Sunday, October 30, 2011

Summer Sampler - Bloggers' Qulit Festival

It's time again for the Bloggers' Quilt Festival hosted by Amy at Amy's Creative Side! It is such a great event twice a year for the quilt bloggers to get together and support each other. I missed the one in the spring (and I don't really know why) but I am ready for this one. I don't have anything new to show at the moment, but I thought I would revisit what is perhaps my proudest quilting accomplishment of the past year: my Summer Sampler Series quilt.



This quilt represents a lot of firsts for me. It is the first quilt along I completed; it was my first paper piecing experience; perhaps most importantly, it was my first free-motion quilting experience. When this sampler came up this summer, I jumped at the chance to follow along and push myself into some new territory. There are just some fantastic blocks in this quilt and it pushed me to really improve my piecing.



To finish it, I opted to sash it in gray so that each block would pop and be framed. I am so proud of each of these blocks, I thought they each needed to shine. I was so scared to quilt this. When I made it I knew I was going to use it to practice free-motion quilting since I had no specific recipient in mind, but when it came down to it I was scared to death I was going to destroy it somehow. But I pushed through and did it (pretty quickly I might add) and it actually came out pretty good. I was pleasantly surprised. It has its imperfections, but overall it looks really nice. And for the first time, I got to experience the crinkly goodness that a freshly washed stippled quilt brings :)



So there you have it. I am happy to be able to share this quilt again. Now go, enjoy all the other quilty eye candy!


Amy'sCreativeSide

11 comments:

  1. Congrats on all the firsts- it's lovely!

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  2. I love this quilt! The colors are so summery and pretty. The grey sashing was a great choice. Great job!

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  3. Every time I see one of these SS quilts I totally love then and want to make one. Perhaps I`ll make a winter one. It`s absolutely beautiful and you must be so proud.

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  4. Fantastic quilt, & I love that you had so many 'firsts' - good for you!

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  5. Yay! Super job!
    Your quilt is so sweet.

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  6. Oh my goodness. Those solids are PERFECT! And the gray was a great choice. Excellent job on the quilting!

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  7. love 'learning' quilts!beautiful.

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  8. You should be proud of this quilt, what a beautiful masterpiece! You are inspiring me to try a quilt along to broaden my horizons but I am a little intimidated. Beautiful quilt!!!

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  9. I love your summer sampler quilt! I did one too (only my top is still sitting in the closet waiting to be pieced together...epic failure) in solids but I love the bright fun colors you chose. Great job on the free motion quilting too =)

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  10. Just love your quilt! So vibrant and wonderful blocks. Quilting is very nice...i have done some fnq last yesr or so and i'm always quite intimidated to start but then it just gets going and i have so much fun scribbling, er drawing with thread! Love how it reads solid but isn't. I've just never been a fan of solids as i like texture so this gives best of both worlds i think. Thanks for sharing and have a great day

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  11. This quilt looks great! I love the colors.

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