Marcelle Medallion: a finish!

It is finally finished! My marcelle medallion quilt is completely done and I am so, so in love. I even got it done in time for Bloggers Quilt Festival over at Amy's Creative Side like I had hoped :) And I never thought I'd say this, but I get to enter it in the hand quilting category!

I am pretty sure this is one of my favorite quilts I've made ever. It is from the book Liberty Love, and it is just a fantastic medallion quilt. I had been planning to make a medallion quilt for ages, I just hadn't found the right one and when I first saw this one, I knew it would be it. I couldn't even stop myself from starting and before I knew it I had a completed quilt top. I started with the center and had no real idea where I was going with it, which was a fun way to work for once. I knew I wanted it to be calmer than the original, but in general my only rule really was no black. I had so much fun picking out my rainbow of fabric and just playing and making it pretty! So many favorites that I am not sure I would have ever used all together, but this style quilt was absolutely perfect. I even used some amazing voile for the back and it is just the softest quilt ever. The only changes I made to the pattern were to leave off the final border and when I did the plus blocks, I kept each background the same fabric instead of making it totally scrappy. And while I may not have made this quilts out of actual scraps, I didn't buy any new fabric for it, which felt really good. I figure any quilt where I can use my whiles and mermaids is a good one.

It took a bit longer than normal to finish this up since I decided that I wanted to hand quilt it. I have never hand quilted anything before, not even a small something, so it seemed a little crazy, but once I got hand quilted concentric circles into my head, I couldn't get it out and it had to be done. I used a size 12 pearl cotton since that's what I found and I love that it is a little chunky, but not too much. I actually enjoyed the experience quite a lot. I used random plates/pots/trays/bowls to trace the circles in the beginning until I ran out of things big enough and then I used a ruler and marked the circles however many inches away. I used my hera marker to mark and it worked pretty well although it was hard to see unless I had really good light. Still, I really loved not having to worry about any markings disappearing. I only used a quilting hoop for the center until I outgrew it and then just propped it up with my knees and went to town. I bound it in leftover scraps of binding I had and I am really happy with how that worked out.

I am really super proud of this one! I can't believe I hand quilted an entire quilt (!!!) and I just hope it can withstand being used. This was originally going to be for my baby-on-the-way, but I don't know if I can part with it, so I think it might be mine. It just has so many of my absolute favorite fabrics in it and I just want to look at it all the time. I have seriously considered hanging it on the wall, but I'm not sure I have space for that. It finishes right around 55" square. And I just have to include this picture of my little helper, because man, she's pretty cute :) She likes to help and take pictures of the quilt too on her play camera.

And now that this is finished, I can work on quilting the quilt that actually is for the baby! And about a million other things....but that's besides the point. Happy quilt festival everyone! Who else has entered a quilt?

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!

Blogger's Quilt Festival

I am feeling kind of brave today and have decided to participate in the Blogger's Quilt Festival hosted by Amy of amyscreativeside.com :)

I feel a little weird about it since I haven't been quilting as much recently and have just been doing smaller sewing projects when I have time thanks to the wee one and her constant demands. And really I am such a beginner quilter anyway. But I love my quilts and I'm proud of them and and opportunity to participate with so many other quilters who are truly amazing, probably better than I will ever be, is great.

With that, I spent days trying to figure out which of my fairly small group of finished quilts is my favorite and have decided that my most recent pink and brown quilt is it. There are a few reasons for this, not least of which being the fact that it is the most 'perfect' quilt I have made to date. Add to that it is the one my husband is most impressed by, the fact that I was totally 9 months pregnant when I made it (yes, somehow that makes it more special), and the fact that it makes an appearance in our professional newborn pictures and we have a clear favorite emerging.


It is such a simple pattern and the quilting is straight lines across (which sounds easier than it is for me), I love the back so much and polka dots can't be beat. It only took a day or two from start to finish, which was a great thing since baby was due any day and really I just made it to keep myself busy and distracted from the misery of late pregnancy. I just kept hoping the whole time that I would finish before baby decided to arrive. The pattern is from Bend the Rules Sewing and I just made it slightly bigger and reversed the use of patterns and solids. I use this quilt all. the. time. It tends to travel with us a lot so that we always have a blanket to play on the floor and it's just perfect. It helps that I get a lot of compliments when people find out I made it :)



I am sure that as I keep quilting and learning new things, I will look back and think how simple and unimpressive this quilt is in a lot of ways, but it is busy building its way into our lives so I think it will always have a special place with me.