Blogger's Quilt Festival Autumn 2013

Today I am taking part in my 9th Blogger's Quilt Festival! 

Thank you so much Amy for hosting this wonderful event for our community.

This time I am previewing my Scrappy Trip Around The World Quilt.

But as I have used polka dots throughout I thought I should call it Polka Around The World!

Not only did I use all dots but I also tried to deliberately go from light to dark squares from the centre out of each block. This has given the whole design a more pronounced 'diamond' effect than the scrappy ones I have done in the past.

I know there have been a lot of these quilts around this year due to a QAL, but I actually discovered the fantastic Quiltville Tutorial a couple of years ago and used it to make cot quilts to sell in our shop. I then taught the technique as part of a Modern Patchwork Technique evening class. A month or so back I taught a full day workshop  too and realised I had used up all my class samples on cot quilts and needed to make more for the class.

The class went very well so I thought I better make a whole quilt which would help sell a repeat class in the new year.
Also I was loving these dotty blocks! So I made 16 blocks and thought that might be enough, or should I add borders? But after a discussion on Instagram and some great advice, I decided to keep going and make 25.



Here is the back, it's very bright even on a dull day like this! It's a Kaufman fabric that didn't sell so well in the shop, but I really love it.

I used up some scraps to make a strip between the seams, but the fabric pattern is so busy that you can hardly see them!

The binding is a Kaufman newsprint fabric. I am very in to using monochrome binding, I think because my quilts usually have enough colour in them already they need some good old black and white to frame them.

Oh and the quilting... I was quite experimental here (for me!). I decided to FMQ a single circle in the middle of each square with a single line between each circle.

It was a very zen type experience to spend so many hours (approx. 4 in total) trying to draw the perfect circle with my sewing machine. As you can see I only managed it some of the time but it was fun trying!

I also love the idea of a circle inside a square and then circles all over the squares! It makes sense in my mind.
Overall I am pretty much in love with this quilt and it even got the thumbs up from my husband and son!

Thanks for listening to my story and now head on over to Amy's Creative Side and enjoy all the other beautiful quilts on display there. Oh and I think I will be entering this quilt into the scrappy category!