Family Tree Quilt - A Finish!

I am so excited to have finally completed the Family Tree Quilt for my mother in law.  I must admit this was a very challenging quilt to do.  My sister in law and I pieced the top together, but it was my job to quilt and bind it.  I really did struggle with how to quilt it.  I just didn't want to "screw it up".  This quilt was a very big deal to our family.  My father in law passed away a year ago last May (2012) now making this family tree quilt even more precious.

For a lot of the quilting designs, I used Natalia Bonner's book, "Beginner's Guide to Free Motion Quilting", which can be purchased here.  I quilted swirls in the blue areas only because I don't have a lot of confidence with feathers just yet.  I did buy Angela Walter's Craftsy Class called "Free Motion Quilting with Feathers", but I just haven't had time to take it yet.  I was pretty happy with how the swirls turned out, but I would really like to have them build off of each other a little more like I have seen on some of the other blogs.

My favorite quilting were the tree branch parts.  I used Natalia's "flame" technique and then added "knots" to make it look more "tree-y" for lack of a better word.  My sister in law kept saying that our "tree" looked more like a bush, but how many bushes do you know have "knots" in the stems?  None I hope.  So I must admit that I really really like how this quilting made our tree more like a tree and not a bush!

In the area that represented the leaves, I quilted a meandering loops and leaves.  This was a lot of fun to do and I also really like how this turned out.  I must say I quilt much better than I draw because I did practice drawing out the designs a couple of times before I quilted them, so thank goodness for that because I was getting a little worried while I was "drawing".

All in all I am very happy with how it turned out and am so glad that it is finally finished.  I am linking up with "Sew Cute Tuesday" hosted by Janice.

Quilts Stats:

• Fabric was just some batiks that we found our our local quilt shop.  The brown we used was a Kona solid, but I don't know the exact name of it.  
• The pattern was something my sister in law and I made up.  
• Quilting was done by me on my long arm.  
• We started it towards the end of January 2013 and I finished it mid-May 2013.  
• The size is approximately 36 inches by 52 inches.  

Happy Quilting!

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2013 - A Lovely Year of Finishes - May Goal

I am excited because this month I am actually getting caught up and can start my adorable little nephew's quilt.  Now granted, he will be 6 months old this month, but better late than never right?  For this baby quilt, I will be mixing it up with some embroidery that my sister in law picked out.  She picked out this adorable collection from Bunnycup Embroidery called "Daring Dragons", which can be purchased here.

Aren't they just adorable.  I can't wait to use these cute little guys in the quilt.

The fabric collection that I will be using is Urban Down Under for Northcott Fabrics, which can be purchased here.

So back to my May goal, my goal is to complete the quilt top, so it is ready to quilt and bind for next month!  

Linking up to 2013 - A Lovely Year of Finishes hosted by Fiber of All Sorts.

Happy Quilting!

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April Goal - Not a Finish

Well I was bummed that I wasn't able to finish my April Goal, which was quilt the family tree quilt and bind it.  However, to my defense I was having machine problems that I couldn't quite figure out.  I would have the tension all set to where things should be (yea) and then periodically it would create a loose stitch and I wasn't even going over a seem or anything.  Then underneath the machine would periodically create these loopy things and it was driving me nuts!  I just couldn't figure it out and was getting extremely frustrated with it.

Just so you know it is definitely not suppose to do this.  So I had the person who sold me the machine over and she tweaked the bobbin and completely took apart my tension knob and put it back together.  She also fixed my frame, which I guess was extremely loose and showed me how to adjust that as well.  All in all after about an hour of tweaks and adjustments, my machine started to do this...

Now that is what I am talking about.  I hate to be a perfectionist, but I like "perfect stitches".  This may be the death of me one day, but this is how I want my quilting to look.  

So now I am finally quilting my mother in law's quilt.  I am switching between two top threads Superior King Tut 983 (brown) and 903 (blue), and they are both variegated.  I like the look it is giving the quilting.    

Here are my swirls, which are going in the "blue portion" of the quilt, only because I really can't do feathers that well yet.  I am doing a more bouncing around swirl, which I want to practice making a little denser.  I am currently taking one of Angela Walter's Craftsy classes, which can be purchased here.  She does a couple different versions of the swirl and I am doing the bouncy one at this point, but definitely want to move up to the denser one because I kind of like that better.  I am on lesson #7 out of 10, so I consider my swirls a work in progress.  

In the branches, I am doing the "flame" technique that you can find in Natalia Bonner's book called "Beginner's Guide to Free Motion Quilting", which can be purchased here.  I think this is my favorite part of the quilt so far.  

In the leaf area, I am quilting loops and leaves, which is also from Natalia Bonner's book that I mentioned above.  

My plan is to get this quilt finished up this week!  

Linking up to WIP Wednesday link party hosted by Lee at Freshly Pieced.

Happy Quilting!

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