Friday, May 30, 2014

Trippin'


Trippin'
66 x 66
A quilt for my brother
A UFO finish.

The squares are 6.5 inches and from an I Spy travel themed swap I participated in several years ago. 
Colors we swapped were red, green, white/cream, blue and black.  I had to add some of my own fabrics. 


I don't know that it is evident because the squares are so big but I arranged the squares in the conventional "Trip Around the World" configuration. 


I quilted it with one big spiral (trip around the world) on my plain Jane DSM. I took Sophie's advice and made sure I rotated quilt clockwise.   It still wasn't all that easy to get the quilting done on such a large quilt but it was actually easier than I thought it would be.  


And why is the quilt for my brother?   Because I'm proud of him. 
I don't know the number of years...maybe 20 or so...but many years ago he was a cocaine addict and an alcoholic.  After he got down as low as a person can go he changed his life around and kicked both habits after many starts and many failures. 


He has been a chef in Florida at a country club for quite some time. So he gets to take a lot of vacation time off during the "slow season" - the summer months.   In the past so many (is it 20?) years he has exchanged his cocaine trippin' habit  for some world trippin' and has traveled all over the world - a lot of times to take cooking classes in the foreign countries he has traveled. 




So this quilt is to celebrate my brother's long years of sobriety. 
I hope my brother continues to have a good trip. 

Linking to:

12 comments:

Snowcatcher said...

Congrats on a beautiful finish and the perfectly themed quilt for your brother. What a great way to honor him for his commitment.

Unknown said...

What a beautiful quilt and wonderful story. I am teary eyed!

Angie in SoCal said...

An awesome quilt for an awesome brother. You must be so proud of him. And the quilting - I was just saying to myself I wanted to try a circular quilt pattern. Yours reinforces that desire. Thanks!

sophie said...

Great quilt for your brother and his great story. Win-win!

Julierose said...

Really neat quilt--I love that circular quilting and I can see that it is a Trip Around the World...nice finish hugs, Julierose

Janet Hamilton said...

Such a great quilt with a wonderful acknowledgment of your brother's accomplishments.
I'm wondering about the quilting--is this free motion or with use of a walking foot? I've been wanting to try some gradual curved lines with a walking foot but wasn't sure it would work.
Love your blog and your quilts.

diane said...

Love the quilt and your quilting really sets if off nicely. How fun for your brother to be the recipient

Sheri said...

Beautiful Quilt and such a nice sister and wonderful news about your brother!

Renate Bischoff said...

A beautiful quilt you made for your brother. I love the quilting.

Thearica said...

WOW! on your DSM! Those circles are fantastic! I was going to ask where you got the circle templates that large! Now I know. Dang girl! You are good!

Lori in South Dakota said...

The fabrics, the quilting and your brother -- what a great way to celebrate. Are those clocks? Bikes? On the backing??

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