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 :)

Bloggers Quilt Festival

Welcome, Festival Goers!

This time around, I have decided to share my favorite quilt-du-jour and most recent finish, my Ghastlies quilt.   I found the perfect "haunted house" at which to photograph my quilt...very spooky!

 

I made this one with no pattern or plan in mind, just started with a few wonky blocks around fussy cuts from Alexander Henry's The Ghastlies line, and the project grew.  I added oranges, purples and pinks from my stash to compliment the greys and blacks, and had a blast bringing it all together.  One of my favorite parts is the wonky border, and the huge spiderweb quilting.  I did a tutorial for the quilting here (and there is also a Ghastly giveaway that you can enter if you'd like!).

The back is a simple spiderweb print from the local Fabricland, which, we discovered by fluke recently, glows in the dark!  My kids were VERY excited by this, really ramped up the "cool" factor for them (is "cool" the word to use these days??).

Wishing you all a spooktacular Halloween, and thanks for stopping by!  You can peek at some of my other finished quilts here if you'd like.  Enjoy the Festival!

Update:  It is nomination time, so if you are kind enough to nominate my quilt, I am #352!  Best categories would be:
- quilt photography
- home machine quilted (spiderweb!)
- throw quilt

Thank you!

Blogger's Quilt Festival

It's that time of year again when we quilters get together and admire each other's latest and greatest creations over at the Blogger's Quilt Festival at Amy's Creative Side. Do hop on over and see what goodies are in store for us this spring!

I will keep this post brief as I know you all have many quilts to visit! My contribution to the fun is my quilt made from the Drunkard's Path Quilt Along that I co-hosted last fall along with Kate from Needle and Spatula.


I used a layer cake of Ruby by Bonnie and Camille, along with my Accuquilt Go! Baby cutter to piece the top. Then, after all of those crazy curves, I decided to treat myself to some long-arm quilting by Jenny. I left my baby in her very capable hands and gave her free reign with quilting design. I could not be happier with the result! It is truly stunning, and has transformed the quilt from something good into something spectacular that I will cherish. My other quilts look like poor cousins in comparison. I could get used to this!



The back is a large floral from Bonnie and Camille's Bliss line. Finished quilt is a a nice lap size at 53" by 66". While this quilt is different in style in many ways than my others, it is very "me", and I am happy to say this one is not a gift, I will be keeping it. My new favourite!


Enjoy the festival! Thanks for stopping by!

Blogger's Quilt Festival: Friendship Quilts

Welcome, Blogger's Quilt Festival visitors! Have fun perusing all the amazing quilts out there. Today I am going to share a new finish with you that is dear to my heart. If you would like to see more of my past quilts, you can find my 2011 quilts here and my 2010 quilts here. Thanks for popping by!

When you were a kid, did you ever exchange jelly bracelets with your best girlfriends? Or make up matching embroidery thread ones? It was also a fad when I was young to decorate your shoelaces with friendship pins adorned with beads, made by your buddies. How about one of those heart necklaces that broke into two pieces, reading "best friends?"

It was along this line of thought that I decided to make matching "friendship quilts" for my best friend and me. We became BFFs (long before there was ever an abbreviation "BFF") back in elementary school in the early 1980s. We both had a knack for skipping double dutch and played a mean game of hopscotch. Over the years, our friendship has grown and encompassed all the things that make up a life- graduations, boyfriends, breakups, marriages, deaths and births. And all the little things, too- shared recipes and bottles of wine, movie nights, girl gossip.

I had bought this fabric awhile back with the intention of making these quilts to celebrate our 30 year "anniversary" of friendship, which will be in 2012. But last month my best friend had a heart attack, a freaky one-in-a-million crappy lottery she won, though she never bought a ticket for this- it was 100% unrelated to genetics or health or lifestyle. So, I thought if there was ever a time when someone needed a little love and comfort, it was now. And so I got to slicing and dicing, and here is what we have:



One for her, one for me. I used Anna Maria Horner's Innocent Crush line because I loved the vibrant colors and hints of purple, my friend's favorite color. I cut it into charm squares, as she has often commented that this is her favorite kind of quilt: simple patchwork.



I had intended to do some fancy straight line quilting, but wasn't feeling it when I sat down at my machine- it seems that life's paths are anything but straight at the moment, so a meandering pattern it became. I love the way it shows itself on the plush minky backing.



I made a couple hand embroidered labels for the quilts which I hand stitched onto the front.

(my dog always finds the softest places to nap!)

I hope that, while she is recovering from this ordeal, she can feel a hug from me each time that she wraps herself in this quilt....and I will feel the same when I am cuddled up with mine.

Rainy Days and Mondays quilt complete

Welcome, visitors from Blogger's Quilt Festival! Thanks for stopping by :-) Today I am going to share my latest finished quilt, which I am calling "Singing in the Rain."

It has had several other names during its construction, like "Stupid D#*m Thing" and "IhateyouIhateyou," but, Singing in the Rain it will be!

I started this one a couple months ago, as a birthday present for my 4 year old daughter. She has an April birthday, so, as "April showers bring May flowers," I thought this would be the perfect fabric for her special twin sized quilt. I designed it myself, inspired by one of the fabrics of the line. I wanted it to look like random, swirling, dancing umbrella tops!
It has definitely been the most time consuming quilt that I have made in my {relatively} short quilting career. Not so much difficult as tedious...each umbrella top you see here involved the following:
cut, sew, cut, press, square, sew, press, square, cut, sew, press, square, cut, press, applique. Times 48.

Anyhoo, at that point I was going to name the quilt "The Hangover," you know, for that spinning feeling you get right before you vomit...with all those twirling colors I was seriously doubting how this thing would not come out looking like a dog's breakfast. Thank goodness for white sashing, that tempered it quite a bit! So after another marathon of cut/sew/press etc to add the sashing, I finally had a quilt top! And...I liked it {phew!}.

I had promised myself, this time, to do a SIMPLE BACK. If you click on the icons on the left sidebar of my blog and peruse my finished quilts from this year and last, you will see that I tend to make "reversible" quilts, with the backs more intricate and often preferred to the fronts! Anyways, I did tone it down a bit but couldn't resist adding a couple really special features to this quilt back.
All the details have meaning. First off- a strip of orange, my daughter's favorite color. Within the strip, I added some "raindrop" blocks- four, in honor of her fourth birthday. I used the final raindrop as a label, and included this special message:
Happy 4th birthday, L-! I wish you a life full of sunshine, but if a little rain should fall, I will always be your umbrella. All my love always, Mom (date, place).

In one of the blocks I included and image of her kitty, which is her very special stuffed toy she has had since a baby (more on that here), floating off with an umbrella. I have to say the kitty thing really did not go well. I had the bright idea to print using my printer directly on the fabric...thought it would work as it was permanent ink, and even sent a sample through the wash to test it before piecing one into the quilt. Then, when all was said and done and I put the quilt through the wash...well, kitty's image basically faded away. Ugh! So, I used transfer paper to add the image to a scrap of white fabric and quickly hand stitched it on top, TERRIBLY, but will need to replace that at some point as well as I don't find those transfers to be super durable. Maybe will send something off to Spoonflower to try and fix? Not. Happy. I was really disappointed in this, as it was to be that special personal addition for my baby girl. At the moment, she adores it how it is and is none the wiser, but my mind continues to whirl about how to fix this little blip.

But, all that aside, the quilt has already been lovingly adopted by my daughter and, much like childbirth, memories of what hassles may have occurred during the process are already starting to fade, and I am eager to jump in and start a new one :-) I am actually also planning to make a pattern for this one and some of my other designs that I am often asked about- this is something I will work on over the coming months. I think this quilt would be fun in rainbow solids, don't you?

Here are some quilt stats for you:

Finished size: twin (84 inches by 64 inches)
Fabrics: Rainy Days and Mondays by Riley Blake, with some from my stash by Amy Butler, Urban Chicks, Barbara Jones, etc and solids from local quilt shop.
Design: by me
Quilting: stippling by me, by machine
Binding: Green dot from Rainy Days, attached by machine to front and hand stitched to back

Blogger's Quilt Festival

Hello, Festival Goers! Thanks for stopping by! This is my second time around participating in Amy's Blogger's Quilting Festival. My first entry was this spring, with my very first quilt, and the festival is what prompted me to start this blog. I have learned so much since then, and am excited that it is Festival time again, and have been working hard to finish my latest project.

Well, the best laid plans.....

Regular readers will know that I had 2 sets of good friends each have twin boys in September, a week apart. I had such fun making twin quilts using Riley Blake Wheels for the first set, blogged here.
I have been working away on the second set, which I intended to show for the Festival. BUT, due to an unscheduled date with my seam ripper, "Twin Quilts Take 2" and I are not on speaking terms at the moment. Don't worry, we'll make up in a day or two and I will likely be showing them to you in the next week or so, but for now, I have stuffed them in the closet and we are "on a break." But I WILL give you a sneak peek :-)
So, for the festival, I decided to revive and oldie but goodie. By "oldie", I mean from June....I am still new at this! But this quilt is special to me as it is THE ONE where I truly fell in love with quilting. It is simple, but sometimes simplicity can be striking.
I named this quilt the Mckinley quilt after its recipient, a sweet little girl adopted by friends following a long struggle with infertility. I wanted to give them something to mark and celebrate the creation of their new family.
I used a Hunky Dory charm pack, some white solid for sashing, and accented the quilt with hand embroidery and some shabby chic flowers. To learn more details about its construction, you can read the original post, here.
I had such a great response to this quilt, that I later posted the free pattern, here. I have had a few readers send me photos of their finished Mckinley quilts, and it makes me so proud that my simple design has inspired some other new quilters!

Speaking of inspiration, don't forget to go and check out the other amazing entries in the Quilt Festival...prepare to be awestruck!

Plugging away...

It's time for the Blogger's Quilt Festival over at Amy's Creative Side! I love this festival, it is the reason I started this blog, back in the spring. I entered my very first quilt! Now, just 5 months later, I am working on quilts 11 and 12....see, it really is OCD!! These next 2 quilts are the "Twin Quilts Take 2" that I promised. I will be plugging away on these over the next few days and hopefully will finish them up in time to join in on the festival fun! Be sure to go and check out all the amazing entries!

Back to work!

My First Quilt

I have been so inspired by a variety of friends of late, and their beautiful quilts, that I thought I should give it a try. My girlfriend, Kathy, recently started a charity, Quilting for Babes, where quilts are made and donated to sick babies in the NICU at our local Children's Hospital, and I thought I would like to contribute a few in thanks for the health of my three beautiful kids. This quilt is the first of those- and the first quilt I have actually ever made! While I have a few more under my belt now, this quilt will always be special to me. I learned so much making it, and I feel so good knowing where it is going- I hope its bright colors, which remind me of summer and sherbet, will brighten the day of a sick child and their family, and give them some hope. Love and prayers went into each stitch. It was made with fabrics from my local fabric store, and quilted with a meandering horizontal pattern and I just love the informal look, it suits this modern-style quilt well!

I am sharing this quilt with the community at the Blogger's Quilt Festival- please go check out all the amazing entries! http://www.amyscreativeside.com/2010/05/bloggers-quilt-festival-spring-2010.html.

Kristie