For the last ‘Closer Look’ of the ‘It’s Where I Live Challenge’ we’re going to take a closer look at the piece I created – Tree Topography. 

Tree Topography

I live on Kroncke Road, Poynette, WI
so my three colors were
'K'haki
'P'ersimmon (shades of Persimmon...of course I had to go with Persimmon - my daughter's name is Persimoni!)
'W'alnut
Browsing flickr for some inspiration I came across some topography quilts - as soon as I saw one I knew this was what I had to do! Not only is it perfectly fitting for the 'where I live' theme but I used to be a civil engineer and my husband is a land surveyor. PERFECT! To make it even better - we had a topo map of our orchard from when we built out house. I had to use 14 different fabrics to create the topo of our land and I used both reverse appliqué and raw edge appliqué to create the look you see.

When I was done with the topo portion of the quilt I looked at it the long way and I saw a tree trunk forming for me in the higher contours. I just couldn't shake that feeling that this piece wanted to become a tree. And so I listened to it and I'm super happy that I did!
I used brown thread for the appliqué and then two different shades of orange for the free motion quilting of the tree and contours. I added a bit of copper metallic thread to the tree just to add a touch of sparkle.
I am beyond happy with this piece!
This piece measures approximately: 28.5" x 14.25"

The next and LAST Project QUILTING Challenge goes up tomorrow at NOON!  It’s not too late to get into all the fun – great prizes and the Grand Prize is AMAZING!

Miss Earlier Closer Looks? No Worries!

• A Closer Look, Part 1
• A Closer Look, Part 2
• A Closer Look, Part 3

In 2007, I only attended one day of the Quilts By Barb Crazy Extravaganza because my baby was still pretty little and I couldn't leave her for too long. I decided to try out a convergence technique that I learned from the book ‘Ricky Tims’ Convergence Quilts: Mysterious, Magical, Easy and Fun” to create this unique wall hanging. I took a piece of wildly hand dyed pink fabric and converged it in a curved method with a tamer hand dyed lime green fabric. After I added the border I decided it still needed more but I wasn't sure what. I put it in my bag to take home and work on it there.

Two years later I found the convergence project again. I put it up on my design wall and looked at it for a few weeks everytime I went up and downstairs. Finally, I realized it needed to be horizontal...not vertical. So I hung it up horizontally on my design wall and walked by it for a few more weeks.

Finally I had an idea! I drew out some butterflies on fun butterfly batik fabric from www.hoosierquilts.etsy.com and appliquéd them to the quilt. I then embellished with textured fibers, hand-dyed fibers and swarovski crystals (a little sparkle is a MUST!).

Butterfly Garden is my final result!

A hanging sleeve is sewn on the back of this quilt to simplify installation for the new owner. I hope whoever buys this enjoys it as much as I do.

Approximate dimensions: 31”x21”

I have a small problem in life...I always have to be unique...or at least as unique as possible, AND I have to be as independent as possible. When I was thinking about what the guests' could sign for the wedding in lieu of a guest book, I thought, "Why not quilt pieces and then a quilt could be made?" Luckily, my mother-in-law is a quilter and she was all for the idea. Then she made her mistake...she let me choose the shape of the pieces :) As we were looking through books we saw this quilt with pieces that looked like an apple core...it couldn't have been more perfect...or more difficult. But, my mother-in-law never complained. She had a template made, hand-dyed 66 pieces of fabric in fun colors, not too bright (which I love but wouldn't work well for people to sign) and not too pastel (I am NOT a pastel person), ironed the fabric onto freezer paper and cut out each piece...what an amazing woman!

We put the empty pieces out with general instructions to try to avoid writing a quarter-inch from the sides...this worked pretty well. We had people sign them at the showers and the wedding to ensure the most participation as possible. We ended up with quite a few pieces but we still had some left over....I'll show you what I did with those later on! After Diane pieced the quilt together (which wasn't easy with all of those curves) she sent it to her sister, Barb of Quilts By Barb, to quilt.


Here is the result.... It is a fun and beautiful quilt. Everytime I look at it I feel that I find a new persons' message that I hadn't seen before...