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Saturday 19 May 2012

Bloggers’ Quilt Festival :: Spring 2012

OK - I have worked up the nerve to enter the Bloggers' Quilt Festival for 2012 hosted at Amy's Creative Side.

It is only a quilt I blogged/completed about a few weeks ago - but I feel it was a step in a new direction of quilting for me!

C Quilt Front

The new owner of the quilt is quite deeply in love with it and I have heard a rumour she "pats" it every time she walked past it! A Lone Star that contains all sorts of fun goodies - mermaids, cats, butterflies and hearts combined with Pink and Orange goodness. I really like to try to include meaningful fabrics when I am making quilts for close friends - which I think is a fabulous excuse for why they take me so long to make! Though this quilt for Ms C was quite easy to collect fabrics for. I already had the Heather Ross mermaids and the Alexander Henry Domesticats. A few others were from my stash and I knew the Dear Stella Mimosa and Meet me at Sunset would fit in nicely!

I used my new Westalee Ruler to cut the diamonds. It was the first time I had used it (or a template at all) and I found piercing it very easy. There was a little bit of struggling with 3 corners meeting but I got there! I have since made two other quilts this way and am happy to say I have almost perfected it!

I struggled with the best way to quilt this one - my normal straights lines were not going to cut it this time. After consulting with my creative director (aka hubby) he suggested that why don't I start in the centre and do a wavy pattern so it looks like the mermaids are swimming. I immediately said "Don't be silly I can't quilt wavy AND in a circle". But then I started to like the idea - so I used my walking foot and somehow managed to do it! There are a few jagged curves - and geez did my hands hurt the next day! But I found the process quick and not having to measure things out was quite liberating (and time saving)

It has actually inspired me to buy a darning foot and attempt free-motion quilting - It arrived the other day but I have had the worst flu in history and I have not had a chance to test it out yet

C Quilt closeup

Thanks for stopping by - make sure you check out some of the other wonderful quilts at Bloggers' Quilt Festival.

15 comments:

  1. Really beautiful! Love your happy fabric choices!

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  2. Lovely! I really like how you quilted it...

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  3. Gorgeous! I love a lone star. I'd pat it everytime I went past it too.

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  4. Love your colors. You should check out Leah's blog for some great fmq tips. http://www.freemotionquilting.blogspot.com/

    I entered the world of fmq recently and learned a lot from her blog

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  5. Very nice job! your points came out so well. Nice choice of fabrics/colors. Beautiful!

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  6. Looks like you can quilt Wavy in a circle. Hope you didn't get dizzy in the process... Feel better!

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  7. Great idea from your husband - I like the wavy lines. And what a great mix of fabrics! I

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  8. Such a pretty quilt. Love your fabric choices (mermaid one is so great!) and the way your quilted it.

    Happy Quilt Festival.

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  9. Love your quilt and fabulous fabric choices. Well done to your hubby for coming up with the quilting idea, it looks wonderful they way it is quilted.Well done!

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  10. I love these orange fabrics!

    Check out my blog if you can...

    Margaret Gunn
    www.quiltsoflove.blogspot.com

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  11. I like the walking foot wavy lines and am glad to know it's possible. Nicely done. I think I might just try this type of quilting as my walking foot behaves better than my free motion.

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  12. love stars! yours is beautiful and love the fabrics. nice the recipient loves it too. thanks for sharing and have a great day

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  13. Thanks everyone for your lovely comments!

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