I got a tip from my MIL that two of my BILs would love to have a quilt from me. (My husband is the eldest of four boys, so I was blessed with three extra brothers when I married into the family.) I checked my piles for suitable blocks and UFOs that could blossom into a suitable bro-quilt. Sometimes we can uncover "diamonds in the rough" when looking through extra blocks and pieces that weren't ready for prime time when they were originally made, but as time passes, opportunities come into focus for their raison d'etre. This was the case with Jason's quilt.
Here is the growing of Jason's quilt.
The tree blocks were the inspiration for this quilt. I framed the tree blocks with a red border so the dimensions of the 4-block center would be equivalent to the strips of five inch squares. This pieced section is about 27" x 31.5".
I had three sets of the trees and needed to make one more. The red flying geese blocks echoed the red in the sashing.
I recreated a pattern for the tree blocks to make the last 4-block. The fourth set of trees completes the center and the flying geese units form an interesting frame.
I then found out that this quilt was for a queen size bed. An additional inner border was added in blue. The colors are distributed, the bright blue fabrics provide sparkle and allows the eye to move around the quilt.
Still not large enough... The final scrappy green and dark blue border provided a ground for the geese.
Here is the finished quilt. The back was pieced with an inset of log cabin blocks and a strip of the 5-inch patches. With the help from a few quilting friends, this quilt is named "Cabins in the Pines." It is free-motion quilted with large branches, fronds and leaves in a variegated cotton thread. [Finished size: 75.5" x 82.5"; 9 bobbins used for quilting.] From a few surplus quilt blocks came a queen-size forest. The quilt was very well received and much appreciated.