Cherry Blossoms Baby Quilt

I'm so excited to be sharing this quilt for the first time and to be entering it into the

 Baby Quilts category for the Blogger's Quilt Festival.

My timing on finishing this quilt also happened to line up perfectly with a tree that is just starting to bloom (making for an extra fun photo shoot ;o).

 

 

 Denyse Schmidt's Single Girl pattern has been calling to me for ages and since I may have a new niece any day now, I found the perfect reason to grab some pinks and greens from my stash to make this quilt.

 

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I used freezer paper to make it easier cutting out all those pieces for each ring.  I would highly recommend this method if the prospect of cutting and tracing out templates is making you hesitate in trying this pattern.

 

 

Sherbet Pips Play Dot in Vanilla  made for the perfect background fabric to set off those scrappy blocks.

 

Since this quilt is for a baby and will definitely be washed often, I decided to stick with a dense meander quilting to make it more durable.

I couldn't resist using this print from Sandi Henderson's Secret Garden collection combined with a strip of Ladder Dots in Fuschia from Denyse Schmidt's Chicopee line.  I debated a bit on using something more traditional, but  loved the fresh, modern look these fabrics give together.

 

 

 My Cherry Blossoms Baby Quilt finishes at 42" x 50"

 

 

 

Huge thanks to Amy for all she does to make the Blogger's Quilt Festival happen.  I love that she's given us categories to organize our entries into.  Thanks Amy!  It's been a wonderful week full of viewing gorgeous quilts and discovering new blogs.  What a great event!

Get ready to start voting for your favourite quilts starting tomorrow...

WIP Wednesday

Quilting like crazy on the ManDarin quilt  (which is on my FAL list) for my hubby.

 

 

Happy Wednesday!

Sew many possibilities

Just to mix things up a bit this week with my sewing, I made a foray back into a scrappy project I started earlier this year.  It just so happens that I added this project to Q2 of my Finish-A-Long list, so progress is definitely needed.

 

I really enjoy letting the scraps lead me - basically, this means I just look for similar sized pieces and stitch them together. I keep an eye out for mixing colour value while limiting my palette to blues and greens.  It's a bit like putting together a puzzle, but it adds up to easy stitching and fun results.

I love seeing these tiny pieces become something larger and cohesive.  Scraps are treasures when it comes to patchwork!

My latest strips will find their way into being used with the first section I put together back in Feb. (shown in photo, below)   I haven't quite sorted out how all of this will be combined and I am still debating on whether to make this into a small quilt or whether I should just make a mini to have in my sewing room.

Possibilities abound with scraps!

I probably blather on a bit much about how much I love working with scraps, but I truly see so many possibilities with them.  I love experimenting with them and discovering new ways to make something useful and attractive.   Okay, you can call me crazy. ;o)

Fun Summer Fabrics

Warm sunny days have me daydreaming about the summer ahead.

  No surprise then, that I'd join in the fun to make a bundle of summer themed fabrics from

Sew Fresh Fabrics as a part of this contest.

 

 

 

Summer is all about the outdoors for me.  Camping, hiking and floating down a lazy river are favourite activities to enjoy with my family and with any luck, this summer will see me doing all of these things.  Can't forget biking and visiting summer fairs!  Sounds pretty good, doesn't it?   What do you enjoy doing in the summer?

If you're interested in seeing other summer bundles, click here, and if you want to create your own bundle(s), you have until the end of May to enter.  Details for the contest are HERE.

Blogger's Quilt Festival

 

 

 Hi there ! If you are visiting my blog for the first time while touring the Blogger's Quilt Festival, welcome!  

The quilt I'm sharing is a recent finish, so those of you that are not new to my blog will recognize it as my Orange Twirl quilt.  It measures 71" x  90" and started out as a way to use up some leftover orange fabrics from another quilt and try a new block design.

 

 

Little did I know that this simple block and playing with fabric values in orange would captivate me!  The more blocks I made, the more I fell in love with this design.  It didn't take me long to realize that I would like to make the quilt bed-sized.  That presented a problem.  I needed to keep the values contrasting in the quilt, but my collection of orange fabrics was getting slim.  That's when some wonderful blogging friends stepped in to help me out.  I think of their generosity as "Orange-Aid" and their kind help, made my quilt more lovely than I had imagined.

 

 

My next challenge turned out to be  my quilting. 

 I knew from the start how I wanted to free motion quilt, but  once I was underway, I started having second thoughts.  I guess it was a case of not being able to see the forest for the trees. ;o)

  Instead of ripping out all my stitches, I walked away from it. 

 The next day I was able to look at it with fresh eyes and

 

 

I realized the swirly quilting wasn't quite as disappointing as I first thought.

 

 

Sometimes, as was the case with this quilt, it's the fabrics that take center stage, not the quilting... and that's good. 

 

The rest of the quilt came together smoothly. 

 Using a stripe fabric for the backing was a first for me.  Using dots for the binding... was not a first, but is always a favourite.

 



Is there anything happier than a dot binding? ;o)

I would never have guessed that my initial motivations (where's the risk in using leftovers to try a new block, right? ;o) would result in a quilt that makes me smile every time I look at it and give me a whole new outlook on a colour that I used to overlook.

 

 

 Thanks so much for your visit! 

You're always welcome here and I hope you'll click my "follow with Bloglovin" button (sidebar) to keep coming back.

Okay, off you go!  Have fun visiting everyone else in the Festival!