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 :)

Stash additions and ramblings of a fabric addict

I have been a bit of an online fabric shopaholic lately. But who can help themselves with all the gorgeous fabric lines out there, and the amazing quilts people have been turning out on their blogs of late to inspire us? Here are a few quilts and fabrics I have been obsessing over:
Red Pepper Quilts has to be one of my favorite blogs at the moment. I have a stash of Anna Maria Horner Little Folks I love, and think I will have to cut it up to make and adult version of this quilt for myself. I also got some size 8 Perle cotton thread to try my hand at hand quilting like shown on it. I also ordered up some flannel Little Folks this week, you know, just in case I "need" it. RPQ is also responsible for the pile of Far Far Away 2 Fabric I just ordered from an awesome online fabric store up here in Canada called Pink Panda Fabrics. The prices are slightly higher than in the US but still very competitive, especially with the "quantity discount" (cringe) that I earned! With no border duty and free shipping (!!!), it gets me every time. Plus it arrived in 3 DAYS...unlike the weeks of anticipation waiting for a cross-border buy. I will make a couple girly quilts with the FFA2 for sure, but can also see it paired with linens in some cute fall dresses or tops for my girls, or some bibs......Then, another couple beautiful quilts in Joel Dewberry Modern Meadow. A baby boy one by Bijoux Lovely blogged here, and another by Cluck Cluck Sew. I love the masculine feel to many of these prints, and I am a sucker for blues..... That addition to my stash is in the mail and should be arriving shortly.

I have also added some of this and that. Some pretty things on clearance from My Needle and Thread,

then some charm packs of these adorable Japanese fairy tale prints, some more Hunky Dory....

And finally, there is the Heather Bailey Nicey Jane. I love it! I have tagged some of this stash to make a quilt for me, mixed in with some solids in grey and seafoam, and the rest for a couple other projects. Then, this week I had the happy accident of finding a sweet little quilt shop on the strip at Winnipeg Beach, a beach town just north of home. It is called Keeper Quilts, and I picked up some beautiful natural cotton, some thermal batting (for pot holders) and a bunch of lime green plastic mesh fabric, which I plan to use to make a beach bag tutorial! Stay tuned!

Now I just need to find more hours in a day, right?

And please- nobody forward this blog post to my husband! What he doesn't know won't hurt him, right? I'll start my "12 steps" next week....or after the fall collections come out....