Family Tree Quilt

All the hours of cutting, sewing, sandwiching, quilting and binding are worth it when you have a finished quilt you love. And I sure love this one! I'm calling it the Family Tree quilt. It's been gifted to my parents as an anniversary present. :-)

It all started with Joel Dewberry's Modern Meadow fabrics. I knew I wanted to highlight the pretty trees. And I loved the play of the light and dark fabrics. Log cabin blocks seemed to be the way to go.

There's so many ways to lay out your log cabin blocks! I had to decide before I got too far in since it would matter how I placed my trees. (No upside-down trees in this quilt!) I chose to do diagonal light and dark stripes.

The back is simple. Pieced from a large IKEA sheet and some of the dark brown fabric used for the border on the front.

For the quilting, I did straight diagonal lines to go along with the striped front. I'm not gonna lie, I had a few problematic puckers happening. I pulled out the worst offenders and re-quilted, but there are still a few tiny imperfections. Just keeping it real!

As predicted, my mom loves the trees and the pattern of the front, while my dad prefers the simple look of the back. As long as they're both happy, I'm happy. AND I have enough fabric to make a matching one for me. Keeping it all in the family. :-)

It also feels very fall-ish to me, so I'm entering it in the Celebrate Color event!

Summer Crafting

Summer's a fun time for crafting. This summer I found myself working on lots of little things as I had time. I picked up this great storage case at IKEA and filled it with craft supplies for an on-the-go crafting kit! It worked great, especially for doing little projects away from home, like with my niece and nephew.

We made friendship bracelets and shrinky dinks! (BTW, all you pin-it-wherever bracelet makers: TRY A CLIPBOARD! It's so much nicer for making friendship bracelets.)

AND I got into something new: hand carved stamps. I was inspired especially by the tutorials here and here to try it out. It's a bit challenging but quite fun. Just remember to do your letters backwards so they stamp correctly! (You'll be so mad if you forget.)

I'm keeping my kit loaded for more crafting on the fly with friends, but I'm ready to tackle some larger, more long term projects, too. Farewell summer. It's been fun.