Have you heard of this? It's the fourth annual, but my first. Here's the link for all you quilting bloggers:
Wow - what a MASSIVE and progressive quilting community there is on the internet. It's incredible. For the festival, we are all encouraged to post one of our quilts. So here goes...
Which one will it be? It HAS to be Daisy, Daisy. Here's why. She pushed me past my comfort zone and ended up being the most impressive quilt I've made.
She began with a template I found at a garage sale. It was Dresden plates! My only childhood quilting idol (grandma Burd) made dresden plate quilts out of good old-fashioned second hand polyester clothing in the 70's. I was too young for her to teach me, but I watched, and I have dreamed of making quilts ever since. This was not my first quilt, but it was my first major challenge in honor of dear Violet Burd.
I wanted to do a lot of quilting on this one, but do not own a long arm. My solution was to make it (my first) quilt-as-you-go piece. That was another learning curve all together! What was I thinking? I took photos along the way to create a tutorial, but there is such a massive amount of photos. Plus - I make all my own patterns on a whim. I don't plan much and so things change a lot along the way.
I started this on my Janome 4900 and finished it on the Janome 7700P. I made all the pieces, then the plates, then appliqued them to the blocks, then did more circular sewing with decorative stitching. I got variegated thread to coordinate with the hot colors. (You may think it's gaudy, but I love red & white - and orange and yellows!)
I practiced some very successful straight line quilting. The Dresden blocks were alternated with linear pieced blocks. I had planned for the alternating blocks to be crazy quilting. ...and for many reasons, was ready to call this quilt "Crazy Daizy". :P
It's fabulous. I love it. I have it exhibited right now at McNally Robinsons' Booksellers in Saskatoon until the end of November, 2010. Our guild has an on-going exhibit of over a dozen quilts that gets changed a few times per year. (I love the guild - we rock.) ; )
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| Daisy Daisy (hanging from the second floor near the circle of trees) |
The last part of joining the festival was to tell how many yards of fabric are in my stash. My answer: none. In Canada, we have meters of fabric. hehe You can view about a quarter of my stash in my October 31 post. (go back 2) SCARY!
That's my story and I'm sticking to it. : )
Enjoy the tour!
: )
~Monika
sewing in Saskatoon
9 comments:
You're right ... that's a fabulous quilt! Great update on dresden plates. Glad you joined the festival! : )
lovely quilt!
I love the colors in this quilt! It is beautiful. And the quilt festival is so much fun! Very inspiring, I need to get busy and actually finish a few things.
OMG! I LOVE LOVE this! the colors you used are spot on and the detail photos just suck you in! Fabby Job!
Jessie
www.designsbyjessie.com/wp/
What happy colors. The quilting looks great. Quilt as you go makes it so much easier to concentrate on each block.
Beautiful! Quilting in the 70's was all about the polyester...but these 70's colors you used are way beyond that! They look terrific together and I love all the variegated stitchery you embellished the quilt with. It's charming! Thanks for sharing your quilt's story :)
Your quilt is great. Love the colours in the dresden plates and pieced blocks. Beautiful quilting too!
Wow - I had seen little photos of it here and htere in your blog but not the whole quilt. That is really amazing. I'm blown away by the no pattern thing and you just make it work!
Thanks! :)
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