Blogger's Quilt Festival -- Fall 2012

Hey everyone, it's time for the newest edition of the greatest little virtual quilt show you've ever seen !

 BLOGGER'S QUILT FESTIVAL 2012

 I like it when this time comes around twice a year.......
so much eye candy to enjoy for us quilting addicts !  
And I always manage to find a couple of new blogs to follow, and, sometimes, I even get a couple of new followers.

My favorite quilt that I have made this year, and, thusly, my entry for the festival, would have to be my

Blushing Bloomers !  Entry #329

Measuring 72 x 90 inches, this quilt fits my twin-sized bed.

Some viewers have been surprised when they realize, from this photo, just how big the flowers are in this design.

This quilt is not an original design of mine........I found directions for it on Moda's Bake Shop, the quilt having been designed by Natalia Bonner.  It was a really easy quilt to make, even though I didn't use jellyrolls for the fabric requirements.  I pieced and machine-quilted this one, as I do most of my quilts, on my old Singer model 15 sewing machine, Ernestine.

Ernestine, cartoonized courtesy of BeFunky.com

These fabrics were mostly ones that my dear friend Jo Ann has sent to me over the last 3 years. 

Fabrics sent by JoAnn

Almost anytime she corresponds with me by snailmail, she throws in a few fatquarters that she has picked up on various shopping trips.  After 3 years of this, I found that they were starting to coordinate, and I decided that making a quilt for myself out of them would let me be reminded of JoAnn's generosity on a daily basis.

A few years ago, my husband suffered a massive stroke, and he found that, although he recovered quite a bit, he could no longer lie flat in a bed.  So we got a hospital bed for him, and I downsized to a twin-sized bed of my own.  Trouble was, all the quilts I had made over a lifetime were either too small or too large for a twin.  So I made him a quilt, and now I've made this newest quilt for my own bed. 

Finding a beautiful, still Summer day, I basted the quilt in my backyard.

The finished measurements of Blushing Bloomers are approximately 72 inches of width by 90 inches of length, as I added two rows to the original plan of the quilt, and I added small side borders as well.  

If you look closely, you'll see that I used the remainders of my fatquarters to make scrappy borders AND binding.

The flowers are hand-appliqued, and free-motion quilted.

Coordinating Orange Peel wall quilt

I even had enough fabric to make this little coordinating Orange Peel quilt that measures 27 inches square.  It is hand-quilted, but machine-appliqued.

You can see the zigzag stitches.

The backing is a happy polka-dot, and the batting is a light-weight polyester, something that I haven't used in a while, but that makes me very happy with the finished quilt.  It is both practically weightless AND warm. 

I hope you've enjoyed seeing this quilt.........I had kept a picture of the original on my computer for a couple of years, hoping to make it someday.   I think that I probably ran across the original pattern during a past Blogger's Quilt Festival.  I'm glad that I actually, finally, got around to making one of the many quilts that bring me inspiration while browsing the web.  I hope you find one that you just have to make your own ... maybe even this one.

Blogger's Quilt Festival Stats

*Quilt Measurements -- 72 inches wide by 90 inches long

*Special Techniques used -- Hand-appliqued and free-motion-quilted flowers 

 *Quilted by -- myself on my Singer Model 15-90 cabinet model machine

1. *Best categories --Entry #329

1.  Favorite Bed Quilt,   
2.  Favorite Scrap Quilt,  
3.  Favorite Home-quilted Quilt

Entry No. #329

Many thanks to Amy and all the other sponsors of this festival.  Such a huge endeavor, and so much fun, I know that many, many people appreciate you all !