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!!

Blogger's Quilt Festival - Throw Quilt Entry

I have been seeing all the lovely entries for the past few days for the  Blogger’s Quilt Festival over at Amy’s Creative Side and decided that I wanted to enter a couple quilt of my own.  As I was contemplating which quilts to choose, I thought I would include the first "modern" style quilt I made.

I had been quilting for a few years when the modern quilting movement came to be.  As I am someone who loves scrappy and am not a big fan of white, in the beginning, I wasn't quite sure what to think of this style of quilting.

So, I just gave it a try and this fun quilt was the result.

I still kept the prints very scrappy.  I used a mix of new and stash fabrics.

This was really the first time I used gray in a quilt also.








Designing up a more modern quilting designs was also new. Most of my longarm quilting in the past had been on very traditional quilts.

I went with wavy lines to accentuate the woven ribbon design of the quilt and quilted a fun texture in the white.  It was fun exploring some new looks.

All in all, I was quite pleased with the experience and the finished product.  It is a quilt that I am quite attached to, which is very rare.  I still have a hard time using white in my quilts but have learned now that the quilting police will not come after you if you use gray or navy in its place.

Thanks for stopping in.  Be sure and check out all the entries in all the categories.  I have been seeing lots of inspiration and ideas and the stories behind each quilt are always fun to read. 

On the Design Wall

Most of my energy lately has been going into my kitchen remodel.  Thankfully, I think the worst is over and it is slowly looking like a kitchen again.  WooHoo!!  

I am thinking hoping one more week and things will get back to normal.

I have been able to steal away for a few minutes here and there to get into the sewing room.  Thought I would share what I have been working on.

I am still making progress on Amy Smart's pattern Double Crossed.  I am planning on making the quilt about 64" by 80" so I need about 80 blocks.  I have everything cut out and about a third of the blocks finished.  

I hope to have more of it to share soon.

I could probably be far more productive if I would just work on one project at a time.

But in between blocks, I have been working on sewing up my scrap 2 1/2" strips together.

I keep a separate scrap bin for all of my 2 1/2" strips (bindings, jellyroll pieces, etc.) and any that are over 20" get paired up and a 16 patch block is made.  I spent some time this morning sorting them into possible quilt tops.

I always like to make up a few donation quilts during the holidays.  Looks like I will be assembling three different colorways with these blocks.

 So that is what I'm working on.  Hope to show off some finished tops soon!  Thanks for stopping by!!

Linking up with My Quilt Infatuation for Needle and Thread Thursday and 627Handworks for Thursday Threads.