Northwoods Wilderness BOM

every once in a while i get the joy of quilting a quilt that, as a flimsy, takes my breath away. in the LAing world, those are the easy quilts...

Cyndi's quilt was one of those quilts!!

i pebbled the background and pretty much outlined all the applique, so you can imagine how many thread changes were involved...i choose to not quilt the pieced blocks, but did echo or SID the bigger patches that needed to be nailed down. this was hard for me, cause i usually dense quilt everything- but i like the look of how not quilting defines certain areas (filed away for future reference)

i must admit, i'm proud as punch of myself, i think i knocked this one out of the park forest... granny always told me, "don't break your arm patting yourself on the back"  there are exceptions to every rule *smile*
i'm hoping to see this quilt hanging in the upcoming show...

this is gonna be a picture heavy post, and i'm not apologizing :) i left the pics big, so clicking them will give you the opportunity to scrutinize my work better *grin*

the picture on the right is the front, the picture on the left- the back...enjoy!!

grizzly bear
blueberries
 crow/raven?
 the border.... i wanted the green to look like blades of grass.
loon
 ice
flower
eagle
outhouse
orca
mountains
the moose on the back is a favorite...
 flowers
 the cornerstones.... has a Aztec look on the back
 i did google image search 'dragonfly wings' so i could get it as realistic as possible

trees

all quilting is done 100% free hand....

lets see- it took around 10 to 12 hours to quilt just the pebbles and about 15 bobbins of thread..total quilting hours- around 33...that's not counting standing and staring time *giggle*

quilt pattern here

23 comments:

  1. What a gorgeous quilt and you have definitely done it justice with the quilting. I love it and I'm sure the quilter will too. It's ok to pat yourself on the back occasionally!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Your quilt is just fabulous!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. This quilt is spectacular! The top was great before and your quilting helped to show off such a beautiful design. I hope it ends up in a show also. Fellow quilters will want to see this one up close.

    ReplyDelete
  4. It looks wonderful! I can only dream of doing a job that good on my longarm.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Fabulous job on this gorgeous quilt of Alaska! I love that you did large pebbles because they look wonderful. I used the lupine block and the glacier block in my quilt from our trip. so I think this one is a winner!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Wow - I so enjoy looking at your work, but you are right - this one "out of the park"
    Teresa in TN

    ReplyDelete
  7. What a treat to see this quilt! I am working on this pattern myself. I plan to top stitch all the fusible applique pieces down before I put the blocks together...that's where I've been stuck for over a year. Your post makes me want to work on it.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Holy cow!!!!!! That is a fabulous quilt, both the piecing, the applique and the quilting. You knocked that one out of the ball park and into the next state.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I saw this quilt at the Lancaster, NH fair this past weekend and fell in love with it as soon as I saw it. It is beautiful!!!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Wonderful, Shannon! Go ahead and break your arm doing that patting. Thirty-three hours is a really reasonable amount of time spent on quilting considering all that work. When I think of doing that on a domestic machine, I'm thinking it would have taken 100 hours or so. No wonder I have a difficult time getting myself to the machine to do my own quilting! In any case, it's very well done on your part. A winning quilt no matter if it receives an award or not!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Absolutely wonderful quilt! I think it's one of those instances when 2+2 equals a lot more than four.
    Just a great job!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Beautiful work! I have this pattern and have just started gathering fabrics for it. You inspire me!

    ReplyDelete
  13. really wonderful-I especially luv the butterfly block

    ReplyDelete
  14. I certainly like your quilting much better than the example......too many open spaces on the original.....yours has personality. Love it!

    ReplyDelete
  15. Yep, gorgeous quilting as usual! I love your creativity with this quilt!

    ReplyDelete
  16. When I saw this quilt I thought Native - North American Aboriginals. Considering these peoples are widespread and span the Canadian/US border, it is tempting to group them together. In some ways this may be true but there are differences. I will respond to this multi-faceted work as if it is Native in the generic sense and mention the objects I discern.
    1. bear, bear paws
    2. blueberries, bear
    4. quilt border - blades of grass
    5. loon, water
    6. ice, trees, shorelines
    7. flower, butterfly, water
    8. eagle, trees, sun
    9. outhouse, trees, sun
    10, orca, water, water grass
    11. mountains, water (?ice), shore
    12. moose, grass, water, land
    13. flowers, land, shore
    14. Aztec, cornerstone, grass, wter, land, habitation
    15. sunflower, dragonfly (?wings?), sun
    16. trees
    What do the icons symbolize? What stories do the blocks tell? I believe each block has its own story and each story is for the beholder to determine.

    ReplyDelete
  17. This is a truly amazing quilt!!

    ReplyDelete
  18. This is so beautiful! I love the added depth the quilting gives to the appliqué! So delicate. This looks like an Alaska quilt. The blue flowers are Forget me Nots, Alaska's state flower. The pink flowers are Fireweed. They grow wild all over the arctic. After a fire, they are the first flowers to bloom. There is also a popular myth that Fireweed is the calendar of summer, the blooms grow along the entire stem in the beginning of summer and slowly disappear through summer. At the end of summer, only the top blooms. I'm not sure if that's true, but it's romantic :) I'm going to buy this pattern now. Thanks for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
  19. I just saw this quilt hanging at a retreat. The story is that is was to celebrate Alaska's statehood. There is another block with the state appliquéd, some words and a small dog sled team profiled. It makes me want to see what other states have these kinds of beauties. :)

    ReplyDelete

thanks so much for taking the time to comment, they feed my blog. i do my best to reply to each and every one! you can bet your comments are ALWAYS read and appreciated.