Blogger's Quilt Festival: Mom's Music Quilt

That's right!  It's Blogger's Quilt Festival Time!  If you're new to my site, welcome!  

One of my first introductions into the world of quilt bloggers was through one of Amy's link up festivals.  I'm adding 2 of my quilts to this fall's festival, which is going on now. My 2 color quilt entry is the one I recently made for my mom.

Each August, for the last 3 years, my mom flies out here to Eastern Oregon from hot muggy Dallas, TX to see us and to escape the heat.  It's becoming a tradition to take her to see snow in August.  She loves to camp and this is also an opportunity for us to camp and travel with her.  We've been to Glacier National Park, Mt Rainier, and this year, Mt Hood.

Last time I visited her, I took a good inventory of the colors and decor of her bedroom, and started scheming out a queen-sized bed quilt to make for her to send back with her to Dallas.The blue and white color scheme, by coincidence, also matches the snow and blue sky that we see every summer.

I saw a similar quilt / pattern at our local quilt show in May, and used my EQ7 program to design it.  I used my "Tri-Recs" ruler that I won last year to make the triangle blocks.

My mom's passion is music and gardening, so I found some cream batik fabric with music notes on it, and some blue botanical fabric to match her room decor.  I also added a musical "touch" to the quilting.

I used my new "go-to" method of labeling via the binding, and even added a quote to the back binding.

I had a panel of batik snowflakes in my fabric stash that matched the quilt perfectly, and used other stash and non-stash fabric to piece together the back.

She loved it!

Be sure to head over to Amy's blog to see all of the other wonderful quilts!

Blogger's Quilt Festival: We The People Crazy Quilt

That's right!  It's Blogger's Quilt Festival Time!  If you're new to my site, welcome!  

One of my first introductions into the world of quilt bloggers was through one of Amy's link up festivals.  I'm adding 2 of my quilts to this fall's festival, which is going on now.  My art quilt entry is my recently completed "We the People Crazy Quilt.  It was created out of my frustration with the recent government shut down.  The whole process was very cathartic for me, and left me with a beautiful new quilt.

As usual, when I start a new project, I like to try out or learn a new technique.  I have been wanting to try reverse applique for a while now, so I used my red and blue scraps first to make a crazy quilt of the different states in the Union.  It's art, so I ad-libbed a bit.  Our politicians are very good at doing this.  Crazy quilts are made in exactly the same fashion, and it just seemed a perfect way to "portray" our country right now... a little bit crazy, and also a little bit (OK, maybe a lot) divided into "red" and "blue" states.  I'm a little bit crazy myself right now, so it just seemed perfect.  My opinion is that a little bit of crazy can be a good thing.  From this springs creativity, ingenuity, perseverance.  Going over that fine line, though, can be a very bad thing, and I think we're pretty much right there...

Of course our colors are red white and blue, so I found some almost white batik fabric in my stash.  I've learned that tightly woven batiks hold up better to the applique process.  I traced the outline of the United States that I had printed off, enlarged and also pieced together with paper, onto the batik fabric (did you follow that?).

I then pinned the batik on top of the crazy quilt top, both facing up, and free motion quilted just outside of the traced lines.

Now came the tedious but oh-so-fun step of cutting out along the line I drew, revealing the craziness underneath.

Then came the layering of batting and a back fabric, and the quilting.  I decided to quilt "pebbles" or people in the country part, all from a nice variegated purple thread, because we're all pretty much the same when it comes down to it.  To emphasize what this country is about, and maybe to even send out a little message of my own, I quilted the words "We the People" across the top, because this country is all about We the People, not we the politicians, or we the corporations.  Stippling and a scrappy binding finished it with the exception of one last detail.

I sewed on a button, and made a 2 sided fabric postcard sign that reads "open" on one side, and "closed" on the other.During the government shut down, it remained "closed".  I'm very happy, relieved and grateful that it is now open, and hope it stays that way for a very long time.

Be sure to click over to Amy's Creative Side's Blog to see all of the other wonderful quilts!

Blogger Quilt Festival: Organic Chemistry Quilt

I think the Blogger's Quilt Festival, a few years ago, was my first introduction to the world of quilt and fiber arts blogs.  I really enjoy looking through all of the entries each year, and discovering new blogs and people!

If you're new to my blog, welcome!

I knew that I wanted to enter this newly finished quilt this year, but wasn't sure what category to enter it in.  Since all of the molecules are appliqued onto the quilt, I decided to enter it in the applique category, even if it is very non-traditional!

I started this about 2 years ago, as part of the Modern Quilt Guild's challenge, which had a theme of "organic".  After machine embroidering the hexagon and pentagon "molecule rings" onto all of the blocks, and then hand embroidering the first few blocks, it quickly became obvious that I wasn't going to get it done in the time period allotted.  I had time to stitch the blocks during  a cross-country road trip 2 summers ago, and even stitched together the back that same summer.  Then, I put it away and it sat for a very long time...

I think it sat for 2 reasons... the finished quilt wasn't as nice as I had envisioned in my mind's eye.  I love the concept of it, though, and wanted to see it realized.  I love geeky science quilts!  The other reason was that I had no idea how to quilt it.  In the end, I pretty much just closed my eyes and started quilting it, hoping for the best.  The hexagon quilting too forever, but I'm glad I endured and got it done!  I was thinking about adding some free motion quilting in addition, but decided that I like the "simplicity" (ha!), or clean lines of the hexagonal quilting, and left it alone. The back is pieced together from all of the various fabrics that I used to make the hexagons and pentagons on the molecules.

It's 60 by 75 inches.  Each appliqued and embroidered square is backed by muslin to keep the stitches from showing through the fabric, so it's a thick, heavy quilt as well.  I think if I added up all of the time I spent hand embroidering each block, researching the chemicals, and quilting this beast, I probably put more time into this quilt than any other.  Whew!

Be sure to head over to the festival to see all of the other amazing quilts there!