23 January 2008

A Winter's Tale -- Four Season Quilt Swap


Rocky Mountain Winter

I want to talk about my contribution to the Winter Quilt Swap. I have an international swap partner who said to surprise her. After studying the archives on her blog and still coming up with a blank, I finally decided to make a small quilt that represents winter in the Rocky Mountains of the United States.

Here in Colorado, the Rocky Mountains are covered in evergreen trees and groves of aspens. Since this is winter I decided to depict the evergreens. The aspens are more suited for a Fall Quilt. We also get a lot of snow and wind, so I put that into the mix too. What you see is a tessellating tree pattern. From one direction it is evergreen trees on a snowy ground. The white fabric, BTW, is a WOW of white snowflakes on a white background. Turn the quilt upside down and it is snow covered fir trees casting dark green shadows. Since my swap partner does a lot of handwork I decided to put a bit on this quilt. I, unfortunately, can not hand quilt anymore due to carpal tunnel and since this had O so many seams, I did a big stitch to depict the wind gusts. The buttons are from my enormous stash of buttons and represent the snow flakes.

I stitched the label on tonight and I'll mail it tomorrow. It is 14.5"x16.25" and made completely from stash.

35 comments:

  1. Oh, it's just so beautiful . . . I had my fingers crossed that it was coming to California *drat* I'm sure it will be happy in it's new home *s*

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  2. It's beautiful. And it's not coming to me. Drat. But, well, there's always next month :0).

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  3. What a great piece of work.. Whomever receives this is very lucky. I like your explaination and I think the large quilting with white thread certainly adds to the concept of the quilt.

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  4. I love it!!! What a lucky girl the recipient is. Being fairly close to the Rockies myself, I think it depicts the winters here in the Rockies beautifully.

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  5. Before I read your description I immediately thought it was a great representation of Colorado. The recepient is going to be sooooo please!

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  6. What a lucky lucky recipient. Wish it was me. It's gorgeous.

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  7. love this quilt! wish it was coming here to NJ!
    the quilting on this is perfect and i love the buttons...really adds to the quilt.
    kathie

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  8. Just beautiful! They are going to love it!

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  9. Just beautiful! They are going to love it!

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  10. I just love this--looks like it's name. But I really appreciate the workmanship detail. I've made tree blocks before and getting the symmetry to line up is not as easy as it looks, you did a beautiful job.

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  11. Paula, this is a gorgeous quilt - wonderful depiction of the wind and the snow and the trees and the snowflakes. It looks like you just might have to mass produce this quilt and give one to each one of us!

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  12. It's fantastic,
    ciao ciao

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  13. You captured it perfectly! love the "big" quilting stitches. you did good!

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  14. What a great quilt, defiantly reminds me of winter.

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  15. Cool, literally! I just love it! The quilting adds so much. Your swap partner is lucky.

    Julie

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  16. What a dear little quilt. Thanks for sharing. Colleen

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  17. This is a wonderful quilt. I love the tesselation bit. And I am international or shall I say I live abroad! Anyway whoever receives it will be very happy. Take care.

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  18. It is gorgeous. Lucky recipient!

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  19. I love your winter quilt -- too bad California doesn't qualify as "international"!

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  20. This is GORGEOUS. The colours, pattern, quilting, in fact everything is so evocative of the idea you were conveying. Great work :)

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  21. Beautiful!! I love the trees and the colors in the quilt. Makes me want to come west.
    Stay warm
    I wondered about silk underwear.
    Vicki

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  22. Hi Paula, I love your intpretation of winter in the Rockies! What a neat quilt. I love the stitching and the buttons...very original and creative.
    I scrolled down and found your 4 patches(which look great) and I definitely WILL post a pic of what mine look like. I'm giving the flying geese from HST's a try and post that picture. I'm still 'working' or 'making' the 4 patch-4.5" square combos. You can see what that will look like at Gypsy Quilters blog under Kitchen Sink..she's done 3 I think. Maybe only 2, but I seem to remember 3 *VBS* Ah yes, senior moments! BTW, I've had sooooo many nice compliments on my jibber and scarf! Everyone is envious of me and I just grin and say "it from my very dear friend Paula, in CO. Aren't I the lucky one??? Big hugs, Finn

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  23. Paula, it looks wonderful and the receipient is sure to love it. Your idea was inspired--snowy trees from one end and green trees from the other.

    The utility stitching and buttons almost glow in the picture! Well done.

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  24. What a lovely quilt! Your quilting looks like swirling snow.

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  25. very nice and I like the stitching

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  26. It is adorable. Nice job.

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  27. Lucky person who gets this quilt! I love it!

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  28. Awesome! This is the prettiest quilt that I have seen in quite a while.

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  29. What a gorgeous quilt!

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  30. How beautiful! I can see clear the wind blowing on the Rocky mountains. Your swap parter is very, very lucky!!!

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  31. Gorgeous....the lucky person who gets this in the mail should be thrilled!

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  32. It is absolutely wonderful! I personally think the big stitch on it is perfect for the look! I love it! She is going to be very happy with it! And I love the buttons!

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  33. What a beautiful quilt you made!
    Kind regards,

    Sonnja
    Beertje Zonn

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  34. This is wonderful and I imagine the recipient will be pleased. I love quilts with houses and trees both in combination or alone.

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