Blogger's Quilt Festival entry------"Sea Glass" or "Beach Glass"

I hope you're enjoying this year's Spring Bloggers' QUILT FESTIVAL !  I'm honored that you're checking out my entry.......enjoy !

I jumped the starting line by sharing pictures of this quilt a couple of days ago  ...more of the making of this quilt can be found in my 2 previous posts; just click "older post" when you have finished reading this one if you're interested in who, how, and why this quilt was made...  I wish I hadn't shown it already , but many of you haven't read my blog before, so I wanted to share it with you as my entry. 

Front of quilt

To me, this quilt sums up a year of being exposed to younger, more contemporary quilters.  I didn't know about the quilt festival last Spring, but participated last Fall.  That entry reflected my former quilting history.

Thanks to literal isolation (due to my move), offset by virtual inclusion (via the internet) to the quilting world, my quilts have changed dramatically.

close-up of orange squares

I am in love with the simpler lines and methods of today's quilts.  Machine-quilting is a joy to me now, and although I'd never want to give up making hand-quilted quilts, I now appreciate the convenience, and, yes, the beauty, of a machine-quilted quilt, and one has to mention.........THE SPEED of FINISHING !

back side of quilt

                             

One of the HUGE differences I can now enjoy is the use of pieced backs........now, I don't mean the two seams used to piece together yardage of a single fabric for a back (yes, girls, that's OLD SCHOOL......that's what me and MY girlfriends called 'a pieced back').  No, I mean that since I no longer have to worry about forcing my hand-needle through multiple seams, I can enjoy a whole separate quilt design on the other side of the quilt.........it's almost wrong to even call them backs anymore !

Photo of quilt's binding (and hidden label)

I bound the quilt yesterday, finishing today, and decided to use the 'dirty green' for the bottom and top borders, and the tan for both sides, with just a little swatch of the red-orange thrown in for pop. Now unlike today's modern quilters, who know the name of every fabric they use (sort-of reminds me of a certain girlfriend of mine from the old days----Jodie !)  I do not know the name of these solids, and they are certainly not today's Kona's.  The pale turquoise was always referred to as "Byrd's turquoise", by Wanda, Jodie and me, as we all bought it at a little store, called "Byrd's",  in McLoud, Oklahoma, when they put their fabric on sale once.  We had so much yardage of their solids, and kept them for so long, that most of them had a faded mark along the fold line when we did get around to trying to use them.  In fact, that was the only fabric in these strips that was cut along the lengthwise grain, because of that faded line, and let me tell you, it caused me a lot of trouble trying to get it not to make the other strips pucker when I stitched them to it !

Label of quilt

When searching for a label, I ran across little mini-motifs that were leftover from T.J.'s baby transportation quilt, and one of them, the boat, was just perfect for a label........the colors are exactly the same as what is in the fishing-village fabric.......my LORD does little things like that for me all the time.........HE is so good !

So anyway, I 'hid' the label up there in the 'fishing village'. 

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http://www.flickr.com/photos/dottycam/4625968244/in/pool-bloggersquiltfestival/

Here are a couple of photos of the quilt after pulling it out of the dryer.  I need to learn to make sure that the entire quilt is equally quilted, as the big blank rectangles tend to kindof wrinkle up differently from the more concentrated areas, after washing and drying.  Still, all in all, it's my favorite quilt I've made in awhile. 

I hope to get it boxed up and sent off to Seth, in Oklahoma, very soon.

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Feel free to click on the "follow" button ---> if you think you'd like to keep up with my blog........I love to find fellow crafters who are interested in the same things as me !

And, remember,........ if you haven't already read of the beginning of this quilt, it's story is in the next two posts you find here.