Another in a long line of nephew and niece quilts for my friend Mari.
This time the requests were: theme > airplane; color > green.
Hmmmmm.....what to do?
I have made airplane-themed quilts before, so I know that most of the patterns feature paper-pieced jets or biplanes. Been there; done that.
So, as I often do, I started my search at Counted Quilts.....and there it was! The cutest bear flying a nice sized airplane! It was easy enough to swap out the purple and yellow in the pattern for two shades of green. We found the same fabric pattern offered in light and dark versions. Perfect! (The light green is also the back and binding.) Then we found a complementary blue for the sky. The rest of the fabs came from the stash.
The other request was for a monogram. Since airplanes often have names painted on them, it made sense to incorporate the monogram right into the design.
Four years ago, I made "Sailing Away" for baby Rory (now the big brother!). I didn't realize, until I started to write this post, that the monogram on that quilt was also integrated into the design! Must be a family trait!!
The quilting is a combination of free-motion, ditch, and design-oriented.
I free-motioned the sky and the clouds in matching threads. Because of course! I also did some free-motion to highlight the bear's ears, around the helmet, and the scarf.
I did straight-line decorative stitches in the propeller, cowling, and windscreen.
On the fuselage and wing, I did straight-line stitching, but one goes horizontally and the other vertically. Why? Just to add some interest.
All of these too were done with matching thread colors.
Finally, I ditched around the windscreen, the body, the wing sections, and the star.
You can get a better view of all this from the back of the quilt.
Happy journeys, Hadrian!!!!
PS. Hadrian and his parents are on assignment in Thailand, so this quilt is being sent to his mom's sister in Washington for forwarding to them. So it may be a while until he actually receives it!
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