Happy First Day of Fall 2022! Nancy's Trail to Kansas Quilt + Elaine's Yellow Brick Road Quilt

 At exactly 9:03 PM EDT today, the Sun will traipse across the Celestial Equator.  Do you know what that means?  It means that today is the first day of FALL, despite temps still in the nineties and the threat of boob sweat stopping us Southerners from decking ourselves out in sweaters as we long to do.  We will rip out our impatiens and plant mums, and pile pumpkins, gourds, and random bales of hay on our suburban porches.  We may still be wearing sandals for a few months longer, but we will be choosing fall colors for our pedicures from here on out.  It's all about "mind over matter" as we celebrate the arrival of Fake Fall in the Carolinas.  

To help us all get in the mood for the new season, I've been holding back a couple of Fall client quilts to share with you today.  Grab your pumpkin spiced latte, your pumpkin muffins, slather on some pumpkin spice hand cream and if it STILL doesn't feel like it's fall, try lighting a pumpkin spice candle or two.  Here we go!

Nancy's Piecing the Trail to Kansas Quilt

There is a story behind this quilt, and another story behind THAT story...  When Nancy contacted me about this project, it had been languishing as a UFO (UnFinished Object) for quite some time.  The pattern is called Piecing the Trail to Kansas by Lynne Hagmeier of Kansas Troubles Quilters, and it comes with a historical fiction "journal" that has a chapter for each month about the joys and sorrows experienced by a family of pioneers on the wagon train to Kansas Territory in the 1850s.  The quilt block for each month related to what was happening in the book for that month's chapter.

Nancy tells me that she really got into the story about the pioneer experience and had enjoyed piecing the quilt top as a BOM (Block of the Month) program at a local quilt shop, but once the BOM program ended, her enthusiasm for finishing it petered out.

Nancy's 79 x 90 Trail to Kansas Quilt, Finished at Last with Primitive Fall E2E

I'm so glad she brought this to me because it's a gorgeous quilt that deserved to be finished!  There is also a story behind the Primitive Fall edge-to-edge quilting design we selected for this quilt, featuring pumpkins, moons, stars, birds (crows?), and botanicals.

Detail of Primitive Fall E2E on Nancy's Quilt

In the pattern cover photo below, you can see the additional appliqué elements that were supposed to be added to the background of this quilt.  Nancy had had enough of this project and just didn't feel motivated to do all of that appliqué work, even though the appliqué elements were symbolic representations of the storyline about the pioneer woman's family.  

Happy Fall, Y'All: Bernie's Sugar Shack Leaves Quilt circa 2004-2006

I know you're all tired of my snail's pace updates on my current projects, and Val's Archives Linky for this week is Fall Themed Projects, so I thought I'd share the Vermont-inspired Sugar Shack Leaves quilt that I made for my husband Bernie back in 2004-2006.  That was before I even knew what a blog was, so I haven't written about this one here before.

"Sugar Shack Leaves," 51" x 51", completed in 2006

The pattern for the leaf blocks came from Quilter's Newsletter Magazine Issue 357, "Shelly's Swirling Leaves, but I changed the borders.  I wanted to evoke the feeling of laying on our backs on that Vermont mountainside outside the sugar shack, surrounded by the forest at peak foliage season, with those brightly colored leaves floating down from a clear blue sky.  My version of the quilt was published in the Quilting Bee section of QN Issue 397, November 2007.

This was my third completed quilt, my first attempt at hand stitched applique (for the leaf stems), and my first and only hand quilted quilt.  It's only a throw sized quilt, but my boys were little at that time and I was only able to work on it in small snatches of time here and there so it took me about two years from start to finish.  Here you can see a much younger, exhausted version of myself working on the hand quilting back in 2005:

Hand Quilting In Progress, back in December 2005

How time flies!  That photo was taken in my in-laws' motor coach after we had spent the entire day in Disney World with toddlers.  Hence the dark circles under my eyes, general exhaustion, and "Really?  You need to take my picture NOW?!" look on my face.  But it's kind of neat now to have an "in progress" shot to share.  I'm using my square Grace lap hoop and my Roxanne thimble.

Hand Quilting Detail

This quilt wasn't really the best choice for showing off hand quilting.  You can't even see it unless you look up close, and my little random leaves quilted in the background look pretty lame to me now.  But it was relaxing hand work and I did enjoy it.  Maybe if I ever get around to setting my Jingle applique blocks, that one might be a good candidate for some hand quilting.

One more shot to share -- the machine embroidered quilt label:

That's it for today.  I'm linking up with Val's Tuesday Archives linky.  Have a great day!

I'm in Quilting Gallery's "Fall's Glory" Themed Quilt Contest This Week! Please Vote!

My Sugar Shack Leaves Quilt, 51" x 51"

Happy Fall Friday, everyone!  I know Fall officially kicks off tomorrow, but voting for the Quilting Gallery's weekly themed quilt contest begins today.  I thought my Sugar Shack Leaves quilt, completed in 2006, was perfect for this week's "Fall's Glory" theme so I entered it in the contest. 

When I selected fabrics for this quilt, I deliberately incorporated some deeper reds and jewel tones to get away from the brown-on-brown effect of so many autumn themed quilts.  I chose a variety of light blue background fabrics to create the effect of fall leaves swirling around against a blue sky, and I'm really happy with the contrast and energy that resulted.  This is also the first and only piece that I've quilted by hand.


Hand Quilting Detail

Machine Embroidered Quilt Label

Please click here to pop over to the Quilting Gallery blog where you can see all of the beautiful entries and cast votes for your favorites.  Voting is open now through the weekend, with one vote allowed per IP address, and the winners will be announced Monday morning.  Of course I'd appreciate it if you felt inclined to vote for me.  ;-)  Thank you!