Oh my gosh you guys! I am so humbled and excited. This was my first time doing an all applique quilt. And the first time doing free motion on a longarm! I'm so thrilled to have won the favorite quilt in the applique category. I just wanted to post and thank you all for your votes! This is so thrilling for me and I appreciate all of your votes!

Blogger's Quilt Festival - Mini Flower

I am also entering this quilt in the Bloggers Quilt Festival - the Mini Quilt Category. I made this quilt over the summer for the Schnitzel and Boo mini quilt swap on IG. This was a design I had seen on an accuquilt block contest that I used and interpreted for the swap. Final size on this was 20" wide and tall.

First thing I did was a test version in my own colors.

 

I decided it needed an added border and that I loved the spiral quilting. I gave her pockets in the corner for hanging and a little note on my label.

The recipients colors were fushia and orange. Not a color combo that I typically work in, but I LOVE! It was so fun to step out of my box and make this. And I think the colors are perfect for a flower.

If you like it, please go and vote for me at the Bloggers Quilt Fest!

Bloggers Quilt Festival - The Tree Edition

Hi everyone and welcome to my little stop of the Bloggers Quilt Festival. I'm entering these two quilts as one entry into the Applique category because they are the same quilt in different colorways. So if you like what you see, please go and vote for me! :)

Of course there is a story behind these quilts!  My sister's girlfriend had asked me if I could make her a baby quilt for her girlfriend. I immediately agreed. I love doing baby quilts! She told me the mother loved trees and so I started searching for a great tree pattern.

Shortly after I had started the planning process, she sent me an email. The mother had her ultrasound and she was having twin girls!! So, could I make two tree quilts.  Well, that made the price of this Lilly Pilly pattern much more affordable!

The other story behind this quilt is the binding. This is the bridesmaid dress worn by the woman who commissioned the quilt at the mothers wedding. I thought that was such a sweet touch! I had wanted to do a very wide binding, but once it changed to two quilts I was nervous about having enough!

 

For the backs of the quilts I decided to use only one print so they could be flipped over. I love these backing prints!

Both prints are part of the Joann's designer collection (but I can't remember the specific names). 

 

The tree trunk, branches and birds are raw edge applique. The leaves were done by drawing the shape on interfacing, sewing to the fabric and then flipping inside out. That way I was able to just free motion stitch those down.

I do have to say, I'm most especially proud of the quilting on this.  I was able to go over to my friend Denise's house and use her long-arm. For the first time I used the front side and did free motion quilting based from Angela Walters new book Shape by Shape Quilting. I can't say enough good things about that book - go check it out!

And just a close up of the cute little birds on the tree and my quilting within the leaves: 

I'm very proud of these quilts and I hope you've enjoyed seeing them! If so, please go vote for me on the applique page right here.

Quilt stats:

Quilt name: Trees for Twins

Pattern: Lilly Pilly

Fabrics: scraps, kona white and snow, bridesmaid dress

Finished size: 38"x51"

Finished: 10/5/14

Tula Pink Anchor Quilt - Coral

Welcome to my little entry in the Bloggers Quilt Festival. If you are new here, welcome! Please feel free to look around. I have links to my finished projects at the top. :)  If you've never seen the Bloggers Quilt Fest, go check it out. There is tons of great quilty eye candy! I'm entering this quilt into bed quilts because it turns out to be a queen size quilt (here's the link to vote http://amyscreativeside.com/2013/10/25/bloggers-quilt-festival-bed-quilts-2/).

As soon as I saw this anchor pattern from Tula Pink, I knew I was going to have to make it! When my sister asked me for one, I decided I'd make two. One coral for her and one blue for me (or my son). The first thing I noticed when my fabric arrived was that there are some value differences between the colorways. So I compared them and made my best guess on a couple switches. I laid out the beginning and took a deliberately blurry photo to get the effect.

Ultimately, these were the fabrics that I made changes to for the coral just in case anyone wants to make their own!

And the result...

This is a giant quilt! It's queen size. Here's a close up of the piecing so you can see how many pieces go into making this.

My good friend Denise let me use her longarm again to quilt this one. The pantograph is a square spiral which I am in love with! And I'm totally addicted to long arming.

 

The pattern had a few mistakes (including final dimensions which are below) and was a bit challenging. But nothing I could complain about since it was free! And it was all stuff you could figure out if you think about what you are doing as you go along. The one heads up I would give is that there are some cuts of the solid that require you to go length of fabric rather than width of fabric.

For the back I used a bunch of Kona gray and then I had this raindrop print leftover from my sister when she did her daughters nursery. I know there is no blue in the front, but when you are trying to make backing for a queen size quilt, anything is game!

My label is pieced in there as usual.

I am so glad I decided to make both of them at one time. I don't think I'd be going back to make a 2nd any time soon if I had just done one. Pixelated quilts are tedious!!

The blue one is pieced, but needs to be quilted. Excited to show that one to you as well! Hope you enjoyed this one. I'm thrilled with how it turned out and can't wait to hear my sister's reaction when she receives it!

 Quilt stats:

Quilt name: Coral Anchors Aweigh

Pattern: Anchors Aweigh

Fabrics: Tula Pink Saltwater, Free Spirit Pearl and Dogwood

Finished size: 90" x 95"

Finished: 10/15/13

Edited to add: My sister sent me this picture. I think it looks fantastic in her room!!

Bloggers Quilt Festival Houndstooth Quilt

It's that time of year again! Blogger's Quilt Festival hosted by AmysCreativeSide.com. If you haven't been there yet, go check it out. It's a virtual quilt show and there area always so many beautiful things to see. Those of you who are new here, thanks for stopping by! You can see all of my finished projects by clicking the finished project links above.

This fall I'm featuring a quilt I've already shown. It's definitely my favorite quilt that I've made since the last Quilt Festival. The Houndstooth quilt!

This quilt was originally part of the Sew Sweetness Tula Pink Sew Along. I did a pattern review and you can see that post right here.

Just in case you can't tell, those houndstooth blocks are really large! Here is a  photo I took so you can see how big they are. The square within is 6" big.

This yields a pretty big quilt (66"x72")! It would definitely be a large twin and could possibly even fit a double.

I quilted this one myself with alternating straight lines on the diagonal to create texture.

I wish this quilt still lived with me, but it was a gift for my sister and now resides on her couch. At least I can visit it!

Quilt stats:

Size: 66"x72" 

Pattern: Houndstooth by Tula Pink

Fabrics: Woodgrain from Joel Dewberry, Michael Miller Cotton Couture Venus, Kona white and I can't remember the dot fabric

Quilted by: Myself

Finished: 9/14/12

Best categories: Bed Quilt and Home Machine quilt

Must Love Purple - My Bloggers Quilt Festival Quilt

The quilt I have chosen to show for Blogger's Quilt Festival is my current favorite. (Don't we all say that about every quilt?) I think it's my favorite because it's so different from anything else I've done. And it is my favorite colors. I don't know why, but I'm drawn to cool colors.

It started as my bee quilt in August for the Sew Modern Quilt Bee. The girls did a fantastic job with the blocks they sent me. But when I had put everything together, I realized I hadn't paid close attention. These blocks are only about 7" finished. When I got all my blocks back, the quilt just wasn't big enough for me. Plus I still had a ton of scraps cut up. So I started using this quilt as my leader and ender project and now it's finally finished! And quite large - lol.

The block was one I got from this tutorial on Nittany Block Party. It has since popped up a lot all over blog land. It's fantastic for using up scraps. The only fabric that was not from my stash or scraps is the purple border. So it felt good to use up fabric I already had!

The back is the same thing, all stash. I pieced together all some of the larger pieces I had left in the right colors and of course put my label in there too.  You can also see some of the quilting I did.

I machine quilted this and used a variegated thread for the first time which was a lot of fun. It is purple, blue, green and pink. It shows up best on the solids on the back side.

I basically outlined the "X" pattern and did some straight line along the borders. I didn't want the quilting to compete with the 'busy-ness' of the x's and scraps.

Here are some close ups so you can see all the different fabrics in the blocks.

That's one of the things I like best about this. Up close, it's fun to look at all the different prints. I've never been a huge scrap quilt person, but after this, they are really growing on me! So much so that I've got 2 scrappy quilts in the works now.

Surprise, the binding is scrappy too!

Quilt stats:

Size: 70" x 70"

Pattern: X String Block

Fabrics: Mix of scraps and stash

Quilted by: Myself

Finished: 4/25/2012

As I mentioned before, this is my quilt for the Blogger's Quilt Festival. Welcome to any new visitors who found me through the Festival. And for those who haven't heard of it, go check it out! It's an online quilt show with lots of fantastic submissions.

Bloggers Quilt Festival

I had plans to get a new quilt finished for Bloggers Quilt Festival this year, but I didn't get it to the quilters on time. So I thought I'd feature my favorite quilt this year. If you've been following me a while, you've probably seen this one before. It's my Central Park Postage Stamp quilt.

This quilt was made following the quilt along at PS I Quilt. And I love that QAL because it is such a quick and easy way to make a very impressive quilt. And a good size at 61"x81".

I did my own quilting on this one, just straight lines through the solid blocks.

The fabric is a Central Park jelly roll and a Kona White Jelly Roll. I used some of my favorite Central Park for backing and binding.

Thanks for stopping by. I promise I'll have new stuff to show shortly. In the meantime, enjoy all the quilty goodness over at the Bloggers Quilt Festival.