Autumn is sewing weather

 

We're off to the USA to visit our son very soon and I've made him a quilt - of course.  How else can I show my love?!  💓💓💓   Last time I made him a quilt was in 1999, from fabrics he and I dyed together in a workshop with Susan Mathews.  He was about 11 years old then, so it is definitely time for another quilt for him.  

Here's the 1999 quilt:  

Not a great photo, sorry.  The fabric was dyed with Procion dyes in mainly browns and blues, and Brett and I had a great day doing that.  He chose the pattern for me to make the quilt, and did help me with a couple of the steps.  He didn't use the sewing machine though - from memory!  

Last year, one of the blogs I follow https://blog.maryquilts.com/ had a great quilt made from a panel showcasing an American national park.  I asked my son which were his favourite national parks, knowing that he'd been to a few of them.  He said that his favourites were Yosemite, Zion and Petrified Forest.  So I hopped online and ordered a panel and a few metres of fabric from the USA.  I didn't think there would be many Australian quilt shops with this fabric (I may be wrong!)

Not a great photo of the quilt sorry.  But my handy helper isn't tall enough, even standing on a chair, to hold the whole quilt up properly.  It is a beast, at 99"x 84". 

https://blog.maryquilts.com/2023/10/22/birthday-party/ had used a panel with a number of blocks and borders to make it a decent quilt size, so I decided to follow suit.  I had to decide on which quilt blocks to use, and how big to make the borders.  Maths is not my strong suit but it worked out!  

I kept on running out of different fabrics (all from my stash other than the panel) so it was definitely very organically built.  And some cutting mistakes meant changes on the fly as well!  

The chevron block colours are meant to emulate mountains with sky, snow, rocks, trees and grass.  There are bears in the national parks so there are bear paws blocks.  And flying geese blocks in the sky.  It needed to be a big quilt as my son is 6'3" tall.  I didn't want his tootsies to get cold.  

     

I ran out of time to quilt the beast so ended up getting it quilted by a local woman, who did a great job with her longarm.   She said it was the biggest quilt that she'd ever done and never again.  I know that if I had quilted it myself, it would have taken a very long time on my domestic machine.  And would have been a lot of hard work.    

It was the first time I've had one of my quilts quilted by someone else, and it was hard to let it go.  Doing this though left me enough time to bind the quilt and sew on the label, ready to pop it in the suitcase.  

Finished size:  84"x 99"

April 2024 fabric tally

Finishes this month:    USA national park quilt =   - 11.0 m

Purchases this month:  none until I get to the USA! and all those quilt shops! 😂

Fabric used:  - 11.0 m         Fabric acquired:  + 0 m

Running tally:  - 17.5m

Finishes in March

Our local Days for Girls group https://www.daysforgirls.org/ sews menstrual health kits for the organisation, and have a focus on a particular region in the Philippines.  We spent a couple of days this month making a few baby quilts for the local indigenous women in that area, as an added extra.  These women, if they go to the local hospital to give birth, are given one of the heavy flow menstruation kits when they return to their villages.  A quilt for their babies would be a nice extra.  So we've had a couple of good days of sewing to get a few in hand.

Here are my two this month.  Scraps from making the menstrual health kits as well as our own scraps in a simple column layout, bagged and quilted.  

Finished size: 30"x 34"

               

I have been busy with other sewing and will reveal all soon!  Here's a taste.  

March 2024 fabric tally

Finishes this month:    baby quilts x 2  = 2.5 m 

Purchases this month:  I bought a 0.3 m piece of Japanese lawn at a market stall - so pretty, but was quite strong otherwise, and resisted temptation.  I will be in the USA in April, and plan to fill a suitcase with fabric at their great prices.  

Fabric used:  - 2.5 m         Fabric acquired:  + 0.3 m

Running tally:  - 9.0m