Blogger's Quilt Festival: Spectacle quilt

It's that time again- the fall edition of the Blogger's Quilt Festival has begun over at Amy's Creative Side.  I have mine listed in the baby quilt category! Can't wait to peruse the quilty goodness in Blogland!  Welcome to any newbies to my blog, and thanks for stopping by :)

A newly finished quilt to share with you today.  Isn't it funny that when fall hits and everything around me starts to wilt and die, I always seem to get a surge of creativity?  Lately I have been ON FIRE, people!  Sewing this and that, knitting my brains out, and a bunch of quilts coming together.  Lovin' it.  Just wish there were more hours in a day!

And I THINK this may be my new favoritest quilt of all time!!  (Yes, this is the part where I start to get all braggy.  But seriously.  Check this out. )

I can't think of a single thing I don't like on this quilt, or that I would do differently if I had the chance.  Which is rare for me (overanalyze much?).   I made this for a baby boy on his way into the world, but I am thinking that he may get a Gap gift certificate instead ;)  It all started with inspiration from this quilt, by Blue Elephant Stitches.  Now I am usually a girl who digs symmetry...total Type A personality, like to control everything, so on and so forth.  But that said, my favorite quilts to make, or look at, for that matter, are often the ones that have very little rhyme or reason.  

This one was just like that.  I took some scraps in blues and greens out of the overflowing bin, cut them into triangles, and decided to use two tones of grey to piece them together randomly.  I used Kona-something (charcoal?) and Alexander Henry Heath.  I had no plan, just assembled the top row by row, and had so much fun in the process as I slashed and hacked and stitched away.

I knew the quilting should be unstructured as well, and decided on a wonky free flow grid, somewhat mimicking that in the Heath. I used a light blue cotton thread, which of course I ran out of half way through the vertical quilting.  Le sigh.

Well, as often is the case for me, unexpected mess ups stimulate creativity (i.e. being too lazy to go to the store to buy more matching thread, I came up with a Plan B).  So, I decided to add some turquoise and goldenrod thread lines to the grid to fill in the spaces, and a small segment of hand quilting as well.  In the end, I think this adds so much to the finished product, we are just going to pretend it was a product of genius instead of laziness, okay?

The binding- I used a Sunkissed Sweetwater texty print cut on the bias.  I am normally one for hand stitched binding, but have dabbled in machine sewn too, with little success.  But this time- total triumph!  I used a WALKING FOOT, people...geez, whey haven't I tried that before??  Made all the difference.  It turned out perfect.

Last but not least- the backing!  How fun is this?

What is it?  It's a piece of a sheet, bought at Winners (Canada's equivalent to TJ Maxx), made by Colin and Justin.  What can I say?  It makes me so happy. Perfect amount of funky fun for this quilt. And I have plenty left for another (or two!).

This quilt measures in at about 40" by 50".  Annnnnnd I think that's all I have to say about that.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Kristie :)

Somebody stop me

My appetite for fabric has not lessened. Fabric diet remains broken, binge still on.....burp!

I can't stop buying fabric. I am going to need a 12 step program soon. I wish I could say I regret it, but I don't. It is so so awesome. It is like Christmas in my mailbox! Except for the whole bill part.

Lookie what I got:

Katie Jump Rope. This line was before my time, but I managed to get some fat quarters, sticking to the more masculine prints to build my "boy stash." Love it.

Some sweet Japanese prints:

Pretty solids, odds and ends:

I may have gone a little Crazy Crazy with the Munki Munki. Yes, I broke down and bought it. A LOT of it. Must say...I was not as impressed with it in person.... but still super cute and will definitely be put to good use! I've always coveted those darn goldfish! Also picked up some of these while I was at it....see what comes of it!
Some Amy Butler, Lotus spots and Love spots, too. And some Micheal Miller Ta Dots. Can never have too many dots! And let's not forget the Riley Blake Rainy Days and Mondays (and other) from my Calgary/Banff trip: Also just ordered some awesome organic Monaluna fabric by Jennifer Moore with adorable scooters all over it. Inspired by Italy! Maybe something for my hubby for the holidays?

And I just bit the bullet and ordered a big batch of Bliss.....I hve been eyeing it forever, so why hold back now? So now I just have to find time to sew!