America The Beautiful



My State and detail of the Capitol.  (pronounced: Peer)

Appropriate that I am posting this one today, 4 July 2011.  Anyway, the quilt was completed around the later part of the Summer in 2010.  It was a gift for my dear nephew, Joshua.  I have done this particular panel several times and each time it makes me happy to gift it to a child. 

This panel was at one time available at WalMart, but is no longer in print and is hard to find.  The backing fabric was a State Bird/Flower print I think I got at Hancock or maybe Joann's or perhaps it was at the World (aka WalMart) as well.  My memory does not serve me as well as it should and with the sheer volume of fabric in my ever growing stash it is hard to keep track...and I suck with keeping good records of this stuff.  I admit it.
Hand stitched, this one probably takes me closer to 200 hrs to complete as the detailing is quite exquisite and all those inlets in Alaska are a killer!  Giggle.  This and the Atlas quilts are the few I will repeat but I love doing them for all my bitching.  And I bitch a LOT while I am quilting them, ask my friends and co workers.  But every stitch and hand cramp is worth it to see the look on a child's face or to hear how the map quilt has hooked a young person on cartography.  For The Win folks, FOR THE WIN!

Our Great Nation in a Quilt

Each state capitol is marked with a knotted stringer so it stands out and our Nation's Capitol is marked with Red, White and Blue embroidery thread knotted to show its importance among the rest. 

Detail of our Nation's Capitol and our colours

The backing fabric I usually use is "water" or "dirt" sometimes "grass" but this time I went with something educational.  State Birds/Flowers.  I've also done State Flags.  That was on a different USA Map quilt belonging to my dear nephew, F.  I will have to get pictures of that one as it is a different design.

Backing fabric

TIM-MAY!

Happy Fourth of July and Hooray Team for The United States of America!

Peach Out Apricots,
Morg