Tuesday, May 29, 2012

"Going to Market" - first 2012 finish

Wow, I'm still working my way through the over 600 entries in the Bloggers' Quilt Festival sponsored by Amy's Creative Side.  So many gorgeous creations, and equally compelling and inspiring stories to accompany the entries.  A huge thanks to Amy for the enormous amount of work to organize and run this fantastic festival!

And, a huge thank-you to Dana of http://stormy-daysblog.blogspot.com who came to my rescue during the initial creation of this blog with her tutorials on adding a button and changing that pesky "no reply blogger" status.  Her tutorials are spot-on and easy to follow, even for those techie-challenged folks - and we know who we are!

Suspect most posts to this blog for 2012 will consist of the monthly FMQ Challenge practice pieces.  I'm loving this year-long challenge, created and sponsored by SewCalGal.  The button for this challenge appears on the sidebar to this page.  There is some amazing work being done by members of the group which can be seen by checking out the links on each monthly tutorial page on SewCalGal's site (www.sewcalgal.blogspot.com).

The quilt shown below was my first 2012 finish, and second FMQ quilt, completed in early January.  This one was quilted using several of Leah Day's design inspirations from her 365 free motion design tutorials found at http://freemotionquilting.blogspot.com.   The feature fabric is a Michael Miller design called "Going to Market" along with a companion fabric from the same line plus others from my stash.  The quilt pattern is not original to me, but is slightly adapted from the "Going to Market" feature pattern from the fabric line.

The quilt was mounted on a cut-down bamboo walking stick and now hangs in our newly remodeled master bath/laundry room.  Below are a few detail shots.





The photo directly above shows a detail of the tiny 1/8 - 3/8" diameter pebbling background done for this panel.  The background took about two weeks to complete, quilting about an hour at a time.  Tiny black on black stitching is not for the faint of heart!

I love this wall quilt, it adds a bit of bold color and warmth to an otherwise calm and serene room.


Saturday, May 19, 2012

Blogger's Quilt Festival 2012


  Amy's Creative Side

This is my very first attempt at creating a blog post, so wish me luck!  I just discovered the Bloggers Quilt Festival at http://amyscreativeside.com/2012/05/18/bloggers-quilt-festival-spring-2012/  sponsored by Amy's Creative Side and thought I would enter my first-ever FMQ'd quilt.  Up until about a year ago I had always hand-quilted all my work, but there are more quilts in my head waiting to be created than I have years left to hand-quilt every one of them!  So, my first FMQ project was created on a vintage 'cheater panel' using yard sale finds for the back and binding.  It was also my first charity quilt, donated to the local senior center soon after completion.  Without further ado, I'll attempt to add a few photos.



Now I'll need to learn more about settings, links, how to add buttons, etc., as time permits.  If you've read this far, thanks!  And a big thank you to Amy for hosting this Festival!