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!

walking

Well, we are back from our SCAD fundraiser walk in Naperville, IL. What an amazing experience. Not even sure how to articulate it.


We went down in support of our friend, Michele, who survived a SCAD heart attack last fall. It was her first chance to meet other survivors or this uncommon disease. I am sure you can imagine it was an emotional weekend, but an important one for her healing, I think.

I was so inspired by the strength and spirit of these amazing women. Survivors, indeed. I hope to make this an annual event! Such a scary, random disease, and a very worthy cause.

We had fun meeting survivors and supporters from all over the U.S., and we were the proud Canadian representatives! We brought a flag and our own wacky charm to the event ("red wine is good for the heart, you know!").

Thank you so much to all of you who donated to the fundraiser! And on top of those who donated from afar, a very special blogging friend, who happens to live in Naperville, went the extra mile (well, 3 miles, actually) and came with her husband and 3 children to participate in the walk with us! Do you all know Svetlana from S.O.T.A.K. Handmade? If not yet, you should, she is an amazing quilter (so much better than me. Seriously.), and also an incredible person. Thank you so much, Svetlana, for coming to the walk, for your conversation along the way and for even inviting us Crazy Canucks to your home! You are wonderful :) It was a pleasure to meet you.


Speaking of walks, I also picked up a little fabric while away....including Aneela's A Walk in the Woods!

And finally got my hands on some Flea Market Fancy! I hoard Denyse Schmidt fabric like a maniac, one day I will actually make a quilt with it all.

And I also picked up something special....remember my drunkard's path quilt top from the quilt along last fall? Well, I treated myself to some long arm quilting by Jenny, and she blew me away with her amazing skills. Here is a sneak peak! Hope to get my act together and slam on some binding over the next week. This one is mine, all mine!
Have a great day!

Drunkard's Path QAL: Winners!

Thanks again to everyone who braved the curves and participated in our quilt along, and to those of you who couldn't participate but who cheered us on! It was my first time piecing curves as well, usually I have done them with applique in the past, and I have to say that this quilt was certainly the cure for curvitis! Despite the learning "curve" (hahaha!), it was a fun block to do and with its versatility I know I will be back for more. If you haven't done so already, you can go peruse the finished quilt tops here.

Now it is time to announce our prize winners! Thanks to our sponsors for their donations :)

The fat quarter bundle of Tula Pink's Prince Charming fabric donated by The Fabric Shoppe goes to:

B. Yazoo!



The $40 gift certificate courtesy of Fresh Squeezed Fabrics goes to:


Beth at Sewing for Sanity!

Congratulations, Ladies! We will be in touch to get you your prizes :)

Drunkard's Path QAL: Link up your quilt tops!

Whoo hoo! We finished! This block wasn't for sissies :) Good job everyone! It has been so fun for Kate and I watching all the lovely quilt tops take shape over in the Flickr group.


The process had its moments, but once I saw my final quilt top, I was in love. I am pretty sure this will be my favorite quilt ever. And it is mine-all-mine!! I am treating myself to some long arm quilting on this one by Jenny :)

I love the fabrics (Bonnie and Camille's Ruby), and am really happy with the block arrangement that I chose (thanks to everyone for their input!). It was the scrappy diamond shaped option which had the secondary shape of the flower in white once the blocks were joined together. With so many great block options, I am pretty certain that I will be back to do another of these in the future.


Now it is time to link up your finished quilt top (or quilt, for those of you who have finished!) to be eligible for one of our prizes! We have 2 amazing prizes:

- a $40 gift certificate from Randi at Fresh Squeezed Fabrics!
- a fat quarter bundle of Tula Pink's Prince Charming fabric from Fabric Shoppe!

Be sure to visit these great shops to show your appreciation :)




So go ahead and link up your quilt tops! Links will show up both here and on Kate's blog (how cool is that?). You can link up until December 5, 2011, at which time we will randomly select our 2 winners. Good luck, and congratulations on your finishes!

Drunkard's path QAL: blocks!

Finally came to a decision on my block, but I spent a RIDICULOUS number of hours playing with the pieces on the kitchen floor before finally just starting sewing. I polled my husband and kids for their opinions, and finally chose the one my dog lay to take a nap on. Are you curious what I chose? Well, I'm not telling yet!


If you are still debating which block arrangement to choose, I found this site that showed full quilts in different layouts- much easier to visualize than just looking at blocks!

So now it is time to start assembling those blocks! Next stop: finished quilt top!

Kate and I have decided to extend the deadline a bit- mostly because we are both swamped for time at the moment! We can't be the only ones, right? So we will meet back for a link up on Monday November 28. you can link up all week long, until names are drawn on Monday December 5 for prizes from our awesome sponsors, Fresh-Squeezed Fabrics and The Fabric Shoppe. So there is still time to jump in, if you'd like!

See you on November 28!

Drunkard's Path QAL: the one where the magic happens

Phew! Anyone else a bit dizzy? I will never fear sewing curves again! Well prepared for life, I am :)

So now you have this big stack of squares, and an infinite set of possibilities of how to piece them together. I haven't come to a final decision on my block arrangement yet. I love them all! I have eliminated the circle options as I have done a DP-like circle quilt in the past (here). Here are a few options I am exploring:

"Criss cross," by color:

"Criss cross," scrappy:
Mirror image flowers (can you see how what is white on one side is solid on the other side of the block?). I only took a picture of this one scrappy:

The following is 4 blocks, which each have a diamond shape, but I can see a secondary white "floral" look in the center of the 4 when I put it all together. First option is sorted by color:
Second option is scrappy:


Then there is this fun, scallop-y stripe option:
Not sure what to call this...reminds me of tops of pillars?


You see why this is so hard? What do you think? I'd love to get your "vote" on how you think I should go from here! Please leave me a comment with your 2 cents, I am needing a nudge!

So, once you have made the big decision, start assembling those blocks! I like to take photos of my layout as a guide as I make them up. Also, I don't have a design wall where these can sit and wait for me, so a photo helps me remember where things go! My QAL partner, Kate, has some suggestions as to how she gets organized to sew her blocks as well, so go visit her and take a look!

We'll meet back next week to assemble those blocks into the finished quilt top. The following week we will have a link up of the finished tops to be eligible for some awesome prizes from Fresh Squeezed Fabrics and The Fabric Shoppe! We will let you all have a week or so to link up before declaring a winner, so you still have 3 weeks to make it happen, even if you haven't started yet. Come on, jump in! You can get further support and inspiration from our DP Flickr group :)

Drunkard's Path Quilt Along: Sewing your blocks

Well, kids- it's finally time to sew!

Take that bucket-o-pieces you cut up last week....


....and start stitching them together! Feel free to review my instructions for sewing curves over here. But I have a confession to make....I modified my method to a way I found easier/faster. And, of course, I did it to get rid of those pins, lol! Here is what I did (much more like Kate's method, really!):

1. Line the pieces up as shown, with top edges aligned- right sides facing.

2. Sew using a 1/4 inch seam, with the edge of the presser foot following the edge of the bottom outer curve piece and using your fingers to pull the upper inner curve piece to the right to line up with the lower piece as you sew.

3. Middle notches should still line up.

4. In the last centimeter/half inch or so, you may need to stop (needle down) and lift your presser foot to help arrange last bit of fabric so the bottom edges are also square as they were at the top.

5. Press towards darker fabric- done!

Repeat 324 times for a lap quilt, or about 168 times for a baby quilt (phew!). Get busy, people! This is the most labour-intensive step of this quilt along, so we are allowing 12 days to complete it. Meet you back here on November 8 to arrange them into patterns and blocks!

Happy sewing!

Drunkard's Path QAL: Let's cut some fabric!

Time to slice up that fabric, folks! If you are cutting it using templates, go visit Kate at Needle and Spatula for the low down. If you are using the Accuquilt Go! baby cutter, read on!

Step 1: cut your fabric into 10 inch squares. If you are using a layer cake like I did, that part is done for you!

Step 2: Take those squares and iron them in half.

EFFICIENCY TIP: The Go! Baby works best cutting up to 6 layers of fabric. That is 3 folded pieced of layer cake. As you are ironing your stack, line them up in sets of 3 like so, so you can just grab and go for cutting!


Step 3: Get yourself comfortable and start cutting. I did this while watching Alice in Wonderland with Last But Not Least :) Take your stack of 3 layer cake slices and line them up to cover the cutting edges on the die. It should just cover it all with a bit to spare on each end (minimal waste!). Place the die on the machine, fabric on top and the cutting mat over the fabric as shown:

Step 4: Crank it out! Or enlist some child slave labour to do it for you ;)

Step 5: Peel the excess away to reveal your cut pieces

Step 6: Repeat until you have a big old container full!

Be sure to give us a peek at your pieces in our DP QAL Flickr group (er, how did that end up sounding x-rated??). And meet us back here next Thursday to start sewing 'em up!

Are you tired of hearing about block arrangement ideas yet? We got a great tip from "retired to Quilt" (love that name!) about a great site that shows a bunch or arrangements for the blocks. Here are a few images of the blocks found there:

Click on each image to go to the corresponding page- each page shows the blocks assembled together, which gives a whole new perspective compared to looking at each block separately- they take on a whole new life!