The Northwoods Series

Northwoods Quilt #2

Northwoods Quilt #1

I am a Minnesota girl. I love living here - I love our woods, our lakes, our wildlife, my adopted home of St. Paul, and especially our seasons (yes, even winter. Especially winter.) And while I love to travel and see different places, it's for this reason that I have a very difficult time thinking about actually living somewhere else. I often thought I'd like to do just that for a year or two, but I just can't imagine being away for too long.




My brother, on the other hand, moved away from Minnesota many years ago. He spent many years in Northwestern Montana, which was a very beautiful place to visit and seemed as though it would also be a great place to live. Although a mountainous region, Montana didn't seem a whole lot different than Minnesota to me. Then, around two years ago, my brother made plans to move to Los Angeles, California. Now that sounded like a change.

This may sound weird to say, but I can't really say that I even know my brother that well. I think we probabaly share a bit of an offbeat sense of humor and rather remarkable memory. Other than that, he just seems like he's probably more easy-going and less emotionally attached to anything than I am. For the reason that I would have missed Minnesota and Montana, too, I decided to make my brother a flannel quilt depicting Minnesota themes - a Northwoods quilt to remind him of his (very former) home. I really don't know if he did or would ever miss these places at all, I just knew that if it was me, I would.




The Northwoods quilt is simple patchwork, but I ended up loving this quilt a lot. The fabrics were so cute and the quilt ended up being so soft and cuddly. I sent that first one on to my brother, but I also needed to have one of these Northwoods quilts for myself. These quilts would be perfect for anyone with a cabin or lake home, too. Several people have expressed interest in them, so we will be making more of them in the future, too, so stay tuned for more in the series.






A slight note about fabric choice: part of what makes these quilts so patchworky and visually pleasing is the mixture of scales in the print fabrics. Some have large pictures, and some are smaller. I also like to use "filler blocks" here and there just to break up the feel of too many "picture" fabrics and to guide the color and overall look of the quilt to where I want it to go. The "filler blocks" are not Northwoods in any way, they are just colors and patterns that break up yet also complement the overall look of the quilt, like the purple squares in Northwoods #2, or the blue checkered squares in Northwoods #1.