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 :)

a noteworthy quilt

I received a surprise package in the mail from Sew Sisters in thanks for participating in their Kona challenge- remember the pregnant doll tutorial?  Included were some more Kona solids and a charm pack of Noteworthy by Sweetwater.

Now, normally when I get new fabric, it sits out on the kitchen counter awhile so I could look at it, then progresses to the desk in the craft room, eventually to be put away in the appropriate storage bin in the Closet of No Return. Then, much later, I find it, wondering why I have never USED it?

Not this time.

It was no sooner out of the envelope than I tore into it and sewed it into a patchwork baby quilt top.  Just. Like. That.  I kid you not, the top was sewn and pressed within 20 minutes.

While I was at it (and totally because I was too lazy to clean up and put away my machine),  I grabbed a scrap of batting, my 505 spray and a piece of perfectly coordinating Nicey Jane dots (rescued from The Closet) and basted that baby.  Continuing on, I decided to quilt it with some pretty free motion flowers, one in each square, to add a little something to the simple patchwork.

I especially love how the quilting looks against the backing.

The binding is a pink with loopy flowers as well, just made for this quilt.  This stuff is from my local Fabricland, and has been hanging in The Closet since my very first quilt, almost 3 years ago!  I attached it and finished hand sewing it on that night while catching up on trashy t.v.

So there you have it, the story of a quilt, made in less than a day, completely unplanned.  Noteworthy, I think :)