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!

Doll quilts sent and received!

Amongst all the chaos of my recent life, I did actually manage (just) to get my DQS11 finished and in the mail by the deadline! And here it is, all 14 inches of it. You can read more about this quilt here, including a wee tutorial on English Paper Piecing.

Here is the back, I used the Riley Blake FQ I have been hoarding for months. As you will see, if you look to your left and right, it is the backdrop to this blog!

Once I had chosen the back it was easy to work out which fabric I should use for the binding. I am pleased with how this lime dotty fabric worked out.

Here is the finished top. Each of the diamonds is just over 1" in length. I began by tacking the papers, but after a suggestion from Dolores I started using a glue stick - much quicker! But you can't re-use all the papers as they don't always come off the fabric whole.

There is so much going on in this little quilt that I decided it needed a very simple hand quilting. I quilted round the smallest hexagons which made the stars 'puff-out', which I quite like.

After a tip off on a DQS discussion thread I bought this doll bed from Ikea (£13). I plan to paint it and make a mattress, pillows etc. (it came with that blue pad). After admiring the little quilt on the doll bed I packed it all up with these extras...

 ... popped it in the post and eagerly awaited the doll quilt I would receive!

 In the meantime, Simon made himself comfortable on the waiting doll bed.

And then on Thursday the mailman brought me a package from The Garden City, Michigan.
Look at all this lovely loot!! Thank you so much Laurie (Ladmquilter)!
Not only did I get the most gorgeous doll quilt but she was very generous with her extras - all that pretty fabric (can any of you tell me who makes this?), embroidery silks, and I very sweet handmade origami needle case pouch!


I love this quilt! When I saw it in the group pool I had commented that it was 'so ME!'. And it is! Laurie said she wanted to make something that would fit in with my mosaic, and it totally does. The colour palette is my absolute favourite and I love the appliqued circles inside the pinwheels.
And I especially love the hand quilting with silks. Thank you Laurie, you made me the perfect doll quilt!!

And how amazing does it look on my doll bed?! In the absence of an actual doll (on the 'to-do' list along with mattress, pillows, etc.), Panda has been helping me model the quilt. 

Despite the fact I have not had quite as much time as I would have liked to devote to this round of the DQS, I have still really enjoyed making and (even more so!) receiving my doll quilts. Thanks to all the Mamas who make it all possible and roll on round 12!!!