Bloggers Quilt Festival Spring 2012

This weekend is Amy's Blogger's Quilt Festival!!  If you are visiting from Amy's site, welcome!!

This quilt is my most recent finish.  It is a fundraiser quilt for my daughter's ballet group.  This year they are performing a version of Peter Pan and there will be a cookie walk and raffles going on as a fundraiser. 

I primarily used a Sherbet Pips jelly roll for this quilt, but I added in a few other fabrics as well...mainly a darling Kokka ballet fabric.  I blogged a little about the fabric's earlier in this POST.  The long arm quilter used a pantograph of dragonflies on flowers...nice and loopy and fun.

I backed the quilt in the Scoot print also from Sherbet Pips and made a label from the Girl on Swing print....I sure hope this quilt makes some little ballerina happy!

Oh, and a shot from behind...just because I liked how the patchwork showed through!

Ok, now...go and check out the HUNDREDS of other quilts showcased on Amy's blog this weekend!  Better yet...why don't you add one to the linky party for a chance to win some great prizes!

Round Robin

In April I was working, well, procrastinating on my Round Robin for A Dozen Quilters bee.  Patty started with a cute panel and was hoping to finish with a cover for her table this summer.  I think I am the last to work on Patty's quilt and I think she has a great table quilt cover!

I bought the stars a year or so ago...Moda makes this stars bunting.  I had *just* enough to go around the quilt.

And my sister asked me to make a quilt for her Mother In Law's birthday.  Due by June 1st...yes, I have known since Christmas and I have been putting it off, well friends, let me show you why.

Thimbleberries. 

Enough said?

I am lucky in one respect though...the sweetest fabric friend swapped me Thimbleberry tumblers already cut for 5 inch charms.  At least I didn't have to come up with this fabric.  Thank you Des.

Feather Your Nest

Do you read the wonderful blog, Stumbles & Stitches?  Jenny and Angel are hosting a fun contest in honor of Earth day and to encourage us all to create something for our homes while re purposing supplies we already have! 

When I first heard of the idea, I immediately thought about that old quilt I bought a few months back that I planned to make Christmas stockings with...well, I gave it a test run this morning. 

I used the free pattern by Denyse Schmidt that can be found HERE .  I enlarged the pattern 150% but it is still a rather small stocking...and I forgot to add a tab for hanging...so, good thing it's a large quilt it may take me a few tries before I get 4 nice ones for Christmas 2012! 

And I ran to my LQS yesterday to buy fabric for the ballet quilt's binding and Hugo wouldn't leave without fabric for a new pillow.

 We took the cover off this very unfortunate pillow and whipped up a new skull and crossbones pillow for Hugo's bed. 

So be sure to stop by Jenny and Angel's blog and get some great ideas on how you might feather your own nest!

ballet fundraiser

My daughter has taken ballet lessons for 4 year.  Its a wonderful organization based at our church called Studio 149.  She has made friends, learned some control of her body, and has the opportunity to perform at a number of recitals.  I hope she continues to enjoy it for many years to come...I am not a very graceful person, and would rather jump off a cliff vs. dance, so I would love to see her grow up with the self confidence to dance.

Anyway, they are having their annual recital and fundraiser at the beginning of June.  I volunteered to make a quilt for raffle.  I used a Sherbet Pips jelly roll designed by the awesome Aneela Hoey.  I was lucky enough to win the jelly roll from the equally awesome Cathy at Wonderous Woven Fabrics.  I thought these fabrics would appeal to the many little girls in the ballet troupe.

I put a call out on Flickr for some scraps of ballet fabric to add into the quilt and Kirsten answered me in spades with these amazing ballet girls by Kokka.

But maybe my favorite part of this rail fence quilt is the blocks where I used the scarf print instead of 4 individual fabrics.  Do you see them hiding in the pattern?

Thanks to Anna, my favorite local fabric pusher for giving me some of this fabric.

Round Robin

My first of two round robin obligations are done for the month.
Remember the blocks I showed a post or two ago...

Well, I chose to tackle Hollie's first.

I pulled from her starter block the orange, purple, and Denyse Schmidt and came up with this:

It was a lot of fun.  Hope you like it Hollie!

Next up...the "triangle".  Please, seriously, if anyone could float me an idea, I would really appreciate it.  I guess I need to applique it down to a base fabric, right?  Any crash courses on applique?

a story book village

Have you ever seen Super Why?  I guess that is what I had in mind when I started this quilt for some friends of mine expecting their first baby.  I have a number of fabrics with letter and words on them, and I think they are fun to play with.  Each house on this quilt uses some form of text prints. 

Each house is free pieced...no patterns...just piecing, and having fun.

This house has some great Cosmo Cicket alphabet roof and awesome japanese fabrics for the door and windows.  (Im not sure about these fabrics, they were a gift from a friend)

This house is made up of V& A fabric, Sunkissed by Sweetwater, and a few other bits and bobs.

And a funny tangent...when I showed my daughter the flower, she asked me why I wanted to put a lighthouse on the baby quilt...so I will never look at this flower and think of it only as a flower!!

I had a local long arm quilter quilt book titles into the quilt.  I gave her a list of about 65 books the kids and I love, but she was only able to fit about a dozen on the quilt. 

The quilting was done so that it is legible from the back of the quilt.  Mostly solid, with the word SLEEP pieced on the bottom.  I think Denyse Schmidt has a pattern in some magazine with this pattern.  I didn't find the magazine/pattern, but used Tonya's patterns from her most excellet book, Word Play Quilts.

folding finished!

What a big job this has been~  folding took me longer than I thought, but I am glad it is done.  Doesn't it look nice?  Now fingers tightly crossed that I can keep things in this great looking shape!

and before I go...I have a winner to announce from the book review I did earlier this week.

Angie, you win!  #9. 

I sent you an email thru your most recent blog post.

Have a great Sunday everyone.