Another guy who quilts

Thursday night the guest speaker at our guild meeting was Aaron, the son of guild member Chris.   He's a science teacher, husband, father, and has been quilting for just over two years.  He  presented a trunk show, along with his perspective on how he's grown as a quilter. 

Aaron had always admired quilts and had a general idea of what was involved, and thanks to his mother, he started with a borrowed sewing machine, basic tools, and access to her stash. Chris taught him the basics, and away he went.

This "Exploding Star" was one of his early quilts, made entirely from HST, approximately 780 by my count.  The finished HST size was 1-1/2 or 1-3/4", I believe.

Log cabin blocks are some of his favorites, not so much the making of the block but the variety of ways they can be used. 
If you enlarge the Christmas tree photo, you'll see that the entire quilt is made from log cabin blocks.  I believe those were 1/2" finished width strips. 




 The spinning log cabin blocks with turquoise border below was an early  paper piecing project, and it was also an early project that he machine quilted.

The wallhanging with the wonky little houses and trees was a crowd favorite.  The finished project is no more than 18-20" square, if I remember correctly.  Click on the photo to enlarge it to enjoy the fabric details he included. 

This bold quilt (left) was his venture into foundation piecing, with the strips sewn onto muslin.  He enjoyed the fact that the lines didn't have to match exactly when he sewed these blocks together.

His machine quilting is impressive on the large bright quilt with black background and candy-striped border.  (right) 

 
(left)  He found he did NOT enjoy making this bargello quilt.  It may be his last. 

On the right, one more log cabin quilt, held by Aaron and his mom. 

This was an unbelievably impressive quilt, made totally from 1" squares.  He named it "Around the World in 5293 Squares."   This quilt was NOT made block by block.  It was not made with strip sets.  It was made row by row,  sewing one square to the next square.

He planned out the entire quilt on an Excel spreadsheet and organized the pieces on paper plates (a trick from his mother, and one I use a lot too).  It's a gorgeous quilt!
  
By the time he made this one, he was comfortable with his machine quilting, but this is quilted with straight stitching or cross hatching through the rows .  The quilting is perfect for this quilt. 

His new challenge with this quilt -- Y-seams.  It's made from Civil War repro fabrics, and note all the little log cabins around the 8-pointed stars.  The quilting is outstanding.  He loves quilting feathers.  He quilts on his sewing machine, not a long arm or a mid arm.  He uses his Janome.   This is his masterpiece, so far.  We know he'll keep making outstanding quilts as he hones all his quilting skills.  
Great trunk show.  Great program.