Today has been a cold, quilty kind of day. Which makes it a perfect day to introduce my first ever appliqué family history quilt. It turned out splendid! Coincidence, that is what I'm now calling it, the splendid quilt.

I am so grateful for this opportunity to make this for my friend, Sue. Sue is fun, good, and kind. She is someone that I admire. Her Father passed away about three years ago from cancer. This quilt honors him.

The appliqué tree was Sue's idea. I never even fathomed that I could do such a thing. But because this is what she wanted, I was going to do it or die trying. Luckily, I know of an appliqué technique that made the process of putting on the tree and leaves fairly easy. Actually, it was this quilt that lead me to believe that I could do appliqué. Thus trying the technique in the row by row quilt. As life would have it, coming full circle, it was the row by row that solidified that I indeed do not know how to appliqué. I just was somehow able to do it for this quilt.

This was a special quilt for me to make. I loved getting to know Sue's dad, an amazing man, through these dear words.  It was a privilege to feel the love that he had for his family and the love they had for him. It was very touching to me in very profound way, to feel and see their strong connection that they had to one another. That spoke so tenderly to my heart and was very meaningful to me.

Sue and I picked out the colors of the leaves together. She wanted siblings, spouses of siblings and grandchildren to have their own group color. Sue's family is relatively small so it took me no time at all to stitch these names. Unfortunately, I had to stitch all of the grandkids names twice. It was all my fault too! For the dark fabric I had to use Sticky Fabric-Solvy to put the names on (instead of writing it on with friction pen). Solvy let's me print the names onto a washable sheet and adheres it to the fabric. I use it all the time (though on this quilt I only used it on the dark leaves). The green floss with white Solvy background was not too dark and I could see the names just fine. So, I did not check to see what a finish leaf looked like without the Solvy until I had finished all the leaves. That's when I found out that the color of floss and the color of fabric were almost a perfect match.  This sent me spiraling back to the drawing board! This time I picked a more contrasting green though I still think it's hard to see.

The braided tree trunk was the first thing that I did with the tree. I cut it out of the fabric and then braided the sections together making them more stable and a perfect starting point.

The names on either side of the trunk are stitched in my father's handwriting. There are also family names beneath the roots that my Dad did too. When I was stitching over his handwriting I couldn't stop thinking how special it was for me to stitch over his penmanship. I hope that someday I can turn his handwriting into a font for when it's time make my own family tree. 

Sue's Dad was a wordsmith--something I completely admire. I was born with the tiniest vocabulary. Words constantly fail and betray me. I love learning about and meeting people to whom words come easily and who can command them at well. Sue's Dad's words, though few on this quilt, captivate and linger with you.

The "Life Isn't Fair..." quote is a favorite of all the stitches. I printed it off my computer and traced it onto fabric; I then hung up the quote and read it everyday for a long time until my kids took it down.

I love this scripture. I love that it talks about roots and branches.

This poem is called Invictus. I had never heard of it before this. But, I have fallen in love with it! It is beautiful. It might be hard to read from this photo, so Google it if you have never read it before. It's worth it!

My sister helped me cut out the Stanger name with her Cameo machine which cut out the letters right from the fabric.  This made these nice looking letters with great ease!

The quilting on this quilt is phenomenal to say the least! My friend, Lainey, did the most amazing job. She exceeded my wildest dreams! The workmanship that went into her quilting is brilliant. I feel so indebted to her.

The quilted design that has the downward facing triangles is called Flying Geese.

This design above is called "Orange Peel." 

I love the zig zag!

The quilted diamonds are amazing! All the quilting is amazing!

Damon designed the upper and lower blocks. They both were paper pieced.

Everyone who sees the above block, with the light and dark coloring, thinks this was a hard block and comments on it. In reality, though, it was one of the easier ones. It's called a Pineapple Block, and I paper-pieced it, which made it easy.

A pieced backing. I like it. It took a long time to even think of what fabric to use for the back. But I'm happy with this.

It took me, from start to finish, two years to complete this quilt. I wish I was faster. I'm not. I learned so much and made so many mistakes. Some I didn't notice until I got it back from the quilter. Those ones almost killed me!

In all, I think I made a good quilt for a wonderful person. I'm happy and will be ready to start a new one in the Fall!