Wedding Gifts

So what else would I gift to a special nephew and his new bride, if it wasn't quilt related?  

My nephew Austin and his bride, Madison (Madi),  became husband and wife on Nov 14, 2015.  

These two have known each other since about the 9th grade!  

As with his mom and sister who both married in the last couple of years, I offered to make them a pair of couch throws that would coordinate with each other, but yet still have an individual feel to them. 

Austin is a tall guy, so I made sure his quilt will cover him from neck to toe if he wants to nap on the couch. It measures at about 90" long 
   
The two of them chose a color theme of browns and tans.  Then from about a dozen EQ7 mock ups of quilts in that color scheme,  they chose the patterns I used. 




These are their labels. 












Madi's Quilt :

Close up of quilting details...

 '


I chose overlapping circles, to help soften the straight line work in the squares.   
















Austin's quilt is a woven knot design.  

I quilted it with an overall swirl pattern on my domestic Janome Horizon 7700.  

It felt good to get these sent off to them before they celebrate their first anniversary. 

I think I'm ready to put my brown scraps away for a while.... next up?  a brighter colored baby quilt.  

How did I do That?

So it's once again, been nearly a year since I've added any progress to my blog.   I really did get some stuff accomplished this last year,  but much of it was outside in the yard over the summer. 

As I was updating my finishes on my sidebar a few minutes ago... I realized that I had six major finishes this year, which were all gifted away, and they were all new starts after summer of 2014.  

I really do want to move these UFO's along.....  but my design wall is covered with another new start which will be a baby quilt for a new great nephew due in the next month.  

I worked on several projects besides these 6 finishes,  but they included round robins and row robins that made their way through my sewing room and on to the next participant.     

This is "The Approaching Storm".   Made for my hubby's niece, Kristin.  She and her hubby purchased a small parcel of land so they could enjoy their horses just out of Spokane.  Their home is large enough, and has a separate living quarters in it, so they took in her dad and his wife.   

I found the panel at our local quilt show, and knew immediately that it was  going to be a quilt for Kristin. 

I love using EQ to design with!  I took a picture of the panel, and was able to import the  photo and use it in my actual layout as I was working on the borders.   This finishes at approx 66 x 80.  Other than the panel, all the pieces came from my fabric stash.  

She looks pretty happy, cuddled up.  If you know Kristin, you know that she doesn't sit still for very long.  She is always busy working on some kind of project, or out tending her horse or working in her garden after her full time job with the Army Guard. 

I cannot just send a quilt to one person.... Kristin's hubby, Mike needed a quilt too, right?   

At a different quilt show, I ran into this panel, and it had Mike's name all over it!  I really liked the fact that it was smaller panel pieces that I could use as block centers.  Since Mike is a tall guy, over 6',  I used 2 sets of panels to get enough blocks to make this quilt, "Working the West". 

It measures 
80 x 92".  Plenty large enough to nap under.  

I used EQ to map this one out as well!  I created  scrappy "rail fence" sashings,  which I used to frame each picture.  This required a refresher course on Partial seams. 

The strips all came from my stash! 

I really do love the artwork in these panels.   I had to make a few sawtooth stars to fill in along the way.