Yay, Its the Bloggers Quilt Festival

When the Festival rolls around I usually only have one or two quilts to choose from. 

Today I will show you my Kaleidoscope Quilt.  

I started out making this quilt for our family room, 

 but once I got sewing it together I realized it was really meant to be for my youngest daughter. 

I love when that happens, or even when one quilt sparks inspiration for another. 

I've always loved the kaleidoscope block and all of its many variations

and it was perfect for showing off the large scale prints of Kate Spain's Fandango line. 

quilting close-up

This is the most I've ever quilted a quilt and it was done on my home machine.

 I was really, really glad when it was done and about half 

way through I was wondering what I was ever thinking. 

pieced back

You can see the quilting design better here from the backside.

 I love this quilt. 

I love the fabrics, the colors, the pattern 

and it's special to both my daughter and me. 

Blogger's Quilt Festival Stats

Name - Samantha's Kaleidoscope

Finished Size  - 50.5" X 67.5"

Pieced and Quilted by - me

Best Category - throw quilt and home machine quilted

Thanks so much for stopping by.  Enjoy the rest of the Quilt Festival!

--- Wendi  

Blogger's Quilt Festival

If you love quilts then you've probably heard of the Blogger's Quilt Festival
hosted by Amy of Amy's Creative Side.
Several hundred quilters show their quilts.
I look at each and every one of them and they are incredibly inspiring. 

I am going to share one of my favorite and most recent quilts with you.
I blogged about it only a month ago, but most of you haven't
been here before, so I think I'm OK.

This quilt was made for a doll quilt swap.  The swap had some repeating
block guidelines and I choose the churn dash block, which was a favorite for my partner.
I started planning and playing and moving things around and realized
 it reminded me of this quilt block, which I love.  

It came together pretty quickly and as I went along 

I found opportunities to add a bit of fun. I had some word fabric and thought that the centers of the churn dash blocks needed to be different from the background, to add some interest. There were four blocks, what a perfect opportunity to spell a four letter word.

The centers of the small churn dash blocks spell    L  O  V  E   

Here is the finished flimsy

   I thought it would be fun to bind it with the word fabric to tie everything together.

I didn't like it from the start, it was too light (I prefer dark) and I had

 been pushing another idea out of my mind all along, but it

 kept creeping back. I took it off and gave idea number one a try.

 I had been too lazy up until that point to try it. 

To my surprise it worked up perfectly and turned out pretty well.

So much better, don't you think? It really screamed for the color 

to continue out to the binding. 

I wish I would have quilted it more, but isn't it so wonderful 

when a idea comes together, you think its ok, but it gets better as it goes along. 

I love this little quilt. 

It was hard to send off, but I know its right where it belongs.

This is my "side of the barn" photo along side the fabulous quilt I received in the swap. 

Details

Churn Dash Love

18.5 X 18.5

 April 2012