My One and Only

This is the first quilt I have ever made – indeed, the ONLY one I have ever made! - and it was for my dad's 80th birthday in November 2006. He is a horticulturist and Master Gardener, so when I found a pattern for a vegetable patch on QNM (actually, it may have been McCall’s) website, I knew it was the one. Unfortunately, the pattern is for a wall hanging but I wanted a quilt for him to snooze under in the afternoons. Just enlarging it was my first thought. But....my mom said, "Well, you know it has to go from his nose to his toes" so that sent me scurrying back to the ol' sketchbook. And this is what I came up with.....

Unfortunately, my working sketch has managed to escaped from the original posting on the Quilt Block Swap blog. Some fine day, when I find that sketch again, I will scan it again and insert it here, as it originally was. In the meantime, those who might not choose to wait until eternity for it to show up here, you can visit the address below, click on 2006 in the archives, and scroll about halfway down the page. I will still leave the description about it in this post. Picture it in your imagination as you read and see how close you come to the actual design. :o)

http://quiltblockswap.blogspot.com

The blocks at the top and on the right are vegetables from the pattern I bought, a cart, and a barn, all of which are paper pieced, as well as some other elements.

The diagonal stripes and the octagon in the center are cobblestone paths. The lower diagonal stripes I decided not to put in. The ones going out to the sides have been ripped out because the fabric I bought for the back (before I had a real clear picture what the final product would be) was 6" too short, and that was a less expensive fix than buying more backing fabric!


The pictures below are the various sections which are more or less complete. I had it laid out on my folks' king-size bed, which is higher than most. Since I am pretty short, some are taken standing right beside it, but others are taken when I was standing on the bed looking down at it. Thus the weird angles in some of the pictures!

This first is the whole back yard.

This is the left side, more close up--sorry for the odd angle. At the very top is a strip of fabric printed with sunflowers.Those brown things are squirrels from a printed panel which I raw-edge appliqued on. Between the onions and the beets is a scarecrow from the same panel.

On the far left below the path, the speckled green is a swamp and the speckles are butterflies and dragonflies (buttons), stuff like that.

On the right side, the lighter green irregular pieces beside the path are bunnies sitting in the grass, which I appliqued on. The brown things above the bunnies on the right are old-fashioned beehives. In the way-upper right corner are some deer from a pillow panel. They don’t show in this picture but can be seen in the almost-completed picture. On the barn door, I embroidered "MDJ"--short for "More Damn Junk", one of my dad's favorite (or at least frequently used!) phrases all my growing up years. After I left home, he put up a pole barn for a garage and storage area, and put "MDJ" on the door with a street number.....hence the MDJ on this barn door.

This is 2/3 of the front yard, and looks so odd because it was taken upside down and lost something in the rotation.

There is another picture of the left side of the yard which I tried umpteen times to insert here and it just refused to put it in for some unknown reason. It shows the beginnings of the house to go in the middle, the fabric for the stream along the left side by the swamp, and some chenille sheep I made from 5 layers of flannel. Oh well, I guess you'll have to wait for the picture of the finished product to see them.

This is the front yard on the right side. Those white spots are daisy buttons.

What's a Florida house without flamingo yard trash??? If you could zoom in, they are playing music with guitars and enjoying long cool ones. Daddy doesn't really have any in his yard but they were too cute to pass up. :o)

Along the right edge is yet another piece cut from a panel (my mother, who has sewn all her life, is a veritable treasure trove of fabrics!) and is quilts hanging on a fence.

The above was written in 2006 as I was making the quilt. Below is, well, not quite the finished quilt but close to it. The only “quilting” is machine stitching in the ditch (right in the seam lines) along the various components of the house, vegies, driveway, and swamp. The grass in the front yard is tied with a lighter green crochet cotton. All those shiny lines in this picture are the safety pins holding it all in place, which were, of course, removed after all the stitching and tying were finished. Other that than, the picture below is the quilt as it was given to Dad for his birthday – yes, I actually finished it in time!!! And no, the shoes peaking out the bottom are not part of the quilt. They are attached to the quilt hanger. ;o)

And here is the man with his quilt.

There were some other things added after the fact but I do not have a picture of the quilt as it is today. Next time I visit them, I will take a new picture, as well as some close-ups, so stay tuned.