Do people still read blogs? Northern Wilderness Quilt

Hello!!!  Is there anyone still out there?  It's been so long since I've blogged on a regular basis, 2018 ish????  And to be honest I've been using a lot of social media, facebook and instagram.  I just can't get into tic tok right now but I hear there's a boat load of stuff on there for quilting and crafts as well.  How do people do it all?

I retired this year  (hehehe so I can quilt more!! )and there are a number of occasions where I sat down and wanted to find out what regular quilters like me were doing.   So I opened up facebook (which I think has some really good  groups) and Instagram (which I think has taken a wrong turn since being purchased by Meta) and the inspiration just wasn't there.  Both of those platforms have  ALOT of adds and posts for business which is good becasue I'm pretty good at buying things.....not always that good with making things for those same purchases, but the potential is there!  However I wanted to see what real quilters were working on, not just the businesses that enable them.

The other big difference between a blog and a post on social media, is the content.  Blogs go into detail about the process the things that worked well, the things that didn't....you know what I'm talking about.  And honestly I want to show you what I'm working on  and see what your working on.  I'm interested in more than the shops and quilters that make close or more than 6 figures on the craft.  I want to see what those that are crafting are doing.  But blogging does take time....so we'll see if I can keep this up again.  

Goals for my blog are easy.  First to share my process and tools as much as I can.   I can show what works for me, what I liked what I didn't like.  I love getting comments from people on things that worked for them (I'm assuming there's still a person or two that reads blogs :).  Second to have  an archive of what I've make.  I did pretty good with the archives until 2019.  I know my producity was greatly reduced but there were quilts that were made, there were experitments gone both ways, good and bad.  So I'll try to catch up on a few of those for every new thing that I post about for 2022.

So with that said, I'm already a day late, I wanted to blog every Monday, but really do I need such strigent rules???  Rules are meant to be broken and I certainly wasted no time with this one!

What have I done in 2022?  I'll have to dig deep to find something, it's been a year!  When I said "bring on 2022 I'm ready"   I had no idea what is store!  But I was ready, almost, made it through and here we are today. Ready to be inspired?????  Lets start maybe with something that I didn't make but something that I quilted.

Theresa did a fabulous job on this #appliquequilt. It’s based on @northern_threads #northernwildernessquilt. Theresa made a few modifications, king size and she wanted the blocks to reflect her families travels to the national parks. Her and her daughter drafted a few blocks and it looks spectacular!! I have them all here! So hard to choose a favorite, but two of my favorites are at the end. Which blocks were modified?? First lets take a look at the whole quilt, wow, this will definitely be the star of the room! Its so big there's no way I could get a picture of the whole thing without a 12 ft ladder!

King Size Northern Wilderness Quilt

This quilt was meant to show all the national parks they have been to over the years, here's a couple they modified to better reflect their experiences.

He's hiking and he has a Cubs hat on in the top corner, int he bottom opposite corner you can see them white water rafting with the fire by the side of the river

She's in the kayak, I recognized her as soon as I saw it!

Her and her daughter drafted the train block, this was a special memory they wanted included and it's a fabulous block!!

I love when quilters do this, take a pattern and make it your own, personalize to you. This will certainly be treasured for many generations and I can just imagine future generations talking about the adventures that were had in all of the different blocks. Great job Janice

Here's a few more pics of the beautiful quilt -

Now for a few details on the quilting. This has one layer of quilters dream wool batting. Is there anything better than wool batting (provided you don't have allergies). I used a 60 wt Glide thread on top for all the dense background quilting. Mostly bottom line in the applique and pieced blocks. I try to do as little quilting on the applique and blocks so they really stand out in the quilt. If there is any area that has greater than a fist with no quilting, some will be add to help enhance the scene and provide a more consistent look to the quilting. Push the background back with dense quilting and that allows the pieced and applique to appear as though they are almost trupunto!

Rulers, you know there was not alot of ruler work but I think every ruler was on the table! I can't help it, even the straight line rulers, I used 5 different ones, totally not necessary but yet I can't find another way to do it!! Here's a picture of the threads, the marking tools and the key rulers after I cleaned up the others, oh it was such a mess! But neat and tidy for you!! If you're wondering why I have tape on the curved rulers, I do that so I know which part of the border nees which ruler and the location of where I should mark the dots for quilting. LOL I'd lose my mind if I didn't do that.

bottom line thread to match the applique and blocks

air erasable fine line marking tool and water filled pen for erasing (you dont' want to too much water in case the fabric bleeds.   And scrubbies, just in case you need to pick out a thread or two, they are great for catching those wayward threadst that have been rejected.

rulers, why do I need so many straight rulers???  The tape tells me where to put the registration marks for the border.

And just like that my first blog post of 2022 is complete. It's been a while since I've been in the linky parties, if you know any good ones, let me know, I'd love to join and go see what other are doing.

Have a wonderful quilty week!