When we read in my husband's home town paper about a father giving his young daughter a kidney, we decided to send quilts. The family lives on a ranch in Sout East Montana. As we were approaching the 5 year anniversary of a kidney transplant from myself to my husband, this was something we could relate to.
For the Dad, I found a cheater pannel with running horses in rich browns and golds. I set out with no real plan, just deciding to let the quilt be what it wanted to be. I was thinking a lap quilt, for covering up on winter evenings, not that a Montana rancher has much time to sit! The quilt grew larger, like the big sky of Montana, 96 x 114. It was as hard to rein in as the wild horses on the fabrics. I had to wrangle bias edges, partial seams, Y seams, fussy cuts, lines that did not line up, and areas that would not lay flat. There were cutting errors to correct with splicing. I began to wonder if it would get made at all.
I was even tempted to just add 'slab O border'. I could not let this become a UFO. Finally it all came together. Some fabrics were sent to me by whisperingpines (thanks, Tille!). Her fabrics fit with mine wonderfully. When I saw her Lone Star quilts and her screen name, I knew she had to be from Montana. It turns out we lived not far from each other when I lived in Montana. Coincidentally our husbands had known each other for years at work, but it took The Quilt Show for us to meet.
The first problem was to make the horizontal pannel into a vertical quilt. Placing a square braid on point behind the pannel gave extra height. Letting the braid spill onto the border at the sides gave the quilt more length. I wanted the braid to point to the outer edges on all sides, which meant changing direction. This left space for fussy cuts. The quilt was assembled in a flip and sew method, both front and back.
I wanted to quilt freely around the stuffed horses, so I could not use my frame. After quilting the pannel, I added fussy cut triangles and the first row of braid to the top, a slab of batting, and a triangle to the back. I left a few inches unquilted all around so the next sections could be added. I continued this way untill compleete. With this meathod I was able to quilt the center without having the bulk to deal with. Just as some parts did not want to work out, others just fell into place. Blocks that did not work in the braid fit into the border.
For the daughter's Bento Box quilt, I wanted it to be bright and colorfull. I gathered prints from my stash, and purchased more, (building more stash!). I lost count how many. For the backing I chose fabric with rows of tiny sheep each with a different colorful print on their fleece coats. This fits well, as the family raises sheep on the ranch. I made 2 halves, quilted on a Flynn frame, then joined them. A very fun quilt!
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