Blogger's Quilt Festival - Professionally Quilted Entry

If you follow along, you know my first entry into this fall's Blogger's Quilt Festival over at Amy's Creative Side was my first modern quilt.  For my second entry, I had to share (again because I love it so much) the most recent modern quilt I finished.  I think entering both kind of shows my evolution.

I really wasn't sure I wanted to commit to a Quilt A-Long but Melissa over at Happy Quilting did such a fabulous job at designing this Star Surround pattern, I knew it could be made to fit my style perfectly.








I rarely find time anymore to make quilts for myself so it was great fun to pull out some fabrics I have been collecting for quite some time.

With a small goal being due every week, I was able to keep focussed.  I confess I loved having the blocks for this quilt around to look at as it was coming together.




I veered slightly from the pattern and used more prints to get a scrappier look.  I had so many georgeous fabrics I wanted to get into this top I just couldn't pare them down to just a few.

There are rich wovens and shot cottons, lots of geometric prints and even some text fabrics.









I still prefer not to use white as my backgrounds so I went with an ash gray.

I really think it set the blocks off beautifully!








I did quilt this one myself on my longarm so I am entering it in the professionally quilted category.  Not having a whole lot of time to get it done, I knew I needed to quilt for texture and keep the patterns simple.  I went with tight curls in all the gray backgrounds.  In the cornerstones, I did some simple echo stitching to add some geometry to that center square.







The center star was quilted with some simple straight lines.  I also quilted  the outer surround star in a random line quilting to compliment the center.

It was hard to capture in a photo but I quilted some organic meandering in the space between the line work.  Visually, the different shapes and textures really look great!  I wish you could all see this quilt in person.

When it was finished, I was so glad I decided to join in on the fun.  I think this quilt really helped me to zero in on my own modern style and feel proud of the results.

For so many reasons, I think this quilt is my absolute favorite to date.  I hope you don't mind if you have had to see it again!

I really hope you are able to find time to take a peak at all the great quilts being linked to this season's festival.  There are so many gorgeous quilts out there, it is pretty hard to choose some favorites.  I do know I have seen some pretty inspiring quilts and I am sure there will be many more added before the festival is finished!

Thanks for stopping by!  If you are new to my blog, I hope you enjoyed your visit.  If you have been following along, I hope to have my Double Crossed quilt top done which uses some of the same fabrics as this quilt.  It's looking great and I hope to share more pictures soon!!