Round Robining finish

I've written about this quilt a couple of times lately but not since it's been finished.
Yes, it's finished!!
Back in 2010 a group of friends and I spent a year 'round robining'... we each made the start of a row-by-row quilt, then didn't see it until the end of the year when it was returned to us at a grand revealing. We had a lot of fun, meeting monthly to exchange bags; each being banished from the room as our own quilt was brought out and discussed before being passed onto the next person to work on it.
I was so in awe of mine when it returned home that it sat awaiting attention until this year, when I finally pulled it out and worked on it for April's One Monthly Goal challenge. It took me a long time to work up the confidence to work on it myself!
But first, I will get sidetracked... about the same time that we were doing this Round Robin, Dad was quite ill and I was spending regular time at my parents' helping to care for him. One of his interests became fashioning walking sticks out of wood from his vast and intensive orchard. He'd find interesting shaped prunings and spend hours sanding and oiling them.

Some of Dad's collection of walking sticks he made.
He found the stag antler at a Treecrops field day.

As he was collecting quite a little pile of these, I thought it would be nice if he had a change of scenery and instead fashion me a hanger for this quilt.
Finally, after too many years, I am hanging my quilt from 'Dad's hanger'.
Sadly we got a bit muddled early on as to which tree the branch came from; he made a bundle but this is the only one I ended up with.

And so I present my finished quilt :-)

Previously, I have promised a few more close ups of it.
I made this first row as a representation of our journey to our current (and final!) farm.

Each letterbox is for somewhere we have lived (and farmed),
from Taranaki to the Waikato to Northland.
For example, the right hand side shows our present farm with
an unsealed road and a river running through
it and ruling our life (at times!) 

Barge On Inn is a a clever sign friends made for us when we left the Waikato - a play on our surname, Barge.
Mary very cleverly and seamlessly added to my block, extending the river, adding in the native bush, adding 3-D riverstones and trees.

Leeanne continued on with that theme/idea, adding in the horses - one galloping madly on the riverbacnk, and another being ridden by one of the girls in the arena. (See above and below photos, there's some overlap between the pictures).

After Leeanne came Patsy. She added in the appliqued family members - our three kids and some pets.

Kerry added the row with the chickens, cute detail in hers with grains of wheat for them to peck at.

When Jacki did her row of the herd of cows grazing she told a delightful story of shopping with her husband (an ex-dairy farmer). He found the cow fabric and declared it was perfect for her row.

Next was Ans who supplied us with some sheds and a tractor..... plus a quilt hanging on the line.

Janis and Megan shared the next row (as the quilt was becoming longer than I had wanted it).

Janis went back to the bush and horsey theme.

Megan added 'our' house with lots of pretty detail.

Aurely's row included Mr Piggy and a spilt bucket of milk :-)

To complete the quilt, Jenny decided it needed the MOML and I,  to (quoting her) "represent the partnership that got us here".

I love how everyone worked in their own style but that the quilt flows so well. And it covers so many aspects of our farming life. There's so much detail I cant show here, like wire fences with stapled posts.
I quilted it relatively simply, outlining various aspects, doing a bit of filler where it was a 'bit baggy' in places. It was a lot of fun to quilt as there was lots of detail to smile at! It now has pride of place in our hallway where it is easily seen by us all :-)
{And of course for me, Dad's hanger is the icing on the cake.}
I hope you've enjoyed my indulgence with sharing this quilt - it really is a 'one of a kind' piece!

Happy stitches,