A Southwestern Vibe

Back in May, my son visited me with 4 bags of tee shirts from his years in college. A couple of tee shirts were from his high school years. He asked me if I would be interested in making him another quilt and again use some of the tee shirts for the back design. Time went by, he had moved to Phoenix, and daughter's wedding events were now in the past. 

I was in the mood of doing another Delectable Mountain pattern, but I wanted to change it up to look like lanterns. Since my son was now living in the Southwest, I picked colors that have a Southwestern feel: green for the cacti, blue for the sky, and oranges for the earth. He enjoys playing his electric guitar; so, I used a blue fabric with electric guitar motif for the lanterns. 

I decided to use a nontraditional approach for piecing the tee shirts.

I surprised him at Christmas with the quilt. He had thought I had forgotten about the tee shirts. He loved the Southwestern vibe and was totally surprised that I had completed the quilt this year.

Finished!! Finally!!

I finally finished the quilt that I have been working on since November, my autumn quilt. Life gets in the way sometimes. 

I had fun piecing this quilt pattern, Delectable Mountain, that I plan to make another one using the Bonnie Hunter's method, Mountain Majesties. 

I hope to focus on a couple of new quilt projects this year since the quilting was relaxing while listening to some books online. 

Delectable Mountain

This pattern is referred to by numerous names: Delectable Mountain, Mountain Majestic, or Mountain Dawning.  Some folks make their Mountain Majestic quilt by using layer cake squares. Others have made Mountain Dawning by using jelly rolls. And some use the old method, Delectable Mountain.

I wanted to make mine by using up a leftover jelly roll and adding black strips from my scrap stash. I needed to come up with a plan. Luckily for me while researching, I came across Quilts by Jen, https://quiltsbyjen.ca/how-to-make-delectable-mountains/. 

Using 2 1/2 inch width strips, I cut 2 1/2, 4 1/2, 6 1/2,  & 8 1/2 inch strips lengths of both dark and light color fabrics.  I then drew diagonal lines on 2 1/2 inch area of each strip.  

Making sure the diagonals went like this for each placement.

Before sewing down, I made sure the strips were aligned properly.

After piecing was completed, I needed to decide on pattern for my Delectable Mountain. 

I played with different pattern arrangements. 

And this is what I came up with! Next is quilting and I have an idea for how I want to do the quilting. I hope to get this project finished by end of year. This was to be my November quilt, but life got busy and I got lazy.