Finally...Off the Frame

As promised, here is the finished "2007 Great Alaska Shop Hop Quilt." This quilt took such a long time to finish, over a week I think. Between life and thread changes, its a wonder I ever finished. This is a photo of the main threads that I used on the quilt. Quite a variety.

I wanted to make this quilt fun, without going too crazy. First a reminder "before" picture. This has actually been quilted, but without better lighting (which I'm working on), you can't really tell.

And now...some of the many different blocks. I tried out several things for the first time ever and am quite pleased with how they turned out. For example, curved cross-hatching. I used Deloa Jones Boomerang ruler and it was quite easy. For a better look at the quilting, click on the photo to enlarge it.

Nothing special about the quilting on this block...I just liked the colors.

This block has my favorite "flower" in the center. I used the design in the center of a few other blocks as well, for some continuity.

These blocks represent Aurora Borealis viewed over the mountains. (click here to see a real picture of the Northern Lights that is quite similar to these blocks.) Lyn wanted to make sure that the mountains actually looked like mountains. I thought the diagonal lines quilted in the same direction as the mountain "tops" accomplished this.

With this block and a couple of other areas of sashing, I used Deloa Jones' "Rope-a-Dope" ruler for making cable. The hardest part was trying to determine how to do the corner; I was pleased with how it turned out.

I did meandering feathers for the leaves in this tree and then tried another new quilting design for the grass and the tree bark.  The grass design came from Darlene Epp's Pocket Guides. I've had these guides since I began longarm quilting and I refer to them all the time. They are indispensable.   

There were several tree blocks on this quilt. With this one, I did "bricks" (something new for me) at the bottom to give the effect that the tree was behind a bridge with water flowing underneath.

I kept the sashing and border quilting more simple to keep attention focused on the inner blocks in this quilt. A swag in the sashing and paisley fill in the border with matching thread accomplished the look I was going for. 

This was a fun quilt to work on. My brain was tired by the end, so I took a day off and made a convergence quilt. 

Thanks for looking!!

Dory