Patriotic Quilting

Happy 4th of July!

One of our local fabric shops, Olde Time Fabric Shop, had a Patriotic Quilt wall hanging contest.  This is my entry.  I used a Moda Bake Shop pattern called American Glory for this wall hanging.  I had to reduce the block size just a little to come out with the dimensions I needed, in order to enter it in the contest.  It measures approximately 27" x 44". 

I used Moda's Kate Spain Terrain Fern in Stream(Blue) for the stars and backing.  I used Reunion Vanilla & Cherry Johnny Jacks and Cherry Johnny Jacks by Sweetwater for Moda for the stripes, backing stripe and for binding  I also used Robert Kaufman Kona in Bone for the background.

I had a great time putting together this wall hanging.  I took me a while to figure out what I was going to do and even longer to find just the right fabric.  I absolutely love this fabric!!!

This wall hanging was displayed in the fabric shop during the whole month of June, along with seven other entries.  Patrons of the shop were able to vote on the entries during the whole month.  As it turns out, I just found out on Monday, July 2, 2012, that my entry won 2nd place in the contest!!  I couldn't believe it...WooHoo!  I am so honored, as all of the entries were absolutely wonderful!  Thank you to the ones who voted and to our shop for hosting this contest! 

Also, thank you to all who have served and continue to serve our country!

God Bless, America!

Happy July 4th!

Swaps

Hey there everyone!

Hope your Monday is starting off well.  I want to talk quickly on Swaps.  I have done a number of swaps over the past few years and I will discuss a lot of them in the coming weeks.

Recently, I decided to participate in a swap that was run by a good friend.  It was a Doll Quilt Swap.  I decided to use a charm square pack that I had and did some improv piecing.  I took three charms squares in the same colorways, stacked them and cut them twice.  I switched up the pieces, sewed them together and then cut them in different shapes.  I then used Orange Kona for the background and pieced them to make blocks.  Below is what I came up with:

I also made a mug rug to go along with it!  I did straight line quilting on both.  I also took the charm squares I had left, cut them in half and them sewed them together to make an interesting binding for both.  I really enjoyed working on the project.  It was so much fun to do some improv piecing.  I named it "Big Orange Backcountry" since I live here in the heart of East TN and because we have many great backcountry trails to explore, in which you will find many beautiful flowers.  The recipient really like her doll quilt and mug rug and I had a blast making it!

This is just one of the most recent swaps I have done.  I will be talking about many others as we go along and will give you some resources to find out more. 

Join me as we dive into the fun of swaps!

Have a great day!

Quilt Ramblings Starting Tomorrow

Hello!

     I have decided to focus my blog more on my quilting and sewing adventures.  Since we start the next half of the year tomorrow, I plan to start posting pictures and quick posts about all things sewing and quilting.  Some days my posts will consist of my past projects.  Some days, you may see projects in progress and other days you may get some kind of information from the sewing/quilting world.

     Please join me on this adventure as I try to grow to be a better quilter! 

Lets have some fun with all our projects!

Blogger's Quilt Festival Spring 2012

Blogger's Quilt Festival Spring 2012 at Amy's Creative Side

     My name is Stephanie and I am so excited to be participating in the Blogger's Quilt Festival for the very first time!  I want to thank Amy for this truly amazing quilt festival!  I love quilts and the Modern movement and I am part of our local Modern Quilt Guild in Knoxville.  I have enjoyed looking at all the quilts over the past couple of years, but I never entered one and this spring, I decided to change that.  It is truly amazing to see all the wonderful quilters and their designs and I am so inspired by all of them! 

     The quilt I am featuring is called "Orange Slice" and it is the very first big quilt that I made.  It is approximately 60" x 80".  I had only been sewing and quilting for about a year and had done mostly smaller baby quilts.  Then, in January 2011, I decided to join the ps i quilt Postage Stamp Quilt Along.  I was so excited to do a quilt along, but didn't know what kind of jelly roll or fabric to use.  Some were using the Sweetwater line featured for the quilt along and some were going very scrappy. 

     I only had two jelly rolls at the time and I just loved the "Fresh Squeezed" line by Sandy Gervais by Moda, in my stash.  It was so bright and yummy and of course, I live in Tennessee...Go Vols!!  As I looked at some of the others' fabric choices, I noticed that many were using a very light, neutral background with their jelly rolls.  While that was great for some lines of fabric, I wanted to go bright and bold!  So after some debating, I found the RK Kona Orange, which was an absolute perfect match for this!

     I cut up all the fabric, put all the colors together, followed all directions and came up with this beautiful quilt top.  I had no idea at the time it would be so striking with the movement of color! 

     I decided to use some of the left over strips on the back, paired with RK Kona Turquoise. 

     Then, I was trying to decide how I wanted to quilt this quilt. I held on to it and waited and waited.  In November 2011, about nine months after I had finished the quilt top, I found a wonderful long arm quilter, Sharon, who was just starting out and had done some amazing work on charity quilts for our guild. After talking with her, she found this fun, citrus quilt pattern to quilt my quilt! It is absolutely perfect and just what I wanted!!! 

     It turned out so beautiful!

     I decided to bind the quilt with some of the fabric I had bought in the "Fresh Squeezed" line that was turquoise with orange flowers.  This fabric was perfect to tie the whole quilt together. 

     Now, when I do binding, to be different, I have learned to use what some call, a feather stitch, on my quilts.  I love this stitch!!  It is unusual and adds a touch of flair.

     The quilt along was such a wonderful learning experience!   I am very proud of all the work that went into this first big quilt and it is, by far, my favorite!  Recently, I took my quilt to our KMQG quilt retreat. We had such a wonderful time and there just happened to be a beautiful sunset up in the mountains, so I got several pictures of my quilt on the porch. 

     Thank you for taking the time to stop by!  I hope I have inspired you to quilt something beautiful!