Bloggers' Quilt Festival - Spring 2011

I almost missed this year's Bloggers' Quilt Festival  for Spring 2011. It started yesterday May 13th. Life is getting really hectic these days. I never thought anything of it until a dear colleague who reads my blog asked me one day how I manage to do so much while also working full time. She said I'm so prolific with what I do! I'm sure that was a compliment. I don't know how to live any other way. I seem to have a lot on the go at any one time. I love it!

The quilt I'm entering in BQF today is this small friendship quilt I made two of them, one for myself and one for my friend Linda (no blog) who gave me the heart fabric for the border. To me the heart fabric by itself was overpowering, but setting it around a redwork embroidery toned it down a bit. I love it much better now.  

It's only 36" x 36" square. I hand embroidered and quilted it using a bow pattern. It's not a brand new quilt, but I haven't blogged it here before so I thought I would share it in this year's Bloggers' Quilt Festival. Thanks again Amy for hosting this wonderful event. I'm looking forward to visiting all the blogs and viewing all the wonderful quilts.

Blogger's Quilt Festival

The forth Blogger's Quilt Festival organized by Amy of Amy's Creative Side is from Oct. 29 to Nov. 5. I have taken part in the BQF since the beginning. Thanks to Amy for putting on this fantastic online quilt festival. I'm so looking forward to seeing all the gorgeous quilts in the festival. I hope to meet some new bloggers here as well. You know that I don't finish many quilts throughout the year, but this year I managed to finish this one quilt so, it's an achievement and special. I named it "Christmas Vintage Scrap". I know it's almost 2 months before Christmas, but it will be here before you know it...!

Ever since I started quilting for almost 20 years now. I always buy a couple pieces of Christmas fabric each year. I can say my Christmas fabric is quite vintage so when I saw this Christmas quilt at Happy Cottage Quilter I thought I would make it using all my Christmas scraps. I'm very happy with the way it turned out considering that I only had a photo to go by. 

I used the leftover strips as part of the backing. This quilt is totally a scrap saver. I can now get myself more Christmas fabric to top up my stash. For some reason I'm not very fond of the new Christmas fabric out there lately. I still love the traditional red and green for Christmas colours. 

A closer look at the quilt. Of course you can click on the images to enlarge them. If you would like to make this quilt for yourself. You can find a tutorial I did on part 1 and part 2. This quilt will look good using any fabric. Even with blue and white...!

The quilt was machine quilted by Donna Ward in New Zealand. Donna has been quilting for me for years and years now. Without Donna I wouldn't have any finished quilts, thanks Donna!

If you haven't been in the Blogger's Quilt Festival before I would highly recommended that you try it this time. It's as easy as posting on your blog and linking your post to the BQF site over at Amy's Creative Side. After that you just enjoy hopping around to all the blogs in the festival to see all the quilts.

Blog Keeping and Eco Stuff

I call this post blog keeping, you know like house keeping! Showing something, thank someone, announcing some events, sharing awards and most important, is keeping blogging environmental friendly.

I'm revisiting this eco dyed silk and linen blouse I blogged about here. I dyed it with purple hibiscus flowers and appliqué it with motives from a silk scarf. 

I finally finished it. The stitching gives a nice texture to the appliqué pieces. I then wove over it with cotton fabric and put more stitching all over it. I really like how it turns out and can't wait to wear it.

A closed up photos of the stitches. 

On my walk I came across this sculpture created by our students on greening up our act. The yellow sign says refill not landfill . Not too long ago I read somewhere that reused water bottles are poisonous! I wonder if the information came from the bottle water suppliers to make you buy more water instead of refilling it? Has anyone heard anything differently?

My birthday celebration continues. At the weekend my friend Jacky who had just returned from Switzerland gave me this gorgeous candle holder and some tea light candles. Thanks Jacky, I love them and enjoy lighting candles when I'm home stitching.

Fall Blogger's Quilt Festival will be on from Oct. 29th - Nov. 5th. This is the 4th BQF organizes by Amy of Amyscreativeside. I took part in the last three BQF and I am looking forward to this one too. I have met many bloggers through the BQF and saw many wonderful quilts at the Festival. I hope you will join in  and show your quilts too. 

 

A couple of weeks ago I was given The Versatile Blogger Award by Wendy of Ivory Spring and I am supposed to pass it on to a few people that are versatile with their blogging. Here are some versatile bloggers:

1. Dzintra who is a stitcher, an accomplished cook and recently an actor too. 

2. Deanna  who is a quilter, fibre artist, bobbin lace making, tatting and eco dyer. 

3. Bev who is environmentally friendly and creative with crochet, quilting and dress making.

4. Janet is a perfectionist. Janet inspires me with everything she does. When you visit her blog you will agree with me. 

5. Sue my talented friend. A great quilter and a whiz on computer and technology stuff best of all she is about to publish her first quilting book. 

6. Astrid a friend who lives over in Mauritius. She is a prolific quilter, hiker and a gardener. 

7. Lis my friend who has the same passion about everything Japanese like myself. 

Make sure to visit them and enjoy their blogs. They are supposed to tell us something that we don't already know about them. It should be interesting reading...! 

Blogger's Quilt Festival 2010: Mystery Baskets

It's hard to believe that this is my third Blogger's Quilt Festival. Amy you are a darling to bring us bloggers together through the BQF so thank you.

There is a story behind every quilt, but this quilt has more than a story, there is a mystery about this quilt. Let me tell you about it. All through Australia there are opportunity (thrift stores for you in the US) shops called 'Salvos', short for Salvation Army. There are remnant fabrics in all the branches of the Salvos and I have found some great fabric from them. This is my way of recycling. On one of these visits I found the quilt top amongst the remnants. It had a $1.00 tag on it. I picked it up and had a good look. It was well pieced and well appliqued. I put it back because I did not want another UFO! I walked away thinking why did someone give away a perfectly good quilt top! I walked past it again and thought, I 'm a quilter and I have a responsibility to rescue this top and finish it. So that what I did!

The top was completed with only one basket left without applique on it. I appliquéd the rest of the flowers and added the inner and outer border with the corner stones to complete the quilt. I already have fabric in my stash that goes quite well with the top. Whoever made this top had done a lovely job even using the reverse side of the fabric for the four triangles. I then reversed the fabric for the corner stone in keeping with what was there already. I sent it off to Donna Ward to machine quilt it for me.

I should have taken a photo of it when I got it, but this happened before I started blogging so I didn't think to do that. This is how I found the top less a few flowers.

Wouldn't it be great if I could find out who made this quilt? In the meantime it remains a mystery quilt for me and that is why, I named it Mystery Baskets. Even though I didn't start this quilt, by completing it I feel that this is how it was meant to be.

Blogger's Quilt Festival: My Antique Fans

I am excited to be part of the second Blooger's Quilt Festival that Amy of Park City Girl hosted. The first BQF was held in Spring and that when I was new to blogging. I have met many lovely blogger friends through BQF. If you wish to see the quilt I had at the Spring Festival please click here. There were more than 500 bloggers who took part in the last BQF and I hope that there will be as many this time too. It was a lot of fun just to hop around blogs looking at all the beautiful quilts and photos. I hope to make more friends this time too.

I made this Antique Fans quilt many years ago. It was one of the most enjoyable quilts to make.

I spotted the original version of this quilt on eBay, when eBay first started over 10 years ago. Of course I didn't win the bid, but instead I made one myself with my own pattern and embroidery which I designed. When my family lived overseas I used to prepare the blocks and take them along on car trips, boat trips and wherever we went I would take these tiny blocks to work on. It took me more than a year to complete all the blocks and I actually still missed working on this quilt after I finished it.

Here are some close up shots of the blocks and embroidery. I named the embroidery "chicken feet" stitch. It is an extension of feather stitch using two extra stitches. I used mainly silk fabric for the fans. I threw in some velvet and satin fabrics just to add some texture. The block background fabric I found in the Souq of Abu Dhabi, UAE where we lived for 7 years. In Abu Dhabi I could find any fabric in the Souq included this one.

This is the pattern I drafted. It's a very easy pattern to work with. The size of the block is 4 x 4" so the fan blades are very small. I have a copy saved on pdf. If you would like a copy of the pattern please leave me a comment with your email address and I will send you a copy. Enjoy the Blooger's Quilt Festival and don't forget to check out all the entries. Make sure you visit as many blogs as you can . That is what I will be doing over the weekend....!