a previous project, which I had cut the wrong size! Twice! So I had lots of them. :)

I like to insert all of the pins before closing them.  I feel it keeps the quilt-batting-backing layers nice and flat, and the finished quilt, if a wall quilt, is flat, square, and smooth. 

Basting the quilt prior to machine quilting.

I added an applique border on left and top, because of Marilyn's flowers growing at the farm, so graceful and wild and free.  I also added a thin orange/red print piping, a favorite design technique of mine.

We visited Wisconsin to deliver the quilt to Julie.  While there, we drove down the road to Anderson's Maple Syrup business, owned by descendants of my godparents, who started the business.
I don't think I had ever met Christine and Jan (her mother) before, but they were so warm and welcoming, and we felt and instant connection.  Christine has since visited us in Illinois.
Julie, me, Christine, Jan

"The Farm" photographed at the farm, where it belongs.