A special quilt for my parents
This thread will eventually be picture heavy! I have the top completed, but I'll post photos of different blocks first, and why they are "special". Probably won't get it all posted tonight, I'll add photos as I can get them resized, etc.
I just started quilting last summer. I have a job with a lot of down time and wanted a "portable hobby". I also have a quilt top my great grandfather made that I want to hand quilt. I've done some smaller quilts, both hand quilted and machine quilted, but this is my first really big project (it's a queen size).
I won't have enough time to hand quilt the entire thing, so I'm going to machine quilt the majority, and then go through and hand quilt some smaller details (I'll had photos of those when it's done).
I wanted to make quilts for my parents. My Sister-In-Law (SIL) is a quilter, and one of my sisters has just started to dabble a little (she mostly crochets). So, I invited them to make some blocks if they wanted. My sister made two, and SIL made some. We had a weekend together last fall, where we got started, and then I picked up any blocks that were finished last month. The rest of the blocks were on me, since it was my idea, and I was a busy little quilter!!
SIL, being a quilter, wanted to know a) "color scheme/style of fabric", b) "size of blocks", c) "general theme". Uh... "I want to use any fabric that reminds me of them, doesn't matter what color", "my block patterns come in different sizes, and I don't know how to resize them", "whatever you think of when you think of my parents". I think I drover her a little nuts at first, lol.
And, so it went. We did decide to do just one quilt and mix it up. Some blocks that we wanted to include didn't get made, but I got the ones I thought were "key".
"Sheriff set"
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My dad was a cop before I was ever born. When I was five, he was elected as sheriff, and held that position for the next 12 years. During that time, he brought back the Sheriff's Posse, and they are still going today. (They do parades, but also take part in search and rescue, many on horseback.) It was a large part of his career, and he was often seen in uniform, including the badge, hat, and boots. I'm debating embroidering "Sheriff" onto the star. Need to learn to embroider first though!
The boot was the first block that was completed. My SIL created a pattern off a photo, and my sister pieced it.
I found a design of a star online, for paper crafting. I reduced the number of sections (to avoid having 10 seams meet in the middle), and, added my 1/4" seams, and paper pieced it. This was one of the last blocks I did, as all those seams meeting in the middle was intimidating!
I drew the cowboy hat up in Excel.
We used the same fabrics in each to help tie them together, but they are separated on the quilt top.