Blogger's Quilt Festival

I don't think there are many people left in the quilting online community who aren't aware of the Blogger's Quilt Festival organised by Amy from Amy's Creative Side twice a year to coincide with Quilt Market. It keeps us all entertained when we aren't stalking IG to see what new lines of fabric are being released. I have found and followed so many new blogs through this quilt festival because so much talent is on display from around the world. So if you have never joined in, please do. The more the merrier.

To those new to my blog, welcome and thank you for stopping by. I am a Canadian living in the middle of England. Wife, mother of two, quilter, baker, and champion ditherer at times. If you would like to see some of the other things I have made over time there are two tabs at the top of the page where many of them are shown.

To those who follow my blog it will come as no surprise that I am entering my hexie quilt, Blowing Bubbles, into the festival. After some deliberation I put it in the Scrappy Quilts category. There were an awful lot of different fabrics used in this quilt.

The original idea for this quilt came about when I was doodling on some scrap hexie graph paper one day. The idea took hold, and the LV/blue ombre effect developed in my mind. I started it before Christmas, but what with the holidays I didn't get much done. Then, come the start of January, I entered it into a local quilt show here in the UK. That lit a fire under me, let me tell you! I needed to have it delivered to the organisers by the middle of April.

The quilt is made with 1.5" hexies. It is all hand pieced. I chose my blues, got out my LV fabrics (thankfully very varied from participating in a few charm and layer cake swaps) and worked on it in chunks, piecing the blue hexies and interiors one by one, and then slowly joining them up. My approach was a little haphazard but it got me there in the end.

I quilted it by machine, one hexie at a time - except the blues. The LVs each got a swirly, curly snail FMQ'd on them. The blues were hand quilted with perle cotton.

The binding was scrappy as well, reflecting the ombre effect of the blue hexie 'bubbles'. And the backing is the ubiquitous Ikea numbers fabric that so many of us use.

What I love about using so many different LV fabrics is how much colour and quirkiness is in the quilt when you look close, but how these fabrics do their job of dropping to the background when the quilt is looked at as a whole.

The finished quilt measures about 49" x 53" and contains approximately 500 hexies. It is my modern take on a traditional method of quilting. Surprisingly, I really enjoyed the hand piecing. I won't do another for a little while but I am not ruling it out from happening again in the future.

Thank you so much for stopping to read about my quilt and I do hope you enjoy the Blogger's Quilt Festival as much as I always do. 

Susan