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.  

Birthday Fun!

Well I made it another year, and had a great birthday! New Year's Day is my birthday.  It's a great day to celebrate, and I also do some reflection, that's for sure.  Thinking back over the past year, and thinking ahead - thinking about what I want to accomplish in 2017. 

The girls made my birthday dinner, but I didn't want people slaving in the kitchen all day, so I said a store-bought cake was fine.  And trust me, this was MORE than fine!  It was "thanks for the extra five pounds" fine.  Yum!

We also had a nice girls' brunch the day before - first brunch, then mani-pedi's! Lovely daughters Emily and Genevieve.  It's always extra special when Emily is in town from Texas. :) 

Third lovely daughter Hannah and myself. 

More birthday fun! My awesome sister-in-law, Jean, sent me a CASE of Sofia sparkling wine!!! It comes in little cans, COMPLETE WITH A LITTLE STRAW!  It makes the perfect little pick-me-up after a long day of work and teaching.  Jean knows what I like!

This is random, but had to take a picture at Target.  These throw pillows are EXACT COPIES of some pillows we got as wedding gifts in 1978! Except ours were large, FLOOR pillows!  Super groovy, very '70's.


One more thing - I recommend you check out my cousin's new blog:
THE GOOD LIFE IN WISCONSIN - adventures of a city girl gone country. You can find it here.   Julie is on a new adventure, living with her dad and her son, on the family farm.  Julie is a poet, and an adventurer, and her charming style comes through her prose.