quilt festival - fall 2010

It's time for the very popular Bloggers Quilt Festival. Thank you so much Amy for hosting this event for the 4th time!

I want to share a quilt that I recently finished. It is a wall quilt, and it started out with some "blueberry fool blocks" that I received in a swap with my friend Clare. Lovely palette of blues...

I started playing with them, forming them into a medallion. Adding some solids and a star.

By then the top reminded me of a norwegian winter landscape: snow and crisp, blue shadows...

So, I added a phrase from a favorite norwegian singer, Anne Grete Preus (in my translation it will say something like: the sun sits low on the horizon, under the tall sky).

The letters are inspired by Tonya.

The quilt is long and narrow, 30" by 60", fitting for a wall hanging.

I had a lot of fun quilting by hand, creating different textures.

Sometimes its fun to start playing with some fabric and see where it takes you. Trusting yourself to create as you go... Trying not to put on a lot of pressure.

Thank you for your visit! And please, enjoy more beautiful and special quilts at the festival here.

friday flimsy

The maple tree outside our house is gradually turning from green to orange -

inspiring the color palette and shift of colors in my spiderweb flimsy...

Thank you for all your encouraging comments about this wip! I have spent some time sewing, and some time with my trusted seam ripper.

I started out using several halloween themed fabrics. The blocks got quite busy, so I changed the mix a bit, removing most of the halloween prints and keeping the cats and some bats...

The halloween spiderweb quilt-top is now finished at 45" by 60". I am considering framing it with a white border. What do you think, does it need a frame or not?

Fall is being challenged by a (hopefully) short visit of winter. These last pictures were taken yesterday. The crows are regular passers by. Snow in october is too early, catching everybody off guard...

Wish you all a great weekend!

wip wednesday

I have wanted to make a halloween spiderweb for a long time. Pairing up Denyse Schmidt's Hope Valley and Alexander Henry's The Ghastlies, I decided to give it a try...

I have modified my recipe / tutorial for this one:

Using bigger blocks: starting with a 17" square.

Making the stars more narrow.

The spiderweb blocks are still fun to sew. Playing with different ways of combining the fabric, aiming for good contrast between the strips...

Picture is taken on a grey, overcast october morning. The trees outside are starting to turn orange. Fall is here...

october finish

This month's finish is a halloween quilt. My spooky halloween is 50" by 60" after quilting. The batting is Kyoto Bamboo Blend, very nice and soft. I used spray to sandwich it, the most scary part of the quilt, I think...

Blogger is tricking me, so I can't write where I want, now? A bit early for trick or treat?

Ok, inspired by Alissa and two cute prints from Sherri Berry (ghosts) and (pumpkins) Debbie Taylor-Kerman (again), I started the top this summer. Adding Sandy Klop's lovely geometric prints from my stash. Playing with new halloween theme fabric. Auditioning and rejecting, ending up with only orange, green and black colors. And a very "cute" look.

The back was more difficult than the front. I auditioned a lot of different fabrics before deciding on Sandy Klop's pretty orange fabric with tiny dots from her latest line: Recess.

Orange is one of my very favorites - can you tell?

The back is one width of fabric with the added 9" strip - ending in a 50" wide quilt. Almost like magic?

I'll share the secret. Some of my quilting friends insisted that spray adhesive was a good way to sandwich a quilt, and even demonstrated doing so. I had the spray, but had never used it for anything big. With the help of my dh's long and sturdy hands and the spray, the sandwich came together in 15 minutes. It felt like magic ; )

The quilting is a bit rough, wavy (straight) lines. I wanted the texture. Maybe it stretches the square blocks out of shape to much? Still have a lot to learn about quilting. Quite happy with quilting on the spray baste, though. Think I will try that again.

This time the label is integrated in the strip on the back. Simple...

So, this is my first halloween lap quilt. Love the back the most! This recipe works well if you like matchy - matchy and cute. (If that makes any sense to anyone).

Now, I want to start the next one, a halloween spiderweb...

How about you? Do you have any halloween quilts planned? Or any favorites that you pull out of storage in time for the season?

I know, there's still time. Just wanted to share...

friday finish

A small quilt has been quilted more densely. Sometime that's all it takes to improve. A second look, some added love...

Have a nice weekend!