Thursday, October 25, 2012

Blogger's Quilt Festival ~ Fall 2012

It's festival time again!  Thanks to Amy, of Amy's Creative Side, for once again hosting this fun event for us bloggers.  I'm looking forward to seeing the quilts that the rest of you have chosen to enter.  The festival link-up will be open until October 31, so you still have time to put together a blog post if you haven't already.

My festival quilt this year is one that I completed recently, and have recently posted about, but for those of you visiting my blog for the first time, this will be new to you!  Thank you for visiting, and I hope that you will stay and take a look around.  This quilt is currently listed in my shop.


This baby quilt is one of my own design.  Some of my favourite fabric lines are the ones put out by the Sweetwater girls, and for this quilt I used my very last pieces of Hometown, and some of my last bits of Reunion as well.  I used a tutorial by Badskirt Amy for the quick and easy circles.  This was a first for me, and was a lot of fun.


I played around with the arrangement of the circles, on the backdrop of Kona Bone, and finally decided on this layout.  Then, I machine stitched the circles to the background fabric.


Next came the decision on how I would quilt this project.  I've recently been learning how to free motion quilt and knew that I would want to try a new design on this quilt, especially given how much negative space I had to work with.  I found this 'crybaby meander' design via Pinterest (video tutorial here) and when practicing I found it to be a design that flowed easily and was fairly quick to do.  I decided to quilt around the circles, which proved to be a more challenging task than I thought it would be, but in the end I was so happy with the result and the extra effort was worth it!


For the back, I found this really sweet tiny floral fabric that coordinated so well with the Sweetwater prints, and I planned to just do a plain back.  As luck would have it, the piece I bought was not quite long enough, so I ended up piecing it with some of the Reunion pennant prints, and I love it.  Adds an extra little touch that I think is a lot of fun.


I chose to bind the quilt with some gray gingham fabric I had leftover from the backing of another project.  It goes so well with the esthetic of the Sweetwater fabrics.  It's also gender neutral, and I think this quilt would be well suited to a baby boy or a baby girl.

Quilt stats:

Finished size:  32" x 40"
Fabric:  Sweetwater Hometown & Reunion, Kona Bone, unknown 
small floral backing, gray gingham binding
Quilted by:  me, using Aurifil 50wt cotton thread
Category:  baby quilt, home machine quilted

Amy's Creative Side

41 comments:

Janice @ Better off Thread said...

Your quilt is SO pretty! The FMQing is gorgeous and gives it so much movement! I also think it was worth the extra trouble to quilt around the circles. Great job!

Debbie said...

I'm still just so impress with your quilting here, Heather! And I think the back and binding just suit this quilt to a "t!"

Svetlana said...

wow, Heather!!! Your quilting is stunning! What a pretty quilt!

Kristy @ Quiet Play said...

Just love this quilt - so beautiful with such fabulous quilting!

Teje Karjalainen said...

Hi Heather! Your quilt is so beautiful! I love colours with lots of white! You have made fantastic quilting! x Teje

Kate said...

I'm very impressed with this whole thing! You went from unsure on FMQ to doing an AWESOME job on a huge amount of quilt to cover! And of course, I still love the pennants on the back.

Nat at Made in Home said...

The quilting is amazing Heather!!

Flo @ Butterfly Quilting said...

I love the quilt..and great job on the FMQ!!

Taya@TypeB said...

Great job on the circles! Thanks for the link to that tutorial. I love the design and the quilting is amazing! Thanks for sharing it!

mle said...

Gorgeous Heather! the quilting is amazing!

CitricSugar said...

I do love this one. The quilting gets me every time I see it...

Carla said...

The quilting on this still amazes me!

Krista Schneider said...

i'd forgotten how impressive the quilting was on this, i'm glad i got to see it again. you're such a rock star!

Patti said...

So gorgeous, Heather! I just love your quilting in all that beautiful negative space!

Heidi Grohs said...

I am so glad you picked this one for BQF. The quilting is so divine with those circles. Gosh..I love this still!

Poppyprint said...

I don't think I saw this one!! I love it. Obviously you've got your new machine rocking the FMQing because it looks amazing. Well done you!!!

sherry said...

i adore the simplicity of this quilt

Kelsey said...

The quilting is amazing!! Great job!

Alison V. said...

How beautiful and simple!

Jan said...

Beautiful. You did a great job on this.

Live a Colorful Life said...

The quilting on this one is just beautiful!

Eileen said...

Great quilt and your fmq is wonderful. Thanks for sharing and have a great day

Rebecca said...

Beautiful quilt! And your quilting looks fantastic!

Marlene said...

Love the simplicity of this quilt. Your qilting is fantastic and gives the qilt sch movement.

Kirsten said...

Beautiful quilt - your FMQ is really stunning!

Shontelle said...

Such a great quilt. I love everything about it, down to the binding. Your FMQ looks terrific.

Calicojoan said...

The simple design, allows for a great showcase of beautiful fabrics, and fabulous quilting. What a winner!

Sew Sisters Quilt Shop said...

It's lovely.
Carol

Kathleen said...

WOW! I love the way you free motion quilted this. Thanks for the link. I am just learned to FMQ so I will check it out.

Beth said...

Wow - your quilting is incredible! I like everything about this quilt - the design and the fabrics you chose!

Jess @ Elven Garden Quilts said...

This is so beautiful Heather, the design, the quilting, everything. Love it.

Sunshine Girl said...

Its lovely - great colours. Thanks for sharing. #263

Jenelle said...

The quilting is so beautiful! I really like that you allowed that to take the focus in this quilt with all the negative space. :)

Carolyn said...

Such a pretty quilt! Love how the circles pop with how you quilted it.

LeKaQuilt said...

I like your quilt !

a maidenhair fern said...

Love this circle quilt with reunion

Kristan said...

Yay, I'm so glad you entered this one!

Shay said...

I love how you took a simple idea and really made it shine. The quilting really is the star of the show and looks amazing!

Lyanna L. said...

i love the simplicity of this quilt - makes it so chic and the quilting makes it pop. Great job.

tusen said...

I love the quilting.

linda said...

Very cool quilt girlie!! Love that sweetwater fabric too!! One of my favs!