Travel challenge Quilt designed using the Cricut

I have a group of friends that quilt and like to travel and EAT!  We call ourselves the “Travel Group”, pretty unique.  In the Spring we went to a quilt show in Cincinnati and there was a challenge at the show that was 12 x 12.  Twelve quilter’s were given a word and were to make a 12″ quilt that represented that word.  On the way home from the show someone came up with the idea that we should do the challenge and use the word “travel”.  We gave ourselves until the end of Sept to complete the challenge.  Five of the group completed their quilts.

Anyone that knows me knows that the first thing I ask when going on a road trip is, “Where are we going to eat?”  I didn’t start my quilt until I returned from vacation the first part of Sept.  We went to CO and drove to the top of Pike’s Peak.  There was a plaque that stated that this view was the inspiration for the song “America the Beautiful.”

America the Beautiful

Pike’s Peak

This was my inspiration for my quilt, purple mountains and amber waves of grain.  I had to add  my  VW bug and my food inspiration. I used the Cricut Craft Room to design the layout for my quilt.  I then cut the images from freezer paper and traced it to “Wonder Under” and ironed on the elements.  I blanket stitched around the images and added some french knots for flowers.  The french fries are beads and hub cabs are buttons.  It was so much fun to make!

Cheri’s challenge quilt

Cheri and I had close to the same idea.  I loved the road sign and the police car off to the side. (her husband works for the police dept) She also had a clever use for the town fabric in the background.  She was steering her way off the exit to food, fun and friends!

Diane’s challenge quilt

Diane had loads of ideas and choose to represent travel with classic star patterns.  She has the Ohio star in the middle and then the directions are represented by the North star, the West star, a star in the south with the sun for FL where her parents live and then the star of the East.  I loved her idea of thinking outside the box.

Abbe’s Quilt challenge

Abbe is our outside girl and she really thought outside the box.  She loves to hike and she has been looking to find her path in life, so she chose “cairns” which are trail markers made by hikers to mark the trail.  She feels that she is finding her “new path” through life and she loves to travel and enjoy nature.  I love the background fabric she choose,

Kathi’s quilt challenge

Kathi decided to use this challenge to try her hand at mult-media use in her quilting.  She likes to drive on our trips so she took a photo of her SUV and added buttons for wheels.  It is hard to see from my photo, but it is a copy of the map from Zanesville, Oh to Cincinnati, Oh which is the route we traveled.  She marked the route with a tape measure and added loads of words and embellishments.  I think she did a wonderful job!

We had a great time on our trip and also at our meeting.