Embroidered State Quilt - Art Every Day Month - Day 5

About a year ago, I began working on a quilt that would feature blocks that I made that featured Minnesota's state outline, bird, tree, and so forth. These hand-embroidered blocks would be combined with other ones from people around the world. I was sending and receiving the blocks through an on-going swap on Swap-Bot.

However, after four months, I stopped participating in the swap because the same people were swapping and I received the same quilt block by a person participating in the swap. It defeated the purpose trying to create a quilt with all different images.

So, I changed the focus of the quilt to be one that focused solely on the state I live in: Minnesota. While I was doing the swap, I made two images of each quilt block - one I finished and sent to someone else in a different part of the United States or world. The other one I simply ironed on the fabric pieces, but never embroidered.

The blocks have been sitting in my bag of projects to do. Art Every Day Month now is giving me a reason to finish the blocks I have begun and start new ones so I can complete the quilt.

The block I did this morning represents Minnesota's state tree: the Norway Pine.

Three hand-embroidered and appliqued trees

to represent Minnesota's state tree: the Norway Pine.

All the fabric I used for this block as well as the other three that I've partly done so far use fabric that  I have on hand. My goal is to use only fabric that I have rather than purchasing new fabric. As I was taught by my mom and dad..."Make Do With What You Have."

All the fabric is cotton, and the floss is 100% cotton. The batting also will be 100% cotton, so it will be an all-natural, very soft quilt by the time it is done.

So, over the next 25 days, I hope to complete the rest of the hand-embroidered blocks, sew them together, and finish the quilt. To have a warm quilt going into the winter will be something we all can use and enjoy here.