Blogger's Quilt Festival Autumn 2011

Welcome! Today I am taking part in the Blogger's Quilt Festival. This is the 5th BQF I have taken part in and it is a real highlight of my bloggy year.

Usually I have a lovely new, full-sized quilt to share with you all, but I have had quite a challenging 6 months and so have nothing major to show. Instead I thought I would shamelessly steal Lynne's great idea from last BQF and curate a gallery of mini quilts I've managed to finish instead.

First up is this all-solids affair which I made for Ethne in the Doll Quilt Swap round 10.

Ethne likes quite contemporary, arty quilts and her inspiration mosaic had quite an organic flavour. She also liked maroons and purples. For something that looks pretty bold and simple, it certainly took a lot of sewing! I foundation pieced the blocks and was really going for a wonky look (honest!). You can read more about how I made it here.
I love a bit of hand quilting and really went for it on this one. The thicker quilting is done with sashiko thread and they are meant to be stamens.

 

I know this is all about the quilts, but I thought you might like to see the pincushion I made from my abandoned trial block. I have to say that Ethne has been my most enthusiastic and grateful quilt recipient yet!

This next one was made for our inaugural Brit Quilt Swap (and I was a very proud Swap Mama!). Seeing as I like to make life hard for myself I decided to make a mini kaleidoscope quilt for my partner Teresa.

For some reason I prefer the photo of the finished top over the one of the finished quilt, the colours just look sharper.
I was really trying to get that wonderful, optical illusion effect on this quilt, where the circles really pop out at you.

But I just didn't plan my values well enough and, though it's a really pretty quilt, it doesn't make the most of the kaleidoscope design. Still, a good practice piece for when I make a full sized one (!), and Teresa really liked it.
 
More hand quilting, this time with perle 8 cotton, and lots of buttons as Teresa loves them!

I really didn't have enough time for another round of DQS, but they lured me in with their 'back to basics, quilts for a doll's bed' round.
And just to make everything a little bit more challenging (I know, I know...), I decided to make a really teeny, tiny English Paper Pieced star quilt.
 
The little 60 degree diamonds are just over an inch in length. This was, again, a good practice piece for the full sized one which I have now started here.
 
Here is the top finished, again I like the look of this better than the quilted version - maybe I should stop quilting these!

Here is a close-up, with quite restrained hand quilting, for me! I really enjoyed fussy cutting the different diamonds and the effect that created.
Unfortunately my partner, Littleloops,  has gone totally AWOL. Nobody has heard from her since July and she hasn't acknowledged receipt of this quilt or made her partner one, and has completely ignored the Swap Mama's communications. I just wish I knew what had happened to her and this little quilt, it is quite worrying.

Well I hope you enjoyed this little tour of my mini quilts. Thanks for stopping by, and now off you go back to the Blogger's Quilt Festival for more gorgeous quilting inspiration!

I just received the mini quilt of my dreams!

Wow! Just look at this totally stunning little quilt made for me by Fiona (fionapoppy) in the Brit Quilt Swap!
As soon as I saw the initial ideas for this quilt I knew it was perfect for me. All the way through the swap, as it kept getting more and more beautiful, I kept hoping it was being made especially for me. But I have thought this before only to be disappointed, so I didn't dare take it for granted.

And it was for me!! It is totally perfect. Fiona got me to a tee! In the likes section of the sign-up form I put a long list of my favourite colours and Fiona managed to get them all in! I also said I liked 'whimsical and magical' and I would certainly describe 'Whirlpool' as that!

I also want to let Fiona know how much I appreciate the fact that she cut into (for the first time) the most precious fabrics in her stash. Fabrics she has been hoarding for a long time, waiting for the right opportunity to use. I absolutely love all the fabrics you used and am so grateful that you used them on a quilt just for me!

She took one of my favourite quilt blocks (spider's web) and turned it in to this truly enchanting 'whirlpool' design with gorgeous Heather Ross mermaids swimming round and round! And look at all those yummy polka dots! And she hand quilted it so beautifully in a rainbow of perle 8 cottons!

Here is my special label. Fiona embroidered my new blog button and workshop's logo on to the label!
 
And if all that wasn't swoon-worthy enough, she also embroidered my logo again onto this sweet little hoop! This is going to take pride of place in my new studio. And there were Lindor chocolates (alas, all eaten before I could photograph them - snort snort!).
I can honestly say I was a bit teary after I opened up my package. I have heard other swappers say this before but never really understood the feeling until now. Every time I look at the quilt it just makes my heart skip a beat and fills me with joy. Thank you so much for making such a special, personal quilt for me Fiona.
Fiona has the most adorable blog called Poppy Makes - lots of gorgeous sewing plus three really cute kids!

And if that wasn't excitement enough, I also took delivery of this big batch of gorgeous Rooster Almerino DK wool! I decided to start stocking it in the shop as a sideline to the crochet classes I am doing soon. That way students can come along to the class and buy wool from the shop at the same time.
This is my absolute favourite wool, it handles beautifully, is really soft but with a proper matt 'wool' finish, and comes in the most mouth-watering colours. I used Rooster wool exclusively for my Wool-eater Blanket and the Roses and Daises cushion, and always have a fair bit mixed in with my other multi-coloured projects.
Can you guess how much fun I had putting that display together?!

Finished Mini Kaleidoscope Quilt

Just in time for the mailing window (and some sunshine!), I have finished the mini kaleidoscope quilt for The Brit Quilt Swap.

Here is the back, with my partners name hidden by some wool.
I did quite a bit of hand quilting with all my coloured perle 8. Because I was a bit disappointed that the hidden circles didn't 'pop-out' of the design as much as I had wanted, I quilted the circles in an attempt to accentuate them.

It is a bit difficult to show this in photos though! I also added pretty coloured buttons to the block intersections. This idea went down well with you all when I suggested it in this post. And I know that my partner loves buttons!

Thanks for all your suggestions about binding, in the end I went for a solid purple. These last 2 photos show the texture better.

On Thursday it will get packed up with the extras I have put aside and straight in to the post first class. Because this is a UK only swap, my partner should have this in her hands by Friday! I hope you love it partner!

Kaleidoscope mini quilt

 I am taking part in the first Brit Quilt Swap. In fact I am a Swap Mama!
We are a small group of UK based quilters swapping doll-size quilts. There are about 40 of us in this first round (I am sure there will be future rounds and more swappers next time!). So far I have been amazed by the standard of work and the amount of talent in our little group - Go Brit Quilters!!

I have decided to make this scrappy, mini kaleidoscope quilt. I was really inspired by this beautiful quilt by Clothwork. I love all the hidden circles you can see. Somehow, I haven't been able to get as many circles to 'pop out' of my quilt top. I'm not sure whether that's because it's smaller or just that I didn't pick fabric with quite the right tones. It is a lovely pattern though, so I may experiment on a bigger quilt in the future.

Here is the big pile of fabric I pulled out of my stash. Though I have described the quilt as 'scrappy' there were no actual 'scraps' involved! That is just my way of explaining the fact that the quilt is made from lot's of tiny pieces.

Here is the first one I made, with a bobbin so you can see the scale. The block was meant to be 4" but they have all come out a bit small and the finished top is 19" overall.
I think it is a bit busy for a border so I might just bind it. Any ideas for borders/binding?
Also, my partner likes buttons, what do you think of adding some little buttons to the block intersections? It would certainly help hide my imperfect piecing! But is it busy enough already?

Why not head over to the Brit Quilt Swap group on Flickr and take a look at our collective creative output?!