Blogger's Quilt Festival

 I hope Mr Linky is still open and I can get this quilt entered in Amy's Blogger's Quilt Festival.  I just got my internet back after Hurricane Sandy.

  I made this quilt a few years ago for my younger brother and his new wife.  They live in Nashville and I live near Baltimore so I hadn't seen their home since their wedding and I knew they had decorated a lot.  No idea what color scheme so I went Multi!  I pulled out some black and white prints and my precious Cherrywood fabrics.  I didn't have a pattern, I just started with a big ol' star.  After I got the center star done, the middle looked 'boorrrrrrrring' and I knew it needed something.

 

 

I used some designs from Kim Schaefer's book Flower Festival and jazzed it up a little.  Aren't those Cherrywood colors just yummy?  I also decided to frame up those applique blocks (yeah, cuz I accidentally cut the blocks too small, lol.  Happy accident.)

 

I had so much fun with this quilt.  I tried things for the first time.  Like, quilting feathers!  This is one of the four large corner blocks.  This first picture is before I washed it and you can see the marks I used.  I just used 3 circles to give myself some boundaries.  Look at those plump and happy feathers!

 

And.............after a ride through the washing machine!  All nice and rumply.

 



 

For the triangles, I just stitched a freeform center line of stitching and then fit some feathers on each side.  I don't know why I haven't done this again.  I really need to.

 



 

For this quilt I even got out my calculator and did some arithmatic.  Oooooo!   I pieced a border!  Dang Lisa, you musta really been showing off that day, ha ha.

In each of the solid blocks around the border, I tried something else for the first time.  I decided to use some 'filler' patterns with my quilting.  I poked around Leah Day's website and got lots and lots of ideas.

Here's one, some simple wavy lines.

 

 

And some sassy zig zaggy lines.

 



 

Who likes curls?

 



 

I believe this was supposed to look a bit like flames.

Hmmm, really?



 

Circles!  Gosh I always love the look of this but I haven't ever gotten the nerve to try it in a large space.  Lots of thread used if you do that.



 

Itty bitty feathers.  Cute!

 

And I think I was either really tired or just plain running out of ideas or mojo.  Just some sorta outline stitching. 



 

I haven't seen this quilt since I gave it to George and Lara.  Looking at these pictures makes me realize that I need to stop and smell the roses more often when I'm making a quilt.  By that, I mean slow down and give each quilt a proper finish, try new stuff, and take a chance.   It's way too easy to get impatient after piecing a top when you can almost smell the finish line.  I'm so guilty of that, anybody else wanna raise their hands.  Nice solid border and a quick all-over meander and we can get going on the next quilt we've been itching to make.  I think I feel a resolution coming in my near future.

 

Anyway, here are the stats for this quilt.

 

Measures 64 inches square.

Special techniques: machine applique.

Machine quilted by Lisa Mathis on a home machine.

Best category:  applique quilt, throw, home machine quilted.

I hope you enjoyed this quilt!