The John Deere panel quilt is finished. He was long arm quilted by the 3 Sisters, New Paris, Indiana and measures 91" by 100", perfect size for a double bed.
I love how this quilt has turned out. I started with this panel which I really don't think is very attractive. It's too saturated with orange and red and I don't think the blue and green plaid improves it any.
I still haven't figured out what the crop in the spring section is supposed to be. Definitely not spring in the Midwest.
I purchased the panel because I wanted the tractors, they look exactly like my father's old JD 6/20.
I thought about how to finish this panel for years, it came together very nicely.
I used 2" strips pulled from the 2" strip box to make the log cabin blocks.
I took this picture of a corner because I wanted you to see the lovely stripe used for the binding.
When I saw this fabric at the store, I bought it immediately, I knew it would be perfect for this quilt!
The fabric on the back is a neutral beige/brown.
An overall medium/large stippling was used for the quilting. This quilt is going to be gifted to a 12 year old boy. No fancy custom quilting necessary.
Link to post about the quilt.
Linking to To Do Tuesday, Midweek Makers, Wednesday Wait Loss, Clever Chameleon, Put Your Foot Down, Needle & Thread Thursday, Oh Scrap
I finished the John Deere quilt flimsy last Thursday but getting pictures was a challenge. We live on top of a hill with the clothesline on the west side of the house. The prevailing wind is from the west/northwest.
I finally gave up on the clothesline and went round to the east side. The flimsy is laying on the porch steps.
I did try draping it on the old tree stump in the yard but it was far enough from the house for the wind to catch. I really didn't feel like running down in the cow pasture if the wind blew it away.
I used 2" strips for the log cabin blocks, I also used some 2-1/2" strips then trimmed the blocks to size.
The flimsy measures 90" by 99" and will be long arm quilted. But of course there's a waiting list for long arm quilting but I'm on the list!
This will never be my favorite quilt but I like it and I think I've really improved the look from the original panel.
Readers seemed to enjoy reading my last post about life here on the farm. Some mentioned they passed it onto their grandchildren to enjoy.
Here is a link to my old blog, Gretchen's Little Corner which was through Word Press. I talked a lot about the farm on the old blog. If you look through the categories listed on the right hand side, you see the topic of the post. Children (adults too) might enjoy reading and learning about farm life. The most important thing to remember though, this is just a snippet of farm life on OUR farm. Every farm is different and our farm is not as modern as most.
Linking to Needle & Thread Thursday, Put Your Foot Down, Peacock Party, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, TGIFF!, Brag About Your Beauties, Finished Or Not Friday, UFO Busting
The maple leaf borders are sewn onto the John Deere center. I will add more narrow borders to get this to the correct size before adding the log cabin blocks.
At this point the flimsy measures 48-1/2" square, yes it is square even if the picture doesn't look like it.
Now I've added a narrow cream border, a checkerboard border then a final narrow cream border which brings the measurement to 54-1/2".
I'm so thrilled to see green grass again, in a couple months I'll be tired of mowing but not yet!
Next blocks are for the quilt are going to be 9" finished log cabin blocks which haven't been pieced yet. I'll start on those tomorrow.
I don't have a pattern for this project, just making it up as I go along.
Other posts about this quilt, here and here.
Linking to Peacock Party, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, TGIFF!, Brag About Your Beauties, Finished Or Not Friday, UFO Busting
The next border for the John Deere quilt will be maple leaves. In my last post about this quilt, I had said I was going to be making lots of leaves because there was going to be a second border with leaves. Changed my mind, this border will be the only leaf border.
I liked the way the log cabin blocks look for the Moda Love project so that's what will come next. I'm planning on finishing out the flimsy with log cabin blocks made with 2" finished logs.
Back to the leaves, I made a small change to the maple leaf block. I only used 8 pieces of fabric. I used a rectangle instead of 2 squares.
Why sew more seams than I have to?
And a picture of the back.
For me, this was the best way to press.
Some of the leaves have wider stems but I switched my plan and made the rest more narrow.
These leaves finish at 6".
Linking to To Do Tuesday, Midweek Makers, Clever Chameleon, Wednesday Wait Loss, Put Your Foot Down, Needle & Thread Thursday
The next border on the John Deere quilt will be 6" finished maple leaves. I'm piecing two leaves from each of the fabrics I've pulled. That will give me more blocks than I need for this border but I'm planning on am additional border of leaves farther along.
The weather this week has been very mixed up. Sunday evening it started snowing.
This is what we woke up to Monday morning.
The snow completely melted by 3 pm except for the sad snowman.
The grandsons had a wonderful time playing in the snow all bundled up in their snow pants, coats and boots.
Now we've had several days in the high 50's, low 60's and they're running around without coats!
Linking to Peacock Party, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, TGIFF!, Brag About Your Beauties, Finished Or Not Friday, UFO Busting
A new quilt is in progress. This will be a quilt for the oldest grandson who will be 12 this summer.
Several years ago a friend and I attended a guild quilt show in southwestern Michigan. The quilts were lovely and the vendors were pretty good too.
One of my purchases was this John Deere panel. This tractor looks just like the old John Deere 6-20 of my father's, that is why I bought the panel.
The panel shows the tractor in the four seasons.
This doesn't really look like spring to me but remember, I bought the panel because of the tractor not because of realistic crops.
The way I can tell this is the summer scene is the field corn in the background is tasseling.
This scene does look like fall but they definitely overdid the reddish/orange color.
But winter looks like winter.
The first thing I did was to cut off that ugly blue/green plaid. Now doesn't this look better? That plaid has been deposited in the trash.
The problem with panels is they aren't printed on the fabric squarely. There going to be some strange sashing on this quilt to make blocks fit.
More to show you on the next post. Remember, stay home and stay healthy!
Linking to To Do Tuesday, Clever Chameleon, Midweek Makers, Wednesday Wait Loss, Put Your Foot Down, Needle & Thread Thursday
