Bloggers Quilt Festival ~ Spring 2012

I was inspired to show off Bella's quilt so I thought why not enter The Bloggers Quilt Festival - of course this required that I begin blogging... so here is my first blog.  I hope I am able to set it up and post prior to the deadline closing.

I just recently got into quilting- this is my second quilt.  I never planned on quilting. I began sewing with a group of ladies to ward off depression in the dark months of winter.  After finishing an outfit that I had worked on for some time I discovered that I had gained a few more pounds and it was not as flattering as it could be ~ perhaps I should have not eaten so much chocolate while sewing.

I love fabric so I was trying to come up with a way to keep sewing and playing with color - that was when it hit me.  I would not outgrow a quilt and one gets to stand behind the quilt when photographing!

I had just received an order from Pink Chalk Fabrics and in their order was a picture of a quilt.  It was amazing!  My stepdaughter saw the picture and fell in love.  I knew that I had to make it for her.  They were out of the quilt kit and the dimensions were much smaller than I was interested in so I decided I would make my own variation.

I ordered a Kona Solids Card.  I went on line and then proceeded to buy a ton of fabric.
I only needed one strip of each color. I then began arranging them in some sort of order.  I have enough left over to make 4 more of these quilts!  ~its good for ones stash....

 Here is Burton helping change the order of the strips.....

Things I learned when doing this quilt.  It is important to measure all of your fabric.  I thought since all of my fabric was from the same line and same designer it would all be the same width - it is not.  I based my main measurement on the first strip of fabric I cut.  For the placement of the white strips I came up with a formula on Excel to get a random centered look.  This would have worked IF all of my strips had been the same length. I was able to correct this by making little additions here and there.

I forgot to take a picture of it before it was quilted.  I had it quilted by Loretta Tibor; she did a wonderful job. 

The quilt measures  88 X 100

Back of Quilt

Close up of quilting

I hope you have enjoyed my first post and Bella's quilt.  Hopefully I will get this blogging thing down. 

I find so much inspiration each time I look at what everyone is creating.  It gets me wondering if I am able to tackle that or perhaps I can add just one more project to my list.... enjoy looking at everyones quilts.  bloggers-quilt-festival-spring-2012~ hosted by Amy