Mindy Carlson

My friend, Karen, came to me with a great idea for her mom – a family tree quilt. It was such a great idea and I leaped at the challenge.

And it was quite a challenge.   I went through the pattern books I had and scanned the internet for ideas.  In the end I went with a classic medallion pattern and then changed the tree size and put in blocks and colors that I thought would work the best for Karen’s mom.  I had to enlist the help of my incredibly talented mother-in-law, but together we made a beautiful quilt.

The embroidery is machine done. I practiced by embroidering some snack bags with words and letters and when I was convinced I had the right sizes and settings I went to work on the actual quilt.   The applique is all hand done by my mother-in-law.  I just couldn’t get the leaves to lay flat.  Definitely something I’ll have to practice for future projects.

The quilting work is subtle.  Some outlining here.  Some fancy designs there.  But all of it in thread that matched the background.   The center medallion is so beautiful and it’s the most important part of the quilt.  The rest of it had to support that center element and not compete with it.   I really questioned whether I should do the daisy chain in the white border in a teal color or if I should have it be in white.  I think it could have gone either way, but in the end I thought the brightly colored star blocks were really powerful and I chose white.

I think the overall effect is amazing.  And best of all Karen’s Mom and Dad loved it!  They can’t wait to get home and put it on display as either a wall-hanging or on a piece of furniture.