Thursday, October 15, 2009

Quilt Festival Fall 2009

Alright, I have been meaning to post this all week and realized I am just about out of time to do so! When I first saw Amy's (aka Park City Girl) post about the blogger's quilt festival, I wanted to join in on the fun. However, the quilt I really really would have liked to post is still in the block construction stage...So, I decided to reach back a little, and feature a quilt I made a few years ago. Here it is! I have it on my queen sized bed right now, so that gives you an idea on size.


Quilt laying on my bed

I came up with the quilt design before I had any idea what the fabrics or even colors were going to be. I just knew I wanted a new quilt for my bed! So, with design and yardage estimates in hand, off I went to Joanns (it was a while ago, I didn't even know about LQS's yet!) to pick out my fabric. Now, you have to understand, I was NOT a pink girl. Not ever my first choice for anything! But while I perused the fabric selection, I found this light pink with darker pink fleur-de-lis. It was love at first sight! I had it in my hands immediately. As I stood there, I just couldn't help drolling over the pinks(though my husband says this quilt is red, I say pink), and ended up with 4 more pink fabrics that worked great together. I was in love with the lightest 3, and so-so about the darker. I ended up at another store for the 5th fabric. (I'm still not in love with the darker 2 fabrics, but they look great as a whole!).


Close up

I pieced the top sitting on the floor in my room. That's right, on the floor. As in, my mom's sewing machine was sitting on the floor in front of me. I was 18 and crazy enough to sit on the floor through a quilt top...It helped that I had just lost my job due to poor management by the CEO (if you live in AZ and do anything outdoorsy, remember Popular? Yeah, that's where I worked..) Anyways, I had lots of time, so I got it done all the way through sandwiching it pretty fast. Then, I had the bright idea to hand quilt it. I had time, right? Yeah, I started it, and it sat for another year...Then I came across it again and pulled it back out. A few weeks later, it was finally done!

Quilt back with awful camera flash spot

I love this quilt!! It is my bed quilt right now(my husband has another one...we have issues with stealing the covers...), and it is sooo soft and comfy. Probably due to my skimpy quilting, but it works for me for now. As you can see from the above photo, the edge is rolled from the back to front, and hand stitched in place. This was before I knew anything about quilt binding, so now I want to go back and bind it, cuz the batting has shrunk away from the edge about 1/2", and the edge is starting to discolor. The backing fabric is the medium color from the top. You can also see my quilting pattern in the above picture. It is jsut a bunch of big flowers all over, looks way cool on the back. Awful pictures, I know, I had help from my 4 month old... I also have no idea what the finished measurements are, and since said 4 mo is helping me post too, I'm not going to go measure...forgive me!
Hope you all enjoy my contribution to the festival!
Kirsten

7 comments:

Zonnah said...

I love how some fabrics just call to you and you have to make something out of it :) It is beautiful.

Jocelyn said...

What a very lovely quilt. Love the design.

Leila said...

I have the same fleur-de-lis fabric in purple! Beautiful quilt - I love the "waves."

Lonci said...

What a lovely quilt, great job:)

Marika said...

Cheerful beautiful quilt !

Melanie@Crafty Cupboard said...

Yeah I remember coming over and seeing you work on that quilt! I still like it. Too bad my first quilt didn't get done in time for the quilt festival :)

quiltmom anna said...

I love pink and bargello style patterns. It is really pretty- From your story, it sound like your quilt gave you lots of opportunity to learn new things about quilting. I have made quilts like that too- they have provided me with challenges and let me try new things when I had to problem solve a design issue. It is one of the things that I love about quilting- I learn something from each and every quilt that I have made.
Happy quilting,
Regards,
Anna