Blogger's Quilt Festival {String-A-Hex}

Deets

Quilt: String-A-Hex

Category: ROYGBIV

Pattern: My own foundation paper pieced design. You can find the tutorial on my blog.

Size: 47" x 51"

piecing: 50wt white aurifil and used up a bunch of random bobbins

Quilting: free motion figure eight quilting with 50wt white Aurifil on my home machine.

I originally designed this quilt for the Festival of Strings contest by Rachel at Stitched in Color. My design is a twist on foundation paper piecing hexagons into scrappy rainbow goodness:

The blocks are unified by a strip of Kona White. I varied the width and position of the white to add more interest. Here is a photo of the completed top floating in the breeze.

The quilting is an allover free motion figure 8 loop. It adds great texture but does not overwhelm the quilt or make it any busier!

The backing mirrors the pattern on the quilt top. I also added a strip of gray flannel along the side - make it work moment! The binding is Chicopee ladder dot in fuchsia. Love this print.

Thank you for visiting my BQF entry. If you are new to my blog I encourage you to browse around, maybe take a look at some of my tutorials or other finished quilts? Also make sure you take a look at the plethora of of quilts being shown at the festival. 

Blogger's Quilt Festival {Mellifera Quilt}

I am submitting my most recent finish as my second entry in the BQF. I also entered my Happy Pills quilt in the throw quilt category.

I present to you the Mellifera quilt:
Category: Favorite Scrap Quilt

mellifera is the species name of the European Honey Bee Apis mellifera 

Stats-

Size: 56" x 70"

Pattern: Honey Honey by Kate Spain

Fabrics:  Various yellow, orange and neutral scraps. Some vintage prints

Piecing: pieced with 50 wt Aurifil thread

Quilting: FMQ stipple by me on my home machine using a 50 wt yellow Aurifil thread.

I wanted to make a crazy improv pieced back that incorporated orphan blocks, bee fabrics and any leftover yellow prints I had. 

Here are some close ups of the back:

 

1. Orphan churn dashes finally found a home. 2. Orphan star blocks from someone at the Stash Bash, maybe Ali asquredw? 3. Bee fabric with hexagon borders. 4. Birds and the bees fabric.

 Zoooom in on the quilting and the binding. I stipple quilted with a yellow thread. Binding is Spot On by Robert Kaufman.

While making the blocks I created some HSTs from the scraps. A little bit of trimming later (just keep trimming, just keep trimming) and I had a tidy pile of 3.5" HSTs.

I arranged them in a 9 x 6 grid and sewed them up into a pillow sham using the same final dimensions from my tutorial.

These two cheery, scrappy, happys are headed to my sister for a birthday/housewarming gift. Check out the entries here.

Blogger's Quilt Fest {Happy Pills}

I finally decided on my entry for the blogger's quilt festival: Happy Pills.

Category: Favorite Throw quilt

 

Stats-

Size: 47" x 55" 

Pattern: Happy Hour by Elizabeth Hartman

Fabrics:  Indigo oakshott cotton, turquoise ovals (Juggling Summer), paisley in lime (Chicopee), Indigo plumage (Cuzco), voltage dot in black (Chicopee), heatwave stripes in lime (Chicopee), Midnight sky birds (Simple Marks by Malka), dotted leaf in lime (Chicopee), Indigo citadel (Cuzco). The background fabric is Gray tweed texture (Mod Century)

Piecing: pieced with 50 wt Aurifil thread

Quilting: FMQ by me on my home machine using a 40 wt off white Aurifil thread.

 

The back of the quilt features floating pills. Someone also said they look like Gram negative bacteria. I like that idea too.

I used a ripple quilting style I like to call neurotransmitters because it reminds me of the junction between two neurons.

Another special touch was that I continued the pattern on the back into the binding. This gives the illusion that the half-pills are extending forever.

I love this little quilt. It was a wedding gift for some friends. It was a hard one to give away but I know it has a happy home! Check out all the other entries at Amy's creative side.