Wednesday 6 February 2013

Make like a tree and Leave.

 That’s what the logical part of my brain should have done when the creative side of my brain said “Hey, let’s make a family tree quilt for Nan’s 90th birthday! Awesome idea!”. Yeah not so much. I hate applique. I hate hand sewing. I hate fiddly cutting. Yay creative brain, combine all three for a nightmare of a quilting project. Awesome idea. Really.

I have at least finished embroidering all the names onto the leaves. All 38 of them. That’s a start.

Family Leaves

Here’s me and my siblings on our section of the tree. I did think about randomising the names around the tree, but it seems to make more sense to loosely group them in families. Very loosely. Families are complicated.

Family Tree Quilt Layout

Here’s the rough layout. Don’t mind the white paper trunk. That’ll magically change to brown fabric for the actual quilt. (Some names have been blurred out to protect the innocent – my hand sewing is not –that- terrible). I"m roughly using the tree layout from the Don't Look Now pattern. Roughly.

The background fabric is one I printed on Spoonflower. Regular readers have heard this story a billion times, feel free to skip it.

I went through my Nan’s old letters (with permission, I’m not a total snoop haha!) and found one of the first love letters my Grandfather wrote to her when they were dating in the early 40’s. I picked out a beautiful snippet, tidied it up and put it as a repeating text and made my own fabric on Spoonflower. Very impressed with how it turned out.

Script close up

The snippet of the letter says:
We are going to get engaged, and then married, and live happily ever after. Now don’t you think that is a Swell Romance Story. Well Pat dearest, I will have to close.
Isn’t that beautiful? . Here’s a pic of their wedding day. As you can see they did go on to get engaged and then married. And lived happily for some years.

Pat and Mac's wedding

My grandfather passed away when my Mum was 16 so most of us on that family tree quilt above never had the chance to meet him. Love that I’m able to include him in this way for my Nan’s 90th birthday

So this is going to be a fiddly quilt. It’s going to be take a bit of time, and the deadline is looming next month. I may not be enjoying making it now, but I know it’ll be worth it in the end. Oh and don’t worry, I’ve made sure all the family know that I’m inheriting this quilt back some day in the future. I bloody well better after all this hard work!

And that my friends, is my current big WiP. Now to go and find out how to best applique this. Suggestions welcome.

WipWed





31 comments:

  1. What a beautiful idea! A labor of love.

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  2. That's just lovely, Kristy. I teared up oh-so-slightly reading the snippet from his letter. I'm sure your Nan will love it.

    Elderly people are awesome. People always think I'm horrible for saying it, but I actually think old people are way cooler than kids. ;) Not that kids are terrible, I just love old people a lot. Maybe it's just the historian in me. :)

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  3. That's a beautiful wedding dress your Nan is wearing. I'm not usually struck by things like that but that one was fabulous. The way they displayed it for the wedding photo was lovely.

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  4. It is so beautiful! I like all the embroidered names, I know that was a TON of work. The finished product is going to be AMAZING!

    The snippet from the letter makes me smile. :) So romantic!

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  5. I love that fabric! It's beautiful and full of such meaning to your family. :) I might do a blanket stitch around the leaves and the trunk either by hand or by machine. By hand would be time-consuming, but keep in theme with the embroidery you have already done.

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  6. I recently heard about an applique technique that I've been meaning to try. You basically stitch around all of your pieces onto fusible interfacing, then cut a small slit in the interfacing to turn them right sides out and fuse them in place. You can then use your preferred method of stitching (I'm a machine girl). I'm not sure how big your pieces are, but you can even use a straight stitch to secure really small pieces because there are no raw edges.
    Good luck and if you try this method, I'd love to hear how it goes.

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  7. Gorgeous! Send it to me and I'll do the applique. ;)

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  8. Your fabric is amazing... this is how new fabric designers are created. What a wonderful gift for your Nan... and aren't those old wedding photos a blast. My own Nana's wedding was a similar style, with the hand tinted photographs of the era. Beautiful!

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  9. what a treasure that photo is!! i love old photos and do not have any of my family :( . I also love what you have done with the quilt so far...looks awesome!!

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  10. It's coming along and looking great Kristy. Machine blanket stitch is the way to go for the applique, especially with your deadline looming unless of course you really want to spend hours hand stitching!

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  11. Just beautiful! Your grandmother is going to be thrilled!

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  12. Wow Kirsty, its coming together amazingly. Your Nan will love it!

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  13. Oh that is such a beautiful gift that I am sure will be well worth all the fiddly bits! What an amazing idea, she will most certainly treasure it.

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  14. what a lovely idea, it's going to be beautiful. And wow, your grandma's wedding dress was gorgeous! Suggestions? If you hate handwork, machine appliqué those leaves on.

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  15. Absolutely amazing quilt. It is a treasure. And I love that you have included your grandad in there too. I am sure she will love this.
    E

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  16. I love what you're doing with this, it will be so worth the time you've taken. Hang in there!

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  17. Such a lovely thing to do for your Grandmother ~ she's going to love and cherish it!

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  18. I really like this piece...great idea!

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  19. What a great idea!! The joy it brings will be well worth the hard work.

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  20. What a thoughtful idea, I love hand sewing, don't like fiddly cutting out or at least I'm not that good at it, and I've not tried applique, not tried quilting (yet) for that matter lol but I really appreciate the beauty of quilts. Just think of your grandmothers face when she opens it, that will help you through it, good luck that that you need it

    Shirley x

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  21. It's a fantastic project! It will be worth all the work.

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  22. Yes and although it will take more time and care, I think you will do this quilt more justice with hand sewing or some clever machine applique. That wedding dress is absolutely stunning and I love how the wedding party all look very happy. The fact that these men returned from active service is reason enough to smile. Many did not return to marry their sweethearts.

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  23. I love the leaves and tree for an autograph quilt, and I'm really impressed with the Spoonflower fabric. Those are both ideas I'll have to try.

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  24. This is going to be beautiful when it is all done. I agree that fusing before you stitch would probably make it easier in the end. And maybe a blanket stitch would look nice.

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  25. I LOVE quilts with a story behind it... Awesome!

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  26. I love your idea for a family tree and using text from a family letter is just a beautiful idea - you may not be enjoying the techniques but your Nan will be absolutely thrilled with the finished reslt - a real family heirloom!

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  27. This is adorable, what an amazing gift to be working on xxx

    Lucy xxx
    http://blog.crazyforpurple.com

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  28. Haha! I don't think anyone will contest your claim to inherit the quilt one day! Such a special thing you are doing Kristy - making a family heirloom that honours the past, present and future. Looking forward to seeing it complete!

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  29. I've thought about a family tree and yours is a beautiful example! Great job even if it is more (hand) work than you had planned. I know it will be appreciated, especially with all of the love being put into it.

    For my own applique, I've used a small machine blanket stitch. I've been satisfied with it on everything I've done so far. Will you fuse the pieces down first?

    Good luck with the finish!

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  30. This is going to be wonderful - love how you are using the "letters" fabric!

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  31. It'll be stunning! Still utterly in love with the print and incorporating your granddad in such a milestone birthday gift.

    You'll be glad to have invested all that time and opted for not quite so enjoyable techniques in the long run, I'm rather sure. Splendid thinking re: reinheriting, too. ;)

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