Pink Chowder: Bloggers Quilt Festival Quilt

Hello old and new friends! I am so happy you are here. Welcome.

I am re-sharing Pink Chowder today as my entry in the Bloggers Quilt Festival hosted by Amy's Creative Side. I decided to enter it as a large quilt.

This is my favorite quilt I have ever made. I finished it a couple of months ago and I still just stare at it sometimes thinking, "I made that" (picture a wondering look and an awed voice). 

This quilt is me. 

It was born from a late evening desire to start a new project, when I just started randomly grabbing some of my favorite and most precious fabrics. I brought that giant stack of fabric to a retreat with my best sewing people and then I met the Accuquilt die cutter and the, then brand new, clam die. I knew I had to learn to sew curves just so I could turn my stack of fabric into a clam quilt. 

The reasons this is my favorite quilt of all time:

1.) I learned so much sewing this quilt. These are my first curves ever. It was my first time using the Accuquilt.

2.) I used some of my most hoarded fabrics on this quilt. Now when I look at it I get so see little happy surprises everywhere. Reminding me to use my hoarded fabrics!

3.) Some of my best sewing people gave me scraps to use in this quilt. Now every time I see those clams, I think of them. 

4.) It is pink and aqua. 

5.) There are cats on it. 

6.) I did it. I felt like I was really starting to get this quilting thing while working on this quilt. The quilting looks so good, the clams came together so well, and the colors just make me smile. It gives me such a sense of accomplishment.

Thanks for stopping by! Thanks for being patient about seeing this quilt twice on here. I think you are the best. I love this community and this festival illustrates everything that is good about the online quilting world. I only just wish we were at a real quilt festival 'cause then we could meet. Maybe have a coffee? I would love to hear about your day. 

Pink Chowder Stats

Size: 72" by 72"

Pattern: I used the Accuquilt to cut my clams, but you check out The Quilt Engineer's pattern on Craftsy here. 

Fabric: Too many to list. Just so many bits of precious in this one. 

Quilting: Organic matchstick quilting with Aurifil Thread done by me on my home machine.

Finished: January 2014

Sunburst: A Baby Quilt for the Blogger's Quilt Festival

Okay friends. Let me just be real for a second, I waffled about what to enter in the festival. In the end, I chose my stars align, because I didn't read the rules thought that was my number one choice.

Turns out we can enter two!

This baby quilt it one of my hands down favorite things I have ever made. Honestly, if it had not been baby sized it would have never left my house. Also, it is for my bestest friend's older brother, who is practically my older brother. He just had a baby boy, who is hopefully enjoying this quilt (well, honestly the baby probably doesn't care).

It is inspired by Denyse Schmidt's, Crazy Star Quilt (in Denyse Schmidt: Modern Quilts, Traditional Inspiration). I am saying based, because I did not so much follow the pattern as look at the picture in my book. Then I decided to make a quilt that looks sort of like it.

I pulled all of the strings out of my scrap bin and the solids from my stash. They were curated to be gender neutral and cheerful. 

For the quilting, I fell in love with Denyse's quilting design and decided to fill up the negative space with a free motion, sort of organic (read: messy and unplanned), loops. I just made them on my home sewing machine while watching old episodes of TV on Netflix. I think it works.



The back is made up of some Kona strips I had left over from another quilt, some of the Kona Steel (I think?) from the front, and a single strip of Madrona Road (Haystack?) to mimic the bright star on the front. The binding is scrappy. 

I suppose my special technique was foundation paper piecing. I used paper foundations to make the star, nothing special, just scratch paper. 

Quilt Stats.

Category. Baby Quilt

Name. Sunburst Baby QuiltSize. 45"x43"
Fabrics. Kona Steel for the front background, scraps for the star, the back has some Madrona Road Haystack, and assorted Kona blues from my stash.
Pattern. Based on Crazy Star (from Denyse Schmidt: Modern Quilts, Traditional Inspiration)
Piecing. 50wt Aurifil thread
Quilting. Free motion loops (à la Denyse Schmidt) with 50wt Aurifil thread

Check out more pretty quilts at Amy's Creative Side

My Stars Align for the Blogger's Quilt Festival

I spent a long time thinking about what I was going to enter in the blogger's quilt festival.

In the end, I decided to enter the quilt I am most proud of in my quilt-ography.

I designed My Stars Align using an Ukrainian painted egg my friend made. There is more on that in the original post I wrote about this quilt here. I began cutting it right around Christmas time and it took me a month (or so) to complete the quilt. It was a true labor of love for me. I can honestly say, this quilt represents me.

The colors, the design, the prints, they all sing to me. I wanted this little piece of me to go to the festival.

The design is mostly half-squared triangles with a lattice grid around them. I wrote a little tutorial if you are interested.

Quilt Stats

Category. Favorite Throw Quilt

Size. 65"x65"
Pattern. My Stars Align (by me, I think?)
Fabric. Kona Snow and Steel for the white and gray, Star points were Bella in New Turquoise, Architextures, some Amy Butler, some Fiesta from Hope Valley, and oh dear, your guess is probably better than mine about the rest.
Piecing. 50wt Aurifil Thread
Quilting. Free motion quilted on my home machine, dogwood pattern by Elizabeth Hartman with 50wt Aurifil Thread

The back is pretty special to me too. By the time I got around to making the back, I knew this quilt was part of me and was never leaving our little family, thus, I included little bits of fabrics that I felt represented me. There is some special Heather Ross and Architextures. The main print is Bella by Lana Jansdotter.

I still cuddle under this quilt nearly every day. Isn't it funny how some projects tip toe into your life? Maybe they started with some impromptu experimentation? Maybe 2 months later they feel like a precious family member...

I truly love this quilt.

Check out more festive, beautiful quilts at Amy's Creative Side.