I thought I'd share my Family Tree Quilt with you today. I've been trying to balance getting things ready for Halloween, scoring SATs, and getting stuff done around the house. The getting stuff done around the house is the one that really seems to be losing out. Anyway, that doesn't leave much time for blogging, so I thought I'd share a blast from the past.
Some of my most favorite quilts I made years ago before we had kids and I had more time to spend on more intricate quilts. And since they were also made before I blogged, I haven't shared them. I'm hoping to gradually work through sharing some of them, although many of them I no longer own. Like this one...
I made this quilt in honor of my Nana and Granddad's 50th wedding anniversary. Granddad passed away earlier this year, and Nana has gone to live with my parents. During a visit a couple months ago, I asked her if I could photograph her quilt.
I'd been thinking of making a hand print quilt for a long time, and finally had a good excuse for it. I contacted my cousins and siblings and had them send tracings of their hands. This was before I'd discovered how easy zigzag/satin stitch applique is, so those hands were all appliqued on by hand. It took forever.
I put my great-grandparents, great-great-grandparents, etc in the roots, and all of my grandparents descendents (at the time) and spouses are included on leaves. I used different colored leaves for boys and girls, to add some variety.
I also embroidered all the names on with metallic gold embroidery thread...which I remember being quite a pain (the metallic thread...not the embroidery.
It's fun to look back and see some favorite, familiar fabrics...some of which I still have pieces of in my stash.
This quilt also goes down in history as the quilt that my husband and I used the Law of Cosines on when trying to figure out the angles for those different colored background wedges. Now I'd probably use giant paper piecing or something. This was also long before I learned to machine quilt, so this was hand quilted in black thread.
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What a great quilt! It looks like it was hand quilted too as well as all that needle turn and hand embroidery! What an awesome effort! Great photo of your Nan with the quilt too :) thanks for linking up :)
ReplyDeleteYour quilt is a true heirloom! You must be very patient to do all of that handstitching,
ReplyDeleteAmazing!!!
Esther
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What a gorgeous idea! I love it. I bet your Nana loves it. I am in awe of anyone who does anything by hand. Well done!
ReplyDeleteHow wonderful that you made this quilt for your Grandparents. I am sure you couldn't have given them a better present and it must be an amazing source of comfort for your Grandma now. Love how you included you Great Grandparents. We truly are the some of the people who have gone before us. Thank you so much for sharing. Marie (mlismore@optusnet.com.au)
ReplyDeleteLove this ideas!!! Your grandparents will cherish this quilt!
ReplyDeleteWow, that quilt was definitely a labor of love.
ReplyDeleteLove the idea of using hands for the leaves. If I did one, I would write the names of the people in their hand. 24Tangent@gmail.com
ReplyDeleteI LOVE this idea for grandparents or great-grandparents. I've never done a quilt in my life, but I might have to attempt this one in a few years. We'll be featuring this over at Someday Crafts, so come on over if you get a minute :)
ReplyDeletethanks for linking to Take-A-Look Tuesday over at Sugar Bee Crafts - you were featured today!
ReplyDelete--Mandy, SugarBeeCrafts.com