Friday, September 5, 2014

Welcome September!


Fall, I love this time of year!  I love the cooler days, the foggy mornings, the harvest in the fields and most of all the brilliant changing color of the leaves as the trees prepare for winter.So even if Mother Nature seems to have her dates mixed up today as the forecast calls for 88 degrees, humid and thundershowers, we know those days are limited as we are already seeing the leaves begin to change colors. In honor of that I present "Fall Forever," my Modern Maples quilt!



 
I began this quilt last fall...er... a-hem....my how time fly's....when I joined Debbie at A Quilters Table Falling for Modern Maples group QAL. Now I was a bit late to start but loved everyones so much I couldn't resist. I was inspired by Lorelie (Mermaid Sews) version here and I just love Di's (ylmommyx4) version here. So I finished the quilt top early this year and it sat in my WIP pile for a bit. I finally decided I wanted to send it off to a long arm quilter and not risk my more organic
FMQ'ing ;)



I used fat quarters from my stash and mixed up designers such as Anna Marie Horner, Denyse SchmidtViolet Craft and even Kaffe Fassett. Then I sprinkled in some smaller blocks using Kona Solids and finally I used many, many 5in charm squares that I had from participating in several Low Volume charm swaps on Flickr. I love the results! It is a riot of saturated, fun color! I laid the blocks out in a somewhat chronological pattern for the life of a leaf, from the green of summer to the brown of late fall......and the purple, well the purple was a creative design decision!  I love it in this quilt!







As for the quilting,  I asked for swirls, reminiscent of leaves as they fall from the tree or as they swirl on the gusts of wind. She did a great job! You can feel the movement when looking at the quilt!


Forever Fall is backed with the beautiful yellow Key Tree by Tula Pink - a treasure that I found at a local quilt shop earlier this year which was just too perfect for these leaves! The binding is from DS Quilts at JoAnn's - I love the orange plaid with just a bit of blue and turquoise as the binding - it complements the colors of the quilt while adding just the right pop of color to frame it. I am very happy to have this quilt back home and finished just in time for snuggles in front of the fire on those chilly fall evenings!
 



So sorry for the poor photo quality, my camera had died - and my phone obviously does not take pics that can be resized without distortion. Please leave any suggestions for a new camera if you have one you love!

Stats:
Name: Forever Fall
Block: Modern Maples
Fabrics: FQ's from Stash and LV Charms from Swaps
Size: 60 in x 60 in
Thread: Pieced with Aurifill 2600 50wt (my fave)
Quilted by Cathy H. of Quilting Memories Ft Wayne Indiana

Linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts Finish It Up Friday and TGIFF