Santa Finish #4: "Holiday Road" Camping Quilt

I know, I know - a bit belated. I had meant to post this (and my final finish which will be up tomorrow) last weekend when they were gifted during our third round of holiday celebrations, but with a house full of guests and my kids running full tilt with their cousins, I reached for a glass of wine and enjoyed entertainment and laughter with my family instead of sitting down to blog. But these two last projects were my favorites of the year, so I didn't want to skip sharing!

Back in November I said I wanted to try longarm quilting as part of my SWC goals, and I took this camping quilt with me to my first session figuring the busy fabric and the parental recipients would both allow some newbie forgiveness, and they did ; ) The quilt center was pieced following Fat Quarter Shop's Jelly Roll Jam pattern*, and then I added some quick borders with the S'More Love striped print. I pieced the back using the extra jelly roll strips I had left over, and I blogged about the quilting process here. 

The quilt is for my parents' new camper, hence the fabric's theme. Every August my extended family spends a week in the woods together in a different place around New England, so this quilt should be a nice snuggily addition to their camper's bedding and will accompany them for the making of some great memories in the years to come. I added words like "family camping," "kayaking," "hiking," and "s'mores" to highlight the best parts of our annual trips. My one regret with the quilting is that I thought adding words might be tricky and imperfect, so I hid them on a busy part of the border. They ended up being the easiest thing to quilt and came out great - I wish I'd written them where they would've been more contrasted so they were easier to read! 

a little hard to see, huh? next time I'll be brave and write in a less busy space : )

Oh, and my dad is a HUGE fan of Chevy Chase, so in a tip of the hat to how many times we've endured Clark Griswold over the years (like the recent annual viewing of Christmas Vacation), I titled the quilt after the song "Holiday Road" from National Lampoon's Vacation.

on the man blocks, I alternated between quilting a meandering loopy design and a back-and-forth lines

* If you're looking for an easy quilt to throw together, the Jelly Roll Jam pattern is simple and quick and makes either a lap throw (mine's a bit bigger with borders) or two crib quilts (I bought a roll of Jubilee by Bunny Hill Designs to make boy and girl angel quilts for the local hospital with the pattern, too). I'm not a huge fan of precuts because I find the pinking sheared edge a pain to work with for even seams, but sometimes quick and easy trumps exactly perfect, plus there's a great video tutorial if you're a newer quilter and need a little coaching : )

Have you made a special themed quilt for someone recently? Did you see fabric that just clicked or did you have to hunt down what you needed for the idea you had in mind?