Sunday, October 25, 2015

Family Tradition Quilt

For those of you finding your way here for the first time through Amy's Quilt Festival, welcome! The quilt I entered in the festival has a story and I wanted to share the reason I had to make it with y'all. We ranch in the southwestern desert and ranching is a way of life for us. Its not only what we do, but it is who we are and the kids have always been a part of everything we do.

I had to document our girl flanking calves.


She's been holding calves in the branding pen for a long time:


The kids learned the ropes at an early age


                            

And they learned well


They grew up in the saddle


And spent many a day learning the fundamentals of horsemanship


and of one ornery mule:


Teaching the kids the family business and working together as a family has been  one of the greatest blessings through the years:

                            

So when my friend, Shelly, of Prairie Moon Quilts, designed this quilt and shared it over at Riley Blake , I began rifling through my stash immediately:

                       
It was a given that I was going to make it. It could not be more perfect! I spent a bit of time getting the letters cut out for the applique during the NFR:

                          

I loved every minute I worked on it and I had a vision for what I thought might work for the quilting. I rarely take a quilt to Jackie with a vision. I hand them over to her and tell her to do as she pleases and every single time, she chooses the perfect design. However, this time I asked her about quilting a barbed wire pattern.


 I had a picture of the sashing in a quilt I had seen at a quilt show years ago that I showed to her and she sketched it out on a sticky note. She and her daughter, Sandy, who is a teacher, and a quilter,  worked up a plan together after we met and when I picked up the quilt a few weeks ago, I was so tickled with the outcome that I may have gotten a little teary eyed. Look at this fabulous quilted barbed wire!



 Sandy quilted the perfect design in the stars as well and the combination, just puts an already perfect quilt over the top.

                                            

I chose a denim blue I had in my stash for the backing and a red denim for the binding. The brown thread was the perfect choice and looks wonderful on the back too.


The quilt measures 70 x 80 and I'm over the moon about how it turned out:


And no quilt photo shoot is complete without a little wind in these parts:                                  

                               

Shelly, thank you for designing the perfect quilt for us!


I'm entering this quilt in Amy's Blogger's Quilt Festival. Its always such a great source of inspiration so pop on over there and enjoy the show. Thank you for stopping in for a visit and thank you for letting me share a little piece of our life at the end of the dirt road.

13 comments:

Cactusneedle said...

Love the quilt! Beautiful job.

Janet O. said...

That is the perfect quilt for you--and it turned out great. I love the barbed wire quilting. : )

Dorian said...

Oh that is perfect Karin! And you did a lovely job on it too. Just the right colors. I love your family pictures :)

Quilting Babcia said...

Great quilt, and the barbed wire fence quilting is the icing on the cake! Your children had a great childhood. Every child should be so fortunate.

Anonymous said...

Great post

Tired Teacher said...

An excellent job all the way around - back story, pattern, fabric choice, and quilting! Well done.

allthingzsewn said...

Loved the picture of the kids learning ranching at the early stage. And the quilt is definitly perfect. Now just where is this going? I see a piece of your heart here.

Ranch Mom said...

Oh my Goodness! I love this quilt! You did a wonderful job and the barbed wire quilting was amazing. I just used a friend's quilting machine for a quilt I have been working on for a while. It is harder than it looks:)

Shelly said...

I think you made me a little teary-eyed, too. Thank YOU for using my pattern! This is a great post, and that is super barbed wire quilting. It looks great!

juliehallfeldhaus said...

I bought that same pattern!! Now I can't wait to make it. I love the quilting also. I may have to send mine to your quilter:)

Alycia~Quiltygirl said...

Looove it!! But I love all the family photos and history more - what fun to share those photos. And you are right - working together as a family - it doesn't get any better than that ;-) Hugs!

Nancy said...

Oh my gosh, Karin, what fun! That was brilliant to use the barbed wire as inspiration for the quilting. It's perfect. And I love the intro to your post! Your children have been blessed to live on the ranch.

Jayne Honnold said...

What a great story and a beautiful quilt. I found you through the Quilters Festival, and I am adding you to my blogroll. Good luck!

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