Tanner Reunion modern quilt from a maidenhair fern

Today's feature is from Linda of a madienhair fern.  Linda is a mom to 5 and has been sewing most of her life, but took up quilting in 2007 (same as me!).  She has become quite skilled with her free motion quilting, you can see a lot of her work in pictures here.  Also here are her finished quilts, an impressive list!  I really love the quilt we're featuring today, the Tanner Reunion quilt. I love the fabric line, Sweetwater's Reunion from Moda, her design is great and so is the quilting!!  Thanks Linda, and make sure to say hi at a maidenhair fern!  

Tanner Reunion . . . finished!

stats:

65" x 65"

25 -  11.5" blocks

fabric is Reunion by Sweetwater for Moda, jelly rolls and fat quarters

Warm and Natural

organic/straight line quilting

Picking a quilting design is almost as hard as designing the quilt. There are so many fun options!!

Jacquie from Tallgrass Prairie Studio has a great blog with lots of good information, pictures and tutorials.  I studied her tutorial on Organic Line Quilting before quilting this quilt.  Mine doesn't look quite organic as hers, it probably borders on the line of straight line quilting.

Have you ever quilted words into your quilt?  I've been fascinated with the idea ever since I saw a verse quilted into a quilt by Angela Foster.

It takes a little practice on paper, and even chalking onto your quilt what you're going to write.  It reminded me of typing class in 7th grade, a gazillion years ago, before computers.  Remember figuring out how to center your title on your page?  Count total number of letters, divide by 2 . . .  

I'll stick with names for now.

I love the back almost as much as the front.  For vivid colored pictures, leave your quilt a bit damp.

My next project to finish is the wall hanging that goes with this quilt, see below left.

Prairie Points of Interest Quilt, so creative!

I recently moved from Missouri to Arizona.  My mom visited me in both places...and they are very different.  The funniest thing is each time she comes to visit she asks me things like, "What kinds of vegetation grows here?" "What's the story behind that non-remarkable landmark?"  Um...I have no idea!  I've since told her that she's welcome to go to the visitor's center whenever she wants!   Makes me giggle. :)  Well Helen from RobinStar Quilting wanted to make a quilt that represents where she lives.  I love how she put it together, so creative!!  You'll love this quilt, especially you Texans, y'all love your state :)

I have wanted to make a quilt that represents where I live in the

Texas Panhandle.  For a while I have had images of quilt designs

floating around in my head and I finally bought some fabric and got

inspired to come up with my "Prairie Points of Interest" quilt.   In

this design the center focus blocks represent the wild vegetation that

is naturally treeless, the flying geese are representative of the

Canadian Geese that migrate to this area over the winter (they are

everywhere, and I love it), the circles show the 'Playa Lakes' that

abound in the region, the stripes are the furrows of the countless

fields that are planted in corn, cotton, sunflowers, or wheat, and the

open spaces convey the feeling of openness that surrounds the high

plains.  I intended for it to have a modern feel to it and the

vertical quilting maintains that feeling.  I am really pleased with it

and proud of myself for doing it.  I even put a label on the back,

yeah!