Saturday, May 14, 2011

Blogger's Quilt Festival

Amy's Creative Side | Bloggers' Quilt Festival

I finished up my "Trees Quilt," just in time for the Blogger's Quilt Festival.
Thanks for visiting!

I made this quilt for my daughter Lexi's bed.
Now she has a spring/summer quilt for her bed,
and we can tuck her Christmas Quilt away until next winter.
It will be fun to change these out and celebrate the changing of the seasons.

Quilt Back
Balloons on top, City Print on the Bottom
This quilt was my own design -- I just made it up as I went.
Lexi's bed is an odd size -- it's an antique bed,
smaller than a full size, but larger than a twin.
Her favorite color is red, so this quilt needed to have lots of red!
At one point she asked me if I could add some rocket ships to it,
but I just couldn't figure out how to make that work,
and she must have forgotten all about that request (whew)!

I could have named this quilt "adventures in machine quilting."
Mostly this is free motion quilted -- an all over stipple/meander in the red,
a tiny stipple in the blue sky, and pebble quilting for the green trees and borders
of the tree blocks.  I straight line quilted the grass, in narrow lines for the small tree blocks and wider spaced lines for the larger tree block.
I'm so happy that it's finally done and off of my dining room table.

Close up of the quilting

After washing, crinkly and soft!

I taught myself several new things in the making of this quilt.
I had never done bias binding, or sewn the binding on completely by machine.
I used this tutorial for the bias binding, and this tutorial from Red Pepper Quilts.
I have never liked the way machine sewn binding looks, but the way Rita explains it, you don't even see the stitches on the front side--it's great!
Because this quilt is for a child's bed
(and will be well loved, jumped on, used to build forts, etc.),
I figured that a machine sewn binding would be the way to go.


Binding

It's new home!
Thanks, Amy, for hosting the Blogger's Quilt Festival.
It has been so much fun to hop around and see so many beautiful entries!

Also linking up to:
{Sew} Modern Monday at Canoe Ridge Creations

30 comments:

  1. Beautiful quilt! Your FMQ looks wonderful, especially that pebble quilting. LOVE! :)

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  2. Nice job! I envy your fm quilting-mine never turns out that nicely! The quilt looks great on your daughter's bed!

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  3. wow - so much I like about your post! THE QUILT for one - your own design - how cool is that!? Love that you did bias binding (by machine!) for the first time, and your quilting is so creative and artistic - you really put alot of thought to every step! (also love your daughter's request for rocket ships - loved those moments being a mom!) Looks great!

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  4. Congratulations... wow! Looks amazing, and what a story to match! your FMQ is inspiring and well... I could go on and on! LOL
    Thank you for sharing, and well done, Michelle!
    Valentina in Cyprus

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  5. Beautiful. Your FMQ is amazing! Lucky daughter!

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  6. I LOVE this quilt, Michelle! The quilting really is exceptional. I know your daughter will treasure it for years.

    Suppose you need to get started on a rocket ship quilt next... :)

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  7. Michelle, its stunning! I love it :-) The quilting techniques completely make it, its really gorgeous, I'm sure your daughter is delighted!

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  8. Super cute! I'm a BIG fan of red. I'd love to have change of seasons quilts for my house!

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  9. If you daughter doesn't like it, can I have it pleaseee??? I'm just kidding!!! It is GORGEOUS!!! I love your FMQ!!!!
    xo
    Eleni

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  10. This is beautiful -- I love your design.

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  11. beautiful! colors, quilting and the simple designs but wonderful. congratulations

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  12. What a cute quilt- I love the red against the trees. Very nice.

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  13. Lovely! It looks right at home with that cushion.

    What a great idea - changing quilts with the seasons. I am a new quilter and have struggled with "But what am I going to do with it? No one needs a quilt." - you have given me the perfect answer! Thanks.

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  14. Really cute, especially with the sprocket pillow on the bed! Love the little trees, and the pebble quilting especially!

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  15. Its great to see a round tree instead of the usual triangle tree! Love it!

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  16. Great quilt and your quilting looks brilliant! Good job :)

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  17. Love-love-love it!! I am a fan of all things red, so of course I'm drawn to your duaghter's quilt! Love that she's been using the Christmas one...we still watch Elmo's Christmas COuntdown almost every day, here!

    Cheers~
    Marti in San Diego

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  18. this is such a great quilt! I love all the crinklies in the quilting, and the simple, clean lines of the design!

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  19. That is a really great quilt. The colour and design are so well chosen and your pebble quilting really stands out. It sounds like her bed is a 3/4 bed -- 48 inches across. I know what you mean about it being in between, so nice that you made a custom quilt for it!!!

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  20. Michelle, this is fantastic! I just love everything about it. Your tree blocks are so pretty and just enough whimsy and I love how you quilted the different sections differently, beautiful!!

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  21. Oh wow! How cute! I really like the simplicity of the front.

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  22. Very special quilt. The love and attention you gave to your daughter's desires will always make this full of memories for her.

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  23. I'm in awe of all the free motion quilting. I'm just like the little engine that could right now. I think I can, I think I can. hahaha.

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  24. What a stunning quilt. I love the idea of the trees. And of course I love the red. You did a wonderful job with the FMQ over such a large area. Wonderful!

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  25. Oh wow, you are right that binding looks great, good job doing that all by machine, it is fabulous!

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  26. aww, this is just such a sweet looking quilt.

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  27. Beautiful! And thanks for the binding tutorial links. I'm going to check them out next.

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  28. Wonderful quilt and lucky girl to have such a fun one. Beautiful quilting. Will have to look at the binding tutorial. For me, I have small gaps between stitches and I do a double stitch every third stitch for handstitching. Thanks for sharing and have a great day

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  29. Beautiful - I love all the different types of FMQ that you have used.

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