I grew up in Spokane, Washington. My parents had purchased a double lot which seemed like a million miles away from our home in town. The freeway was coming through and taking our home so we needed to move. The lot seemed so far away from my friends but it was covered in trees and had lots of places for me to run and play. My Dad built our house and had to cut down and dig out many of those trees but it still left us with 57 trees in our yard! I loved those trees. He didn't. Of course, he was the one who had to rake those long pine needles out of the grass, and I wasn't.
Twenty-five years ago, Dad and Mom were now living with me and my family in Utah. They had sold their home with all those wonderful trees. I signed up to take a class on making a Tree Quilt. I was going to give it to my Dad with the title,
"No More Raking Required". Cute, huh?
But............the class was held on the same day that I brought my Dad home from the hospital with terminal cancer. Needless to say, I didn't go to the class and the pattern set in my sewing stuff for a few years before I finally got around to starting it. I ran across the pattern and all the fabric that had been purchased for the quilt and decided I needed to get it done. Over the years it was worked on and the top was finished and it was again shoved into a corner of my sewing room.
A few months ago I refound it, got the backing fabric and took it to the quilter to be finished. What a beauty it is now. Kerry, from Utah Valley Quilting, quilted a paisley design to match the paisley fabric. The thread on top blends in with all the fabrics but the backing thread is that minty green/blue color and shows off the paisley pattern so well on the tan back. I think Dad would really love it.
We always had a cat and dog.
Butterflies.
A kite caught in the tree.
A view of the back.
Yep, I think he would really love it.
Especially the no raking part.
Happy Quilting! Lynda
