Blogger's Quilt Festival

 

I'm having so much fun seeing all the quilts in Blogger's Quilt Festival that I decided to participate, too.  Amy from Amy's Creative Side hosts this festival.  If you're stopping by my blog for the first time, welcome and I hope you find some fun things!

The quilt I'm entering into the Blogger's Quilt Festival is one of my Summer Block of the Week quilts from Primitive Gatherings.  I believe this was from 2009.  I love their Block of the Week program - each week of summer, for 12 weeks, you receive a block pattern and fabrics and wools to make that block.  At the end, you can purchase a finishing kit if you want to, or you can finish it your own way.  This quilt is wool on flannel, and all the wool is blanket stitched by hand.   Part of my fun summer ritual is to get the block all prepared during the week, and then spend some of my weekend sitting on the deck and stitching - very relaxing!  When I look at these quilts, I'm reminded of summer and the slower pace.  In my memory, the weather is always perfect, too!

I've participated in this program several years, and two of the quilts are even finished!  This quilt is hand quilted with perle cotton.  It's hard to see from the picture, but it is quilted in straight lines through all the half-square triangles.

Here's a closeup of one area of the quilt.  The wools in this quilt are very bright and pretty.  I really enjoy wool applique - if you've never tried it, buy a simple kit and give it a try.  It's not the cheapest hobby, but you get a lot of hours of fun out of one kit, and something nice to enjoy when you're done.  There are several different methods to do wool applique, but the method I have most success with is using Lite Steam-A-Seam 2 on the back of the wool.  It keeps the edges neat, and I can iron the appliques into place before I start, and then the project is completely portable without having to go back into my sewing room.

Here are the stats for this quilt:
*Quilt Measurements:  47" x 58"
*Special Techniques used, if any:  Wool applique on Flannel,  hand blanket-stitched
*Quilted by myself
*Best category – Hand Quilted, Applique

Thanks for stopping by, and be sure to go to Amy's Creative Side to see all the other quilts in the Blogger's Quilt Festival.

Design Wall Monday - October 22

Wow, what a difference three weeks makes!  The last time I blogged we were having beautiful autumn weather.  That's done - the leaves are all off the trees and we are into the gloomy, rainy part of fall now.  Yesterday I raked our leaves into piles and pulled up all the summer flowers.  It's time to put everything to bed for another season.

I've been sewing, too!  This is Winter Break from Weekend Quilts by Judy Laquidara.  I got this book as a gift last Christmas, and I've been wanting to make several of the quilts in it, but didn't have enough background fabric.  These quilts are big, and take a lot of background fabric.  I finally got a bolt of black and a bolt of white, so now I can really make some quilts.  This one was really fast and easy, especially after finishing Orca Bay!  This quilt was all squares and rectangles, so it went together pretty quickly.  It's ready to go into the to-be-quilted stash (a pile which is growing alarmingly tall).

This is Times 3 by Mountainpeek Creations.  I used all blue background I Spy type fabrics for this one, with tone-on-tone fabrics for the small squares.  This will be a donation quilt - I wanted to make one for a boy this time, so this one fills the bill.  It  has trucks, robots, racecars, pizza chefs, cats getting X-rays, pirates and lots of other stuff.  They should find plenty to look at in this one!  My stash of I Spy fabrics would be getting smaller if I didn't keep buying more every time I go anywhere.  The manufacturers just make too many cute kids prints.

And the September Banner of the Month is done!  There is a cat for Halloween, and then a cornucopia for Thanksgiving, and then I'll have the complete set.  I've really enjoyed making these.

Thanks for stopping by!