Family tree and love

Since my mother's birthday is in September, I have been working hard on my Family Tree quilt, and have finished the top!

I'm really pleased with it. The colour gradation wasn't intentional, just resulted from dyeing several lots of blue fabric in the microwave, but I'm quite happy with it. The letters were free pieced, then cut wedge-shaped and the whole section was added to the top of the quilt. Thanks go to a technique I learned at a Pat Deacon workshop for sewing curved pieces, and Dawn Cameron-Dick for IMA. And of course, many thanks to Christine Thresh for inspiring me with her gorgeous paper pieced people in the first place!

And now to the love. I was immensely flattered to receive this picture of a LOVE quilt made by another Linda from Ontario, Canada. She had seen my LOVE quilt on Tonya's blog and decided to make one of her own! Her colours are less sugary and more sophisticated than mine, and the hand quilting with baptist fans is awesome! Thanks for sharing, Linda.

More people

I've so much enjoyed making these paper pieced people - even though, since they're improvised, they are quite tricky! I was so pleased that Christine Thresh, whose idea it was, was generous enough to say that my people could be friends with hers! Quilters are the best! However, I'm not sure my wonky ones would fit in with her sophisticated set - although, thinking about it, there's always room for more friends in our lives, and we all have friends who may not be perfect, but we love anyway. These will be those! Thank you, Christine.

Here is my Dad, who couldn't be seen out in public without a tie (I appliqued that on).

And here is DS, in t-shirt with a motif on, and holes in his jeans.

I'm doing DH next and asked hm what he would like to wear. He says he doesn't care, so it's a sparkly jumpsuit for him, then!

Guess who?

No, it's not the well-known game, but much simpler than that.

Yes, it's me! After completing five quilts (and DS's baby quilt) in six weeks, I felt the need for something smaller to work on. While surfing, I came across Christine Thresh's lovely site, and super patterns. Her pieced people look so good, and Christine, I would have sent for your pattern if I was able to wait for it to wing its way to me, but of course, I needed to try out this technique straight away! I also thought the people looked a bit formal, with their hands behind their backs, and wanted mine to be holding hands, gingerbreadman style. I'm aiming to make my parents' family, Mum, Dad, me and my family and brother and his family for a wall hanging for Mum's birthday present. Well, what else do you get for an 81 year old?

I next tried DD.

She's not got feet yet, but I plan to do some! She's wearing her trademark outfit of black top and jeans, and I even managed to find some fabric which simulates the blonde streaks in her hair. She says her hair should be bigger than that, and perhaps she's right.

What do you think?