Friday, October 26, 2012

Bloggers Quilt Festival Time!

It's that magical time of year when we all get to feast our eyes on literally hundreds of gorgeous quilts, visit as many quilters' blogs as humanly possible during the week, find a few minutes to write a quick post and enter our own works of art, and generally enjoy one of the largest and well organized online quilt shows out there!  All this, and we get the opportunity to vote for our favorites and help select the winners of this fun extravaganza!  Sponsored by Amy's Creative Side, you too can join the fun by clicking on the Bloggers Quilt Festival link just to the right of this post.

So, without further ado, here is my entry for the festival.  This quilt was also shown in a previous post earlier this summer, but since nearly all of my 2012 finishes are intended as holiday gifts, they can't be unveiled just yet.

Two years ago when I retired, a friend and coworker (and now my up-the-hill neighbor) was in the middle of a major destash effort, and I was the lucky recipient of several boxes of great vintage fabrics, from fat quarters to multiple yard pieces - PLUS two big boxes of quilting books and magazines - now THAT is a retirement gift!

So, with all these great fabrics, including some vintage 1980s and 90s Cranston prints from my own stash, and a cute little teddy bear family panel print I'd picked up along the way, early this spring I began this fun little scrappy quilt.  Intended more for a toddler age child rather than a newborn, the finished quilt measures 50x62 inches.
The back is from Wilmington's Fun on the Farm line and is undoubtedly the "newest" fabric used in the quilt.
As some of you know, I collect vintage Singer sewing machines and use them regularly in my quilting endeavors.  This quilt was pieced on "Casey Jones," a black 1950s Singer 301, and ditch quilting around all the little squares was done on a 1960s Singer 401a outfitted with vintage walking foot.  A 1942 Singer 15-91 did the free motion outline quilting within the teddy bear panels.  Just as I was about to begin the borders, a birthday gift from my sweet husband arrived - a brand new Janome Horizon, so very tentatively I began practicing a few simple free motion designs in the borders with my new wonder machine!
 

The Stats:
Scrappy Toddler Quilt
Finished size:  50 x 62 inches
Machine pieced by me
Domestic machine quilted by me
Categories:  Scrap, home machine quilted, baby

A big thanks to Amy's Creative Side for holding this Bloggers Quilt Festival once again!  For tons of inspiration and a chance to enter your own creation and vote for your favorites, head on over here!


26 comments:

Barbara said...

I love this quilt. Adorable!

Linda at Roscoe's Ma said...

Aren't you clever to try out new machine stitches on the quilting? This is a great quilt and a great story!

Anonymous said...

I love that quilt and the way you did the borders....great. Your DH "nailed" it!!! That birthday gift is the machine I would have/should have gotten instead of the 440QE (which finds itself more in it's travel case than set up.....love my Juki TL2010Q simple straight stitch machine!!! You will do great things in your future quilting.....Huge Congrats and Birthday Hugs, Doreen

CitricSugar said...

That's adorable! Love that there were so many machines involved in the making!

Sunshine Girl said...

Oh its lovely - it really caught my eye, such fun fabrics. Thanks for sharing. #263

Kathleen said...

This quilt is lovely! Gosh, I love that you use old machines to do your quilting. Are they treadle machines? I just bought one but haven't figured out how the thing works yet!

Scrapatches said...

Adorable quilt! :) Love the quilting in your header, too. I am now following you so I can enjoy all the lovely quilts you are gifting for Christmas, too ... :) Pat

Ann Marie said...

It's a lovely quilt. So great that you were able to use so many of your machines to finish this.

pratima said...

It is such a happy quilt! This bear family is the cutest! I love how detailed their everyday activities are portrayed! Any kid would love to cuddle with them!

Michelle said...

What a wonderful toddler quilt!! Love the borders!! And congrats on your new Janome...my poor little machine can barely FMQ ;-)

Anonymous said...

Beautiful quilting. Such a cheerful design :-)

Anonymous said...

Fabulous quilt. Such a cheerful colour scheme too :-)

Shay said...

That border quilting is gorgeous!

My favourite type of quilts are ones made from a ton of different fabrics. This is a perfect quilt for a little person because there are so many things to discover and explore.

You did a fantastic job.

April said...

That is an awesome retirement gift!! I've only been quilting a short time and the other day my sister brought me some of her fabrics that she didn't need!! It was like Christmas! It's so much fun; I'm so addicted to fabric and sewing. :) Your quilt is so adorable! and your fmq is lovely! Great finish!

moira said...

it's such a cute quilt. I love the way you quilted it too

Rachaeldaisy said...

Its fun hearing about your different sewing machines and how they had a part in making this lovely fun quilt.

Shannon said...

What a fun quilt- I love the incorporation of the cute panel pictures in the border. Fun too how your sewing machine journey has paralleled mine! I have quilted for a while on a vintage Singer 201 which my dad restored for me (that's what my dinosaur quilt was quilted on), but recently bought the Janome Horizon! I'm actually really sad, my singer 201 is currently under the weather, but I'm loving the horizon and hope my dad can fix the singer over Thanksgiving.

Robin said...

What a fun way to use those panels! So much scrappy goodness. And the quilting (especially in the borders) is fabulous. Thank you so much for sharing!

a maidenhair fern said...

what a fun quilt. love the fmqing!

straythreads said...

fun toddler quilt love the scrappiness of it. ann

Nita said...

that is a very fun quilt! And you had so much fun making it!

Pattilou said...

I'm amazed at what you've done with vintage machines! Especially since I'm working on my Featherweight right now because my other machine is in the shop. I made have to see what I can do to get a walking foot for this so I can complete some of my donation quilts that are piling up! Thanks for sharing your talent so well with this quilt.

Nana said...

Love the machine quilting and the quilt is adorable.

Rene' said...

This is a cute quilt for a toddler. Your quilting is awesome.

Eileen said...

Precious. Lucky baby to have such a fun quilt. Love your fmq! Thanks for sharing and have a great day

Anonymous said...

That's such a BEAUTIFUL quilt!

--Rhonda