Country Girl

I was so excited about getting my Harold and the Purple Crayon mini quilt finished in time to take it my guild meeting, and turn it in for the upcoming quilt show, I forgot to take a picture of it before I handed it over. I'll be sure to take a picture of it hanging in the show!

I've changed the name of the other little quilt I was working on for the show to Country Girl. Here she is:

You can click on any of the pictures to make them bigger.

I love this little quilt! I liked the Madrona Road fabric as soon as I saw it, and I surprised myself by buying a bundle of the entire collection, and in the pink/orange colorway! The fabrics begged me to put them in a sampler, but not just any sampler. I found the Perfect Points pattern on the Connecting Threads website.

From the beginning, this quilt has had me thinking of Flagstaff, AZ, my home town. Look at these design motifs:

We didn't have a truck, but my stepdad had a big, old, carryall. It's like an enclosed truck. It certainly drove like a truck; I had to use both hands to shift gears!

We didn't have a windmill, but we had a well for water. That's why I take quick showers, and turn off the water when soaping my hands or dishes, or brushing my teeth. We learned to conserve water, or we would run out!

We did have a donkey! My sister, Grace, begged to keep it, then she had the job of taking care of it. On mornings when she was late with its breakfast, that donkey made a lot of noise.

In the summer, fields around Flagstaff are filled with prairie sunflowers.

There's no better place to look at stars. At 7000 ft. altitude, you feel as if you could reach out and touch the sky. Did you know that Flagstaff is the first International Dark Sky City? Those nighttime views are protected!

Julie has been my friend since we were in high school together in Flagstaff. We encouraged each other in textile arts and other projects, love for the outdoors, and appreciation of all things quirky and/or beautiful. As high school friends do. Julie commented on a Flickr picture of this quilt, "That's an amazing amount of work!" I can't begin to add up all the hours that went into this quilt. Including the hours picking out stitches that didn't work, like the machine embroidered words I later covered with a Dresden/sunflower. 

Burying threads, so there is no backstitching on the quilt top.
This bandanna print is the back of the quilt. 

Every time I started or stopped a line of quilting stitches, I pulled the top and bobbin threads to the same side, knotted them, threaded them onto a needle and buried the knots in the quilt layers. That was a lot of loose threads to hide!

Even after I posted a picture on facebook, and called the quilt done, I went back and added a few more areas of free motion quilting. 

I added the vine stitching in some white areas to flatten them.

I loved working on this little quilt, and it's got me looking forward to visiting Flagstaff soon! I will enjoy seeing it hanging in the upcoming quilt show, and when it comes home, let's see if I hang it on the wall, or if I add some more quilting to the background! 

Although, I am already onto a new project...

Tie-dyed fabric, getting chopped!