My low volume quilt top is finished. I talked about it last week and so much heavy thinking and prayers went into this one.
If you feel the tug in your heart, donations are still being accepted at Give Forward.
On to the quilting…
Linking up with:
Crazy Mom Quilts
Can I Get A Whoop Whoop
TGIFF
The votes are in!!
Every time the Bloggers’ Quilt Festival rolls around, I say I am not entering, then somehow I get sucked in to the fun and excitement of it all. If we don’t enter what can we expect of others. Then where is the inspiration we have all come to count on??
This year the hand quilting category had been eliminated, to reduce the number of overall categories, but an outcry of hand quilters brought it back. So I felt I *had* to participate in support of hand quilting.
There were 650 quilts entered across all categories. You can click on the picture to see how the votes fell. This is for the hand quilting category. I love all the variations there really are in hand quilting.
Just look at the variety, of the quilts, in the Viewer’s Choice category. I am surrounded by inspiration.
Thank you Amy for hosting this HUGE endeavor! I can not begin to imagine how little sleep you must get throughout the festival!
And a big thank you to Pink Chalk Fabrics, for honoring the winners. You know they are my favorite online quilt shop with for color matching services, not to mention the BEST in customer service. They helped me match the solids in my Head Over Heels in Love quilt and were spot on. I don’t know what I will splurge my winnings on, but I will let you know!
I thank you for supporting my addictive habit. ♡
“Blowin’ in the Wind”
Category: Hand quilted quilts
48″ x 52″
An original by: Sewfrench
Inspired by: 12 Trees by Oakshott
Oakshott cotton
Backing and Binding by
Robert Kauffman, shot cotton
Machine pieced
Self hand-quilted in a freeform style
using Aurifil 28wt thread
Little Amelia, and her mommy, came to visits us, at the cottage, and I got the opportunity to try this little linen dress on her. It is still quite cool up here, so I was glad she had tights and a long sleeve that worked well under it. It still has plenty of room for her to grow over the summer.
I started out with Simplicity #3854. To give you an idea of size, Amelia is 9 months and weighs 18-19 pounds. She has just about out of 12 month clothes because of her height. I used the bodice, of the size medium, and then followed the side seams to draw it into an A-line dress, guessing at length and width. As with quilting, I never use a pattern as is… I added an invisible zipper and bound the neck and arms using bias I cut from a piece of Liberty of London fabric. It could have been slightly narrower across the front. I’m guessing she will still be wearing this into the fall.
Look at all those teeth. What a happy baby girl!
Linking up with:
CrazyMomQuilts
Can I Get A Whoop Whoop
Fabric Frenzy Friday
A Stitch in Time
If I knew I would.
My heart is heavy this week as my friend, Michelle, both mourns and, celebrates, the short life of her HS senior, Johnny. He was killed in a motorcycle accident, on Monday, just a week before graduation. He leaves behind 5 siblings who I know will miss him fiercely. While Michelle is one of the strongest women I know, I just can not imagine the pain she, and her family, are feeling right now. It is outside the natural order of life to have to bury a child. If you have the means to donate, a couple of dollars, and feel the urge to help with expenses, please do.
Sometimes, when I can’t seem to focus, I start another quilt top….. Sometime you just need to get your mind busy on something. And doing quilt math sure blocks out all other thoughts.
And as you can see, I am not the sketch artist of the family. But it gets the job done. I never cut all the pieces I need, for a quilt, ahead of time, but quite a few of them, see how it goes, make sure my colors are going the direction I want, then drag out more fabric, cut some more…
The place stays messy, longer, this way, but it is what works for me. I suppose if I was still sewing at the kitchen table, I would have gotten over this method by now.
I like to start laying out my progress as soon as I can.
My half square triangles started out a 5″ blocks, which will be trimmed to 4 1/2″ HST after they are pieced. This way they match up to the four place, 2 1/2″ red charms, I am using. I have collected charms through swaps, over the years. Also, taking advantage of cleaning out my red, and neutral, scrap baskets.
My heart is broken. I wish they were all this easy to fix.
I have never made a low volume quilt that has so much color in the light fabrics. I have done lots, and lots, of neutral quilts, but none like the “modern” low volumes, where color, other than tan, beige, cream…, is perfectly acceptable. I guess, if you have enough contrast, it is all good.
If you haven’t voted already, today is the last day to support your favorites over at the Bloggers’ Quilt Festival. More info here.
Linking up with:
Fabric Tuesday
I Quilt
I woke up to a text message saying my blog had an usual amount of traffic. Uh-oh! What is going on, I thought. Went to check my stats to see where everyone was coming from and realized the top 25 quilts, in the Bloggers’ Quilt Festival, had been announced. It is pretty exciting stuff to be nominated, by your peers, into the top 25 Viewer’s Choice category!!
“Blowin’ in the Wind” is still in the running in the hand-quilting category, too! And boy is there some tough competition. The toughest of any, I do believe. Many very inspiring stories behind these wonderful creations, too.
My original post on this quilt, can be read here.
650 quilts entered in 12 different categories. 40 in the hand-quilted category. Four of the top 25 are actually hand-quilted. How about that statistic?! Considering that this group was to be eliminated, this year, I am so glad it wasn’t. With this presence, we are shining a spotlight on hand-quilting. It will not die out, I am sure. I actually think, because of the Facebook group, Celebrate Hand Quilting, that it is on the upswing.
And voting is easier than ever this year. Hooray for that! You just click on the heart in the upper right-hand corner of the picture of the quilt you like best. If you click on the picture it will take you to that page, so you can read the story behind it. It will also put a check mark on it so you can remember which ones you have looked at. The heart must turn red for your vote to be counted though.
To vote on the top 25, Viewer’s Choice, click here.
To vote for your favorite hand-quilted, click here.
To see and vote on all the other categories, click here.
“Blowin’ in the Wind”
Category: Hand quilted quilts
48″ x 52″
An original by: Sewfrench
Inspired by: 12 Trees by Oakshott
Oakshott cotton
Backing and Binding by
Robert Kauffman, shot cotton
Machine pieced
Self hand-quilted in a freeform style
using Aurifil 28wt thread
Now GO vote for all your favorites!!
And the results are in!!
Linking up with:
Can I Get a Whoop Whoop
Fabric Frenzy Friday
… at the ladybugs’ picnic!
Remember that song? Flashback to when my kids were young and never missed Sesame Street. Those were the good old days when it was still okay to let your children be entertained by the television!
The Ladybug Picnic
I love sewing for babies!
I forgot how much fun Ric-Rac can be, too!
And covered buttons? Oh my!
Don’t forget today is the last day to nominate your favorite quilt in the Bloggers’ Quilt Festival.
Voting starts later today!
I hope your favorites are recognized!
Linking up with:
CrazyMomQuilts
Show Off Friday
A Stitch in Time
TGIFF
Say that quickly, three times 🙂
Sewing for a little one is so much more difficult when they aren’t on hand for fittings.
I have a completely new appreciation for the big boxes of clothes that used to arrive on our doorstep, from hundreds of miles away. Hand stitched clothing, for 5 kids from Grandma Ellis. She was a pretty special lady.
This little linen dress, I plan on embroidering.
The linen was left over from a quilt that lives at their house.
Using fabrics I have on hand, until I get the size perfected, I am testing out sizes to see how weights, and measurements, add up to clothing sizes for this sweet grand baby.
Hopefully we will get to try them on, in person, soon!
WIP
Show and Tell Tuesday
Fabric Tuesday
(I have edited this post to add, easy access, voting links.)
To vote on the top 25, Viewer’s Choice, click here.
To vote for your favorite hand-quilted, click here.
To see and vote on all the other categories, click here.
“Blowin’ In The Wind”
Welcome to my little part of the world! I hope you are enjoying the Festival as much as I am. Grab a drink and sit back and let me tell you the story of my quilt. Then hop back over and enjoy all the other beautiful creations!
I am a hand-quilter it is what I do. I’ve been hand-quilting for over 35 years. I enjoy the slow pace of stitching love into each quilt and carrying on a tradition passed down to me from my grandmother. For so long I thought there weren’t many of us left. I now know there is a revolution going on and it seems everyone wants to learn. If you are a hand-quilter or think you might want to be you should check out the most friendly Facebook Group I know, Celebrate Hand Quilting. With over 6,000 international members, there is always something to learn, be inspired by and help close at hand.
Are you familiar with Oakshott cottons? It was February 2013 for me. If you have played with Oakshott you know it is a memorable experience. If you haven’t played with them let me explain. The fabrics are hand-dyed and hand-loomed by master weavers in India. The warp and weft are woven with two slightly different colors, creating an irridescent shimmer of light and beauty, that does not photograph well. This creates a glimmer, a sheen, almost a sparkle and makes it such a tease!
I played with my collection a long time before I finally decided to cut into it. My plan was to whack up some fat 1/8ths of this lovely fabric to make my version of the 12 Trees Quilt by Helen Howes, for Oakshott. I also shopped for 1/8th yard cuts of different batiks to use as the actual trees. I had a vision that by using batiks my trees would sparkle even more.
As I played around, I began to worry that this beautiful fabric, which feels more like a voile, than my go-to Kona solids, felt a little too fragile to make the queen/king size quilt, I originally planned.
About that same time I came up with the idea of making a special quilt for an annual fundraising auction that is near and dear to our hearts. This would be the perfect project. I would make a wall hanging that would also be big enough to use as a lap quilt. All the trees would represent the forested area of Northern Michigan where the auction would take place. If you have been followed along you might remember this went by the temporary name of Fundraising quilt.
I feel like I need to explain why I am still in possession of this beauty and why it took so long to finish. This quilt was put on pause because the fundraising committee decided they were changing their direction and were no longer interested in my quilt being part of their auction.
Right.
I know. It is still painful.
But I picked up the pieces and continued on…
On to *my* quilt.
On the recommendation of my friends over at Celebrate Hand Quilting, I decided to try wool batting for the first time. I didn’t understand all the raves, for wool, until I tried it. It creates the perfect amount of texture. It has enough poof to define your stitches, but not too much. It has a loft similar to a polyester batting but retains, or releases, heat as only wool can.
If you have never hand-quilted with a wool batting, it really makes such a difference. Nice, small, hand stitches are possible and it is like stitching through butter. No wrist and hand pain with this! Your needle just glides through the layers. Between the Oakshott and the wool this was so much easier than any other hand-stitched quilt I have ever worked on. Seriously. If you haven’t tried wool, you should look into Hobbs Heirloom Wool.
And I probably shouldn’t have worried about making a bed quilt with this fabric. Though it comes off as frail, I have no doubt it will hold up well. 100 years heirloom well? Not sure about that. The zero bleeding or fading, of these intense colors, is very impressive, for sure!
Then came the question of how to quilt it. I knew it would be hand-quilted but struggled with an exact plan. I tried several different ideas, big stitch, outline stitching, stitching in the ditch, falling leaves… Put them in, take them out, try another, take it out….
I finally said stop all this indecisive silliness and decided to go with my very first thought, when I dreamt up this quilt.
The answer my friend is blowin’ in the wind
The answer is blowin’ in the wind.
Wind swirling around the trees. Trees blowing in the wind.
Freehand style wind blowing through the trees. Seasons of wind and seasons of trees.
I first discounted it because it seemed too time consuming and too *hard*. The time consuming part was actually the indecision, lots of wasted time, there. The hard part wasn’t hard, it was just something I had never done before. I’m traditionally an outline quilter. I had to break a lot of self-made rules to do this!
Stepping out of your box, taking chances and trying something new is not comfortable. But boy can it be rewarding. This is now our very favorite sofa throw. 🙂
Leave me a comment so I know you were here. Thanks for stopping by!!
“Blowin’ in the Wind”
Category: Hand quilted quilts
48″ x 52″
An original by: Sewfrench
Inspired by: 12 Trees by Oakshott
Oakshott cotton
Backing and Binding by
Robert Kauffman, shot cotton
Machine pieced
Self quilted in a freeform style
using Aurifil 28wt thread
To vote on the top 25, Viewer’s Choice, click here.
To vote for your favorite hand-quilted, click here.
To see and vote on all the other categories, click here.
May 24-29 – Vote for favorites in each of the categories
May 30 – Winners announced
Previous Festival entries:
Flower Garden ~ Fall 2009
Mosaic Tiles ~ Spring 2011
Shoot For the Moon ~ Fall 2011
Bubble Quilt ~ Spring 2012
Out of This World ~ Fall 2012
Thousand Pyramids~ Spring 2013
Head Over Heels in Love ~ Baby quilt ~ Fall 2013
Take A Hike ~ Art quilt ~ Fall 2013
Also linking up with:
Show and Tell
Finish It Up Friday
A Stitch in Time
TGIFF
It’s almost time for the semi-annual Blogger’s Quilt Festival!!
Though I haven’t been very prolific, this year, I do have a finish I haven’t shared. Originally the hand-quilting category was eliminated, but the masses spoke and it was revived. I predict this year will have the largest number of entries, ever! I hope you are as excited, as I am, to see all the quilts this time round!
For now, I am still working on emptying out my scrap baskets. I currently have 5 quilts in progress, straight out of those baskets and here I decided to start another…. A take on the old-fashioned maple leaf quilt. Each square is cut to 5 1/2″. I have about used up all my Kona scraps, haven’t decided if I should dig into my stash or quit now… Deciding on a final size is always the hardest part! (That is exactly why I haven’t finished the 5 I spoke of!)
P.S. I recently saw someone else making a similar quilt but I can’t remember where I saw it. Remind me if you recognize it, will you, please??
Linking up with:
Fabric Tuesday
WIP
Let’s Bee Social
Reminiscent of Peter Mayle’s A Year in Provence, Almost French: Love and a New Life in Paris by Sarah Turnbull was an enjoyable read.
When asked how she came up with the book’s provocative title, she said – “It’s tongue-in-cheek. It sums up the main theme… expatriates’ struggle with identity and their sense of belonging. On the one hand, after eight years in France, I’ve adopted some French customs and I’ve been very influenced by French ways of thinking. Yet I don’t feel French at all and I know I never will. If anything, as each year passes I feel more Australian. This permanent state of only ever being ‘almost’ French – never ‘entirely’ or ‘completely’ – is really the essence of my book.”
Makes me want to return, but for a much longer time, next time.
Sewfrench 