2018 Quilt Review Part 1. East Tennessee Quilt

I haven't been posting in a long while but I still have been quilting. I have several tops that I finished but have not gotten around to quilting. I finished a quilt that I had started a while back for my brother. I had designed the top to reflect local East Tennessee landmarks and aesthetics.

I call it my East Tennessee quilt. The top is suppose to represent the Great Smokey Mountains that shape a very large part of this area and heritage. The section below is suppose to be the mountain's reflections in the rivers and streams. I used an orange for the mountains to show the fall colors in the leaves but green for the reflection to show how it is in the summer. The bottom checker board area represents the fall leaves and more of the color that can be seen in the area. The surrounding border actually represents the roads through the mountains.

I also have sewn on patches from the national park to show case many of the walking trail. The large patch in the center was an antique boy scouts patch that my cousin had earned. My grandmother found it and had no clue where it came from. She gave it to me to use since she knew I was doing this quilt. When my cousin came to visit I showed the quilt to him and he told me where it came from. I had asked at the time if he wanted it back because I had not started the quilting process but he said to keep it.

The quilt is actually a couple of years in the making. It took me about 2 weeks to do the piecing and another several weeks to find all the patches and sew them on. I did this part in 2017 around September. The only reason it got finished in 2018 was because I decided to finally quilt it. I started hand quilting in February because my wrists were hurting too much when I tried to pull it through my machine. I'm slow at this process so it was a 3 month journey getting it finished. It was suppose to be my brother's birthday present in 2017 but he got it in March of 2018. He has been very happy with it finding new things about it that he loves.

And finally before I forget this post is brought to you by Harney & Son's Paris Tea. I found a tin in World Market and added to my rather large collection. I love this one it smells so good like a citrus vanilla. I took several bags to work and everyone wanted one to use as an air freshener!