Big Easy #3: Winter Woodland Quilt

My Winter Woodland Quilt is only the second quilt I made this year with some new fabric purchased this Fall during my Great Fabric Fast of 2019.  I finally finished this quilt several weeks ago and thought I should write a post now since we're leaving for another visit to the Grandparent House.  Also, this may be the last quilt finally finished for the year.

I couldn't resist buying yardage and fabric quarter bundles of six woodland prints and thought this would make a wonderful quilt for my son and his family who lives next door to the Grandparent House; something I tend to give them during the holiday.  I added three prints from my stash in order to make three different variations of Rail Fence blocks.

My next favorite strip size after 2.5" is 3.5" which is the perfect size for Rail Fence blocks. I realized while cutting the 3.5" strips that I did not have enough of the yellow Moon print and thankfully I found a substitute which was a twenty year old Little Quilt asterisk print which was the perfect yellow/gold.  Remember this color because it's mentioned again later in this post.

While I was grouping the fabrics in combinations of three, I thought laying them out in a stripe formation would work by making the center rail blocks 18" (finished) wide since these fabrics were the most vibrant and the other rail blocks framing it on the side be 9" (finished) wide.  You can see the rail blocks framing the center rail blocks have more of the accent colors and the side rail blocks play a nice second fiddle.  This quilt measures 54"x81".  

Since I was backing this quilt with fleece and only wanted to do simple and minimal quilting, I decided to also use fleece instead of batting.  I should mention that this made for a very heavy but warm quilt.

You can see the Master Quilt Holder had a hard time holding up this quilt by seeing his normally hidden fingers.

While I was sewing this quilt, I realized that this quilt would go so well in the Grandparent House, see the yellow/gold painted door, that I did the unthinkable--I decided not to gift this quilt to the family next door.  In my defense of doing this, I told Hubby that my Son from the family next door told me that I had made them enough quilts and he didn't want anymore. What a coincidence that after my Winter Woodland quilt was finished that I remember this conversation and now respect his request from several years ago. Do I feel guilty, not yet.

I may reconsider if the darling Granddaughter wants to take it home but might not be for several years until she's strong enough to carry it over to her house next door, this quilt is that heavy.  As a consolation, I promised her mother that I would make her a Frozen fleece blanket but it will have to wait until I can find the fleece in the store. It's very popular now since Frozen II has been released and lot of blankets need to be made for gifts.

One of the nice things about the Grandparent House, besides being next door to the darling Granddaughter, is that taking photos of quilts, both indoors and outdoor, is so much better there, especially since I have a front porch with bannisters, a backyard with a fence and hooks waiting for a clothes line.  I just hope that come Spring I will have some new quilts to photograph since I suspect my productivity for 2019 may be less than in years past.  My next post, which will be my year in review, will also detail how well I did during the Great Fabric Fast of 2019 and if I met my goal of minus 100 yards.  I better start calculating now to see if there are any last minute Tops to be sewn before the year ends.