Blogger's Quilt Festival - My Entry

Have you heard of this?  It's the fourth annual, but my first.  Here's the link for all you quilting bloggers:

Amy's Creative Side - BLOGGER'S QUILT FESTIVAL 

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.)  ; )

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

Quilts at the Bookstore

What a cold blustery day!  I did a family photo shoot at the university for another family.  I'm sure it was the weather... all the little kids in that area were crying!  Oh dear.  We'll have to try that again.  On the way out I snapped this!

My daughter and I then dropped in to McNally Robinson Booksellers today for a field trip. We found the Canadian quilting magazine: Quilter's Connection!  I'm glad they carry it!

And look!  The orange looks great in there!  My quilt, "Daisy Daisy" is hanging right in front of the Canadian Children's Books by the circle of trees.  All the quilts on display are courtesy of the Saskatoon Quilter's Guild.

Funny.  I never noticed that the ceiling in the is orange!  lol

There's my daughter sitting on the main floor.  I love this store.  There are nooks and crannies everywhere with such nice big comfy chairs. We stopped to read "Red is Best", our favorite Canadian children's book. 

Back home now... It's pouring rain.  I'm about to start making supper, packing lunches, running baths, doing laundry, clipping fingernails, washing dishes... ; )  Maybe tonight after the kids are in bed I'll put on a fire and get that Courthouse Country quilt top put together. 

Stay warm!
~Monika