Lynette's Americana Quilt Top

Hi, everyone!

I finally finished my Americana top last week!!  It's 90 x 100 inches. 

Scott is really tickled at how this turned out. Thank you so much, Deana, for this fun mystery that was perfect to adapt for his Air Force Retirement quilt. I embroidered some of the lyrics from the Lee Greenwood song, "God Bless the U.S.A." on the bird panel, and the places/units/dates on the major deployments panel, and then I embroidered the bases/cities of our permanent duty stations on the stars panel. I didn't do the mountain panel so I could keep the length where I wanted it, but I'd considered making a multi-scenario panel for Washington, D.C., the Florida panhandle coastline, and the Air Force Academy mountains to represent our major living areas. In the end, the deciding factor was running out of time. I'll have to work that panel up as a mini quilt for his new civilian office!

I'm almost finished with the pin-basting and can start the quilting work today. I don't know if I can finish it all by month's end since I only work on a domestic machine - but that sure would be nice!

Here's the back I put together for it - some fun Air Force fabric with different jets on it. Scott's in the medical field, but he still has that boyish love of military jet knowledge, so he thinks this is awesome sauce on his quilt!  An Air Force seal panel and some leftover border fabrics made a perfect supplement that eliminated the need to match the print on the main fabric panels.  woowoo!!  :D

Quilter's Garden Top Complete

My last post was before I got the rows put together. It took longer than I thought, as I decided to add embellishments to the Quilts on the Line blocks. That turned out to be really fun!

I added flying birds above the clothesline. They are blue and don't show up well in the picture. I keep thinking that they are stray pieces of thread. Haha I also added Lavendar flowers at the base of the clothesline poles. The mini quilts will be added after the top is quilted. That will add a lot more color and fun to it.

The birdhouse and bird were really fun to make. Again, flowers at the bottom of the fence. I still may add some other detail to the tree blocks, but haven't done that yet. I am not sure what I want to add.

I had a hard time getting a good close-up of the rows all sewn together, to I broke it into sections. I wasn't sure how I  would like putting so many different sizes of blocks together, but now that it is all put together, I love it!!

 And the finished product. Well almost, anyway. I will add buttons, washers and mini quilts after it is quilted. But that may be years. My goal is to have a quilt for each of my 13 grandchildren for their High School Graduation. So far 3 have graduated and I still have 6 tops to make. This one goes to granddaughter #5, who is 10 years old now. They still need to be quilted, but I still have time.

 This has been a really fun project. It has been fun sharing blocks will all of you. I hope you have all enjoyed it as much as I have. Thank you for your beautiful blocks. They have really added to the fun of this quilt. And thanks especially to Deana for her talents which you are so willing to share with us---the design, the swaps, the many hours of work it has created for you, and for keeping us all on track.