Saturday, May 17, 2014

Blogger's Quilt Festival Spring 2014: Everything's coming up roses

I have finished exactly ONE quilt since the beginning of the year so my options for the Spring 2014 Blogger's Quilt Festival were a bit limited.  Unfortunately, I have also already blogged about the quilt twice. 

The first time was for 52 Photos Project prompt A Crooked Line & the second time was for a Block Lotto linky post about color.  So without further ado here is the quilt I made as a gift to the couple who had my cow bred (so folksy, right).  He is the Dexter cattle fan (& rancher) but she has a landscaping business with a special interest in heirloom roses so my primary fabric choice was easy-peasy (it was not until afterwards that I thought about how many Einstein-themed gifts we get-they were still very gracious about it).



It may not be obvious at first glance (I think it is, but I already know) but this block is a revamp of a Block Lotto block I have taken to calling 8:56 (four to nine).   The original block pattern begins with equal parts of two fabrics & then a narrow slice is taken top to bottom & another side to side there is some flipping & voilà.  I am beyond fond of this pattern & have made several times it before & I am certain I will make it over & over again & even give this variation another roll.

In this most recent incarnation, I played with the dimensions of that center slice making it gradually wider as I worked my way out from the center.  I was mostly interested in seeing how the larger cuts actually diminished the punch of color; the highest contrast seems, to me anyhow, to be in the blocks with the most unequally sized individual pieces.  Because I varied the size of the cuts there is just that one center seam to match (except that one place where I accidentally bumped two blocks with the same size cuts up against each other WHOOPS!) so this quilt went together super-quick.  After al that cutting is done which can be exhausting.

As for the quilting:  the fabric had a vaguely geometric quality & I wanted to pick that up.  I used a wide piece of bleached white muslin so no center seam would interrupt the design (which was just a happy accident).  I made several starkly triangle "roses" in a variegated pink to yellow thread & then outlined them in dark green thread making ever larger triangles until they started bumping up against each other & then I threw in some jagged thorns in between.  I was going for a sharply angled bouquet sort of look, but I am not sure it worked. 

The quilting (& the piecing for that matter) was done on my Bernina 153 which I still love.  I have flirted with getting a new machine, but somehow they never feel right; this machine is the right size for me.  On the small side by today's standards, I can still jam a queen sized quilt through it if need be. 

This quilt finished at just over 54" x 54".  The fabrics are all cottons mostly from my scrap basket except of course for the yardage of that rose fabric.  The batting is 70% cotton/30% polyester (my preferred batting for quick free-motion quilting).  The thread was a YLI variegated & a Sulky solid dark green.

& as I said when we went to pick up our dairy cow (baby due in December fingers crossed), they took such wonderful care of her I wanted to say extra-thank you.  Because while Cow-girl is standoffish & maybe even ill-suited to the whole backyard diary thing she is MY cow & I love her

I have entered this quilt in the Home Machine Quilted category of the Blogger's Quilt Festival.  & because I adds up to 216" all around, it is also in the Small Quilts category. 

8 comments:

  1. I love the combination of blocks and the colors you added to the roses fabric. And the quilting is fantastic! Would you consider blogging it one more time on block lotto.com in the show and tell category so we can have a photo in the gallery?

    ReplyDelete
  2. It's a really interesting pattern - cute fabrics!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Love the fabric combination! Nice job!

    ReplyDelete
  4. What a fun quilt and quilting!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Beautiful quilt and wonderful quilting! Well done!! Don't you just love those happy accidents? :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. very cool quilt. Love your color choices.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Love your colors and quilting! Nice job! I still love my Bernina 153 also.

    ReplyDelete