Blogger’s Quilt Festival 2010

When it comes to choosing a favorite quilt, I have to say that usually it’s the quilt I’m currently working on. Apologies to my older (and well-loved) quilts, but you guys are no longer my favorites.

However, I can’t exactly submit an unfinished quilt to the Blogger’s Quilt Festival, so here is the one I chose:

I feel fairly confident in saying that this project is the biggest one I have ever worked on – not in size, but in time.

I started it almost a year ago and slowly worked on it between other projects. Right in the middle of the project, I also had to pack up my sewing “area” and move everything down to my new sewing ROOM! So the quilt was set aside for several months while I got everything in order.

Here’s a view of the back:

The back is mostly the green fabric with the little ladybugs – but I did add some pieced squares to use up what few strips I had left. Instead of a traditional quilt label, this time I opted for some applique lettering and I really like the effect.

It’s the perfect picnic blanket size: 58x68. It’s not so big and bulky that it’s awkward to fold and carry, but it is just big enough to fit all four of us and our food (and then big enough for an after-picnic nap.)

Right at the time that I had my sewing room all boxed up, I took a trip home to visit my family. At this point in the progress of the quilt, I was getting pretty tired of paper piecing all of those string blocks. It just started to seem so monotonous and uber-repetitive and I was in a slump. While I was visiting home I spotted one of my grandma’s old quilts and I knew I had to pull it out and photograph it:

After laying the quilt out, photographing it and admiring it, I acquired a new appreciation for my little picnic blanket project. I really couldn’t complain anymore about how long it was taking me! First of all, grandma’s quilt is bigger. Much bigger. It’s also hand quilted and I’m pretty sure it’s hand pieced. Her choices of fabric didn’t come in tidy little fat quarter stacks, they were collected over the years from worn out pieces of clothing.

To top it all off, grandma’s quilt has survived at least 30 years of use by me and my siblings. Sure it has some rips and tears and some of the fabric is wearing thin, but in those flaws I just see the love. Thanks for the inspiration grandma!

At some point I really would like to create my own version of grandma’s wagon wheels. I’d keep the blocks the same size, maybe keep that great orange color there, and modernize the rest of it. For now, that quilt is on the drawing board. Maybe that will be my submission for next year’s quilt festival!

Nearly There

I have the top all pieced now and I’m just getting the back done. I’m still debating how I will quilt it….. straight lines maybe? It would be something different for me!

Originally I had more fabrics included in this quilt, but it just wasn’t working for me. I pulled out two of the prints and added more of the aqua dots and green solid. By doing that I feel like it tightened it all up a little more. It’s not quite so all-over-the-place. Know what I mean?

Jeans and T Shirt

My oldest son has never showed much of an interest in the quilts I’m making while they’re in the piecing stage. Once I lay them out for basting though, he comes right over to see. After making a few comments or maybe asking a question or two about it, he inevitably asks when I’m going to make HIM a quilt. I put it off thinking he was just being nice, but then I got a great idea for a quilt that would fit my boy to a T.

I called it “Jeans and Tshirt.” In my stash I had a big stack of blue scraps that were given to me from my MIL and when paired with white, they reminded me of jeans and a nice clean white tshirt. (my boy’s favorite school-day outfit.)
I added just a touch of red to add a little bit of unexpectedness…

…my son chose a nice soft fleece for the backing….

…and I added a scrappy binding (using up the last bits of blues from that same stack from my MIL.)

The blocks were made using some fairly simple paper piecing and then sashed in white with just a bit of wonkiness. I have more photos of how I made the blocks and I’ll post a pseudo-tutorial on that tomorrow.

I must say that I was pleasantly surprised by the fleece back. I really thought it would pucker as I quilted it, but it worked beautifully! I did use my usual batting as well as the fleece. I basted it as normal and quilted it as I usually do. Really the only difference was just in how much more bulk there was to work around as I quilted.
The finished quilt is only 55x72 (my son has a loft bed with a railing so his quilts can’t “hang” too much.) and he absolutely loves it. The biggest complement to me was not so much the words he said, but the fact that he carries it downstairs to watch cartoons in the morning!

A Trip to the Post Office

I’ve been playing catch up on some of my virtual bee blocks. Here are the last few that will get mailed out this morning! To see more details (and find out which block goes with which bee) head to my flickr page.

Finally Finished!

I'm adding this post in to Amy Lou Who's Sew & Tell. Go and check it out!



I feel fairly confident in saying that this project is the biggest one I have ever worked on – not in size, but in time.
I started it almost a year ago and slowly worked on it between other projects.

It felt so good to fold it up, throw it in the trunk and take it to the park today. There really is nothing better than using a handmade quilt for the first time.
It’s perfect picnic blanket size: 58x68. It’s not so big and bulky that it’s awkward to fold and carry, but it is just big enough to fit all four of us and our food (and then big enough for an after-picnic nap.)

The back is mostly the green fabric with the little ladybugs – but I did add some pieced squares to use up what few strips I had left.

Now that we’re (maybe) finally getting some picnic-worthy weather, I’ll be able to use this even more!