BQF Swoon

Welcome -  

   I'm entering my Swoon quilt to the Large Quilts category for the Fall 2014 Blogger's Quilt Festival!

This quilt was a long time in the process and always makes me smile when I see it.  I started it in January of 2012 at quilt retreat using fabrics from JoAnn's and 3 prints that I affectionately call my birthday prints.  These fabrics were purchased with a surprise birthday gift card at a quilt shop in La Plata, MD and paired perfectly with the roll-ups and charms from JoAnn's.

I loved the sea glass look and color of the fabrics so that inspired the quilting designs.  I FMQ sea foam- swirls and pebbles - in all of the white space, backgrounds & sashing.  I found this design in Angela Walters' book and what a perfect fit!  There's also some echo quilting inside the stars at the center of each block.  Of course, I used matching Aurifil threads for the quilting!

I pieced some leftover fabrics from the blocks and solid colors for the backing.  I used my birthday fabric to make the label.  The binding is Sketch in Pool and the actual name of the quilt is Pure Seaglass!  It lives on my bed and I absolutely love it - hope you do too!

NY mini Festival Quilt

This is my second entry into the Blogger's Quilt Festival at Amys Creative Side.  This time I'm linking it into the Mini Quilt Category.

I made this quilt as a housewarming gift for friends of mine when they bought their first house.  I had a sudden wave of inspiration with this quilt and it didn't take long to put it all together.  I chose to make the Empire State Building as that's where they got engaged!  Their wedding was NY themed as well.

I knew it would be a perfect addition for their new space and something they would appreciate and love.  I had a small amount of the ombre tan fabric in my stash so it had to be cut carefully - no room for mistakes!  I fused it to the cityscape background (perfect for NYC) and freehand cut & sketched the antenna for the top.  After it was all in place, I used a button hole stitch to secure the edges of the pieces.  I quilted some lines radiating out from the antenna, outlined the building and added a few lines to help accentuate the verticality of the building.

I don't have a listing of the measurements on hand, but it was roughly 20" x 14".  The fabrics were all from my stash, I used Aurifil thread and leftover warm & white batting scraps that I pieced together.  The backing is also from my stash and is a gold ring print, the binding is a blue textured print.

This quilt was a lot of fun to make and my friends immediately put it up in their living room - hooray!  I'm so glad they love it and hope it reminds them of the joyous day in their lives.  Thanks for stopping by - if you like what you see - become a follower over there on the right or leave a comment.

Kaleidoscope Festival

Hi to everyone stopping by from the Bloggers Quilt Festival over at Amys Creative Side!  It's always so much fun to see what great quilts people are making and I'm glad to share one of my recent finishes with you today.  

I'd previously posted about this quilt while it was in progress, but never had a full reveal until now.  Linking up in the Large Quilt Category for my first entry.

Introducing my Kaleidoscope Quilt!  

It's about 70" x 60" and perfect for snuggling under with a movie.  I chose orange, raspberry & grey fabrics from my stash planning to color the blocks in an alternate layout.  Momm was inspired to make one too so we made twin kaleidoscopes - Momm's is orange, blue & grey.  We traded some orange & grey fabrics so we have bits of the other in our quilt.  :)   Mine doesn't have a name yet because it is a twin and it's waiting for Momm to finish quilting hers.  (go Momm!)

I quilted it on my Janome machine and it was really smooth going to get the back & forth lines in the grey background.  I had movies and some Firefly to keep me company while quilting and now it has some awesome texture and drape!

I used warm & white batting which I love, Aurifil thread to piece & quilt it.  The backing is this fun bunting/scallop print from Happy Go Lucky by Bonnie & Camille - it went so well with the colors on the front without being too loud.  I wanted the binding to contrast the colors and chose an aqua Sketch print.

Momm's quilt has a fun raspberry Kaffe print as the backing and a raspberry sketch print for the binding.  See - twins!  If you like what you see - become a follower over there on the right or leave a comment.  Be sure to check out the other entrants and get inspired!

BQF Fall 2012

It's exciting to participate again in the Bloggers Quilt Festival again!  I'll tell you it's hard to decide on just one quilt to showcase though - they all become favorites when trying to choose.  Since last time I used one of my early quilts, today I chose a recent finish to share.   

If you've blog hopped your way here for the first time - welcome!  This is my first Christmas quilt and I've already pulled it out some evenings to snuggle, so it's going to be a favorite for sure.

A little quilt history, if you will.  Momm & I have been to the Houston Show several times now.  On one of our first visits, I couldn't resist a layer cake of Moda's 'Merry & Bright' fabric line.  It sat in my stash for a couple years as I couldn't decide what to make with it.  This year, I finally decided to just use it already!

quilting detail

I'd picked up a copy of Simplify, Camille Roskelley's book at work and found the perfect pattern: Sweet Pea.  Instead of cutting my fabric down, I opted to just use the layer cake squares straight up.  Less trimming and it made the quilt bigger.  I still wanted it to be wider though, so I went looking for some good fabric to go with it.  Surprisingly enough, I found the same blue plaid print from the line this summer, on sale, in a shop in WI! I went with just the one side strip to make it a bit edgier (is it okay to make a Christmas quilt edgy?) and really love it.  I used the plaid again on the back in addition to some other prints I had in my stash.

I had the most fun quilting this one!  I did free motion holly leaves & circles all over the quilt in my bright green Aurifil 50 wt. thread.  On my little Brother machine it's definitely tricky to wrangle any decent sized quilt but it turned out well and looks awesome.  I've already pulled this quilt out some cool evenings to snuggle with and it will be a staple come winter. 

Quilt Stats

Name: Merry & Bright Christmas Quilt

Size: throw sized

Pattern: Sweet Pea, by Camille Roskelley, in her book Simplify

Fabric: Merry & Bright layer cake, for Moda, 

Christmas prints & green solids for backing & red solid for binding

Quilting: Free motion holly leaves & circles by me!

Techniques: machine pieced, Free Motion quilting

#384

Best Category: Fav. Throw Quilt, Fav. Home Machine Quilted Quilt

Hope you enjoyed this little history & a peek at my new Christmas quilt dear readers.  Be sure to check out the rest of the amazing quilts at the Festival!

spring blogger's quilt festival!

Welcome!  This is my first time participating in the Blogger's Quilt Festival put on by Amy at Amy's Creative Side.  I blog hopped around on the last round and decided this time I would share a link & a quilt too!

This is a quilt I haven't shared here yet.  This is my second ever finished quilt!  It's called Shattered Chaos because it's sort of like bits of stained glass and was made in 2006.  It measures 41" x 50".

I went to the Mid-Appalachian Quilters retreat/weekend out at Mount St. Mary's school with Momm one year and we took several classes.  This class, called Triangle Tricks, was Sunday morning and used a neat concept of creating double HSTs as the main block.  

That's when the power went out.  

Turns out, some car hit a transformer nearby so we had to end our weekend early : sewing machines & irons don't work very well in a power outage!


However, we did learn how to make the basic block, so I went home and made lots more of these handy little guys and decide to use 4 of them to create the pinwheel look with the white triangles.  I opted against sashing and just threw all the blocks together & sewed them up.  I then stipple quilted it - my first time ever free-motion quilting! 


It's not quite a lap size quilt, so I have a sleeve on it and hang it on the entry wall in my apt. now for some extra color & cheer.  love this quilt.  :)