Blogger's Quilt Festival Spring 2015 - Kaleidoscopic quilt

It's that time of year again folks, all the big boys and girls are off to Quilt Market to see all the fun new fabric that we'll all be coveting and the rest of us get to watch jealously from afar. Thank goodness for Amy and her twice yearly Blogger's Quilt  Festival to keep us all happy looking at the fantastic creations of our online community! It's always fun to find new inspiration and new blogs to read.
I usually have a tricky time deciding which quilt to enter but this year I knew straight away which one I wanted to submit. I designed this Kaleidoscopic quilt for Quilt Now magazine last year and was delighted when it made the front cover of Issue 5!

This lap sized quilt was a real labour of love, 64 foundation pieced blocks was no small task. It was totally worth it though, this is one of my all time favourites. I love all the secondary patterns that this block gives and the colours just make me feel happy. There are so many of my beloved/ hoarded fabrics in here, which I'm sure contributes to its favourite status.

After all the machine work of foundation piecing it was a pleasure to take my time over the hand quilting. I'm a huge fan of chunky hand quilting with Perle thread. I don't have the patience for tiny. neat hand stitches but neat chunky stitches are right up my street. The texture that this type of quilting provides is fantastic, really snuggly, which is just what you need for a lap quilt!

I used three neutral shades of Perle thread in the low volume areas of the quilt and a dusky pink Perle thread to echo quilt the pink kites.

I contained the kaleidoscopic blocks with a scrappy low volume border and finished off with a black and white pezzy binding. I can't resist showing you the professional photo on the cover of  the magazine; I will never tire of seeing my creation right there on the cover.

So there you have it, I'm entering this in the Modern Quilts category purely because I designed this quilt on the iPad. You must check out all the other quilts in the category (and the other categories of course) and if you like this quilt or indeed any of the other quilts you can nominate up to 3 quilts for a Viewer's choice award. Nominations are open until the 21st May and voting commences on the 22nd May. I recommend getting yourself a cuppa and a comfy seat to trawl through the fantastic inspiration over there!

Thanks for visiting, I hope you'll come back again sometime. Catch you soon x 

Blogger's Quilt Festival - Larking Around

I'm joining in with Amy's Blogger's Quilt Festival after a friendly poke from Susan. If you're visiting our blog from the Festival for the first time then I hope you'll find something you like here enough to stop by again :) If you're a regular visitor you will already have seen some of the progress of the quilt I'm entering in the Throw Quilt Category. I'll quickly recap for you. I started this quilt in November 2011 but only finished it yesterday (hangs head in shame). I was so excited when I got the full fat quarter set of Lark by Amy Butler that I started cutting into it pretty much straight away. I had a thing for equilateral triangles at the time so it was a no-brainer that I would use them in this quilt which I named Larking Around.

For one reason or another I shelved it, after only constructing 2 rows of triangles, until July 2012 when I added 4 more rows of triangles. Then life got busy and it made it's way back into my rather large WIP box. Finally, last weekend I rescued it from the box and got the top finished and basted to the backing! When Susan told me that Blogger's Quilt Festival started today I cussed quite a bit (nothing new!) but was determined to get it finished so I could join in. So now for the details. I used Kona black solid for the background fabric and strips cut from fat quarters of Lark for the triangles and the border, then backed with one of the black and white prints from Lark. I pieced and machine quilted an echo around the central hexagon panel and the strippy border with Aurifil. 

I hand quilted the diamond shapes in between the hexagons with a vivid yellow perle cotton that doesn't show up very well in photos but looks gorgeous against the black in real life. 

I bound with a nice black and white print from Cocoon.

And that's it, after almost 2 years of procrastinating, a finished lap/throw quilt.

I love it! I hope you've enjoyed looking at it too :) 

The finished quilt is approx. 43" by 49" so the perfect size for keeping my legs warm while sewing in front of the telly. Right there I sound about 80 and I'm really not ;) Don't forget to check out all the other lovely quilts! Thanks for stopping by, catch you soon x

Firsts

In the course of packing  I came across a couple of things that I thought I would share with you. This is the first quilt I ever made! Excuse the dodgy photo, the weather is awful and there are boxes everywhere which are not conducive to good photos. I made this "beauty" about 7 or 8 years ago. I don't remember using a pattern so I think I must have made it up as I went along...sounds like me :) The prints are flower fairies in peach, maroon and pale blue...yep...shakes head... what was I thinking?!! On the strength of this quilt we had to redecorate Jess' pink bedroom to something more neutral. Hubby was not impressed having only decorated 6 months previously. The border fabric is also on the left hand side of the quilt it just doesn't show up as the quilt is mis-shapen. Lesson number one: quilting through all layers of quilt is essential for stability!

Here's a closer peak at the fabrics. Don't judge me for the wonky seams and p*ss poor hand-quilting :)

I topped the quilt with a panel of this fabric which I painstakingly hand-embellished in embroidery floss. 

I guess I shouldn't be so harsh on myself, it was after all my first ever quilt and Jess still loves it even if it does now live in a drawer. I think we can safely say that my taste has long since moved on. Which brings me to my next show and tell item. This is the first quilt I made from a pattern that I found on Moda Bakeshop about 3 years ago! It was this quilt that set me on my journey to Flickr and blogland. I can't begin to tell you how excited I was when I found that there was a whole new world of fresh, bright fabrics and modern takes on traditional designs! True to form I didn't choose a nice straight-forward pattern to ease myself in gently, nope straight in there with a Triple Irish Chain. I completed this section of the quilt about 3 years ago and it has been festering in a corner since then! I couldn't decide what I wanted to do with it so I just left it until inspiration struck me...

I used Hello Betty by Chloe's Closet for this quilt, as per the pattern, but pale pinks aren't really my thing. Mum loves them though so I finally had a reason to get on and finish this baby. I'm trading this quilt for a hard to find Hello Betty honey bun in the grey colourway :) I added a little pale pink perle hand-quilting to the four interior white sections just because I could.

You might just be able to make out the little swirls on the white on white background fabric. Whilst I would normally shrink away from using this kind of fabric now I actually love the way it looks in this setting. I bound with my favourite Minnick and Simpson stripe which I then edged with one of the decorative stitches on my sewing machine. 

 Here's the finished article.

A pieced back from some Pezzy Prints, left over background fabric and this cute tree print that I can't remember.

The end result is a perfect lap sized quilt, just right for snuggling under in this chilly weather. I'm hoping to deliver it to Mum this weekend when we head north to check out progress on our soon to be (fingers crossed) new house! Hope you're all staying safe and dry in this bizarre weather. Catch you soon x

uggghhh

It's too hot!!! I'm sorry folks but me plus heat equals misery. I shall be glad when this heat wave passes. All moaning aside, I have managed to finish the Mama Said Sew flowers quilt top :) I'm exceptionally pleased with how it turned out!

 In a moment of madness I decided to hand quilt it. "It's only small so that shouldn't be too much hassle"...enter heat-wave....too hot for quilt on lap. Boo! This may take longer than I had intended.

I'm hoping for cooler weather very soon, sorry to anyone who loves the heat ;) Hope you've all had good weekends. Catch you soon x