As far as quilting and blogging goes, this is one of my favorite events! The Blogger’s Quilt Festival is a semi-annual party started by Amy, and who doesn’t like looking at hundreds of favorite quilts? This is my third time participating, and this summer I was thrilled to see that my quilt from the Spring Festival was one of a few Amy featured on her site.
Back to this year. Introducing the “Around the World (or at least the metro area) Quilt.” It is my favorite right this second for a few reasons; here they are, David Letterman Style.
10. It is done! Washed and dried and crinkled.
9. I machine bound it–and it looks great! I figured that if I machine bound enough quilts poorly, one of these days it would have to click! Good timing.
8. I had a fabulous little quilt holder (whose arms were a bit too short) and we took pictures of it all over the metro area today, although none of them really panned out like I had hoped. But my ear infection-recovering kids and I did enjoy beautiful 76 degree weather together all day long–I’ll take that over quilt pictures any (most) days.
7. I had fun making it, and was able to sew much of it with quilt guild friends.
6. I cut the backing too short, but didn’t realize it until I had quilted it. Oops. I love the improvised scraps of orange against the aqua back.
5. It is the first time I have quilted with thread that I didn’t want to “blend in, in this case, aqua. I quilted it kind of how I swim backstroke–a little “organically” (which really means that I can’t sew or swim super straight, so I just pretend like I’m doing it on purpose) in a diamond pattern, following the string blocks.
4. I love the binding fabric–it is an old grid pattern from Jackie Shapiro’s Sweetpea line (and I used it to bind another quilt recently). I bought it for $3 a yard. It ties the gender-neutral quilt together nicely, I think!3. I have wanted to make a string quilt for a long time, and I’m hooked, but I like how this one isn’t as chaotic as some. Especially since I have little fingers to tear off the paper backing. It makes me think I could try real paper piecing and do okay.
2. Some of my very favorite scraps are in this quilt–KJR basketweave in blue and orange, orange Kei Honeycomb, Mendocino octopi on the back and seahorses on the front, I could go on and on.
And two non-quilting pictures. I drove around in search of the perfect fall foliage today, partly because both of my kids had fallen asleep in the car after our picnic. When we got home, I saw this beauty and had to smile. It might be the prettiest of them all. And speaking of picnics, this “little” guy joined us for ours yesterday. I let out a Halloween worthy shriek when I saw it sitting right next to my little boy, who was on the edge of the picnic quilt. He ate the rest of his sandwich in the stroller, thank you very much. Enjoy the Halloween weekend–we had a Halloween party at church last weekend, and I may or may not have pilfered quite a bit of candy from my son’s bag already. Shhhh…
47 Comments
Kate, that’s lovely. I love the thin accent strip in the border sashing!
A beautiful quilt.
Like one giant block!!
Andi
Very pretty. Love the color combinations. I would have a hard time giving that away too!
Lovely quilt and a lovely read – thank you
I adore this quilt, so cheery! And I love your top 10, that made me laugh. I think this quilt turned out just beautifully, makes me want to go start making a string quilt for the first time
Love this quilt. It is so pretty.
It’s beautiful! I’m all about machine-binding. Once it clicks, it’s fabulous.
This quilt is amazing and such a happy quilt!
Beautiful! I love your blog, btw…
I love the fresh summery colours. It’ll be a treasured quilt! I enjoyed the way you wrote about it.
Beautiful. Brilliant too. I like how it is a super sized string quilt! And I can’t believe you got a shot of that spider!!
A very joyful quilt.
Love this Kate! You did a fabulous job and the colours are just beautiful!
I love your Letterman style presentation. Too funny. Great quilt.
Wow! I love everything about this quilt…so bright and colorful!
I just love this quilt Kate! It makes me want to make one just like it! I love the scrappy border. Perfection!
Lovely quilt and love the story! I love how you’ve controlled the strings in this. Beautiful job, and great rescue on the backing – been there done that, lol!
Love it! Its a great version of a string quilt. Love how its one big block. Beautiful colours.
Really, really pretty!
this is gorgeous. i love the colors…your quilting is beautiful
your quilt is great, Kate! i might steal that idea because i love string blocks..
claudia
Great string quilt Kate! I enjoyed reading your post Letterman style
Thanks for sharing!
Oh! This is SO lovely!! What size is it? And may I copy
It’s a beautiy!
What a pretty quilt. I love the string piecing and your quilting. You sound like a great mom. What special memories you are creating with your kids!
I really like your string quilt! The colors are so bright and cheerful. I am saving my scraps so I can have a go at a string quilt and keep up with the Sew Scrap Along. It really helps that I won your scraps! Thanks so much!
The quilt has an amazing arrangement of colors. Is this considered a string quilt?
Angie – http://www.craftedAngles.com
So pretty!! i love the colors!
I love the gorgeous, bright colours you have used in this quilt. String quilts have so much potential and this is great!
What a wonderful gift!
Gorgeous. I love string quilts but have never tried one on this scale.
Blessings
Gail
I love the pictures, a friend called after seeing the quilts and said, “you all live enchanted lives with your quilts around you” we do !
il respire le soleil,l’été, la chaleur,la gaité le bonheur en résumé
Beautiful quilt and color choices. But you’ve got me curious which of those blues are “Katie blue”…being a Katie also, I’d like to make sure I know which color has been assigned to us!
Thanks everyone–you know how to make a girl smile!
oh, beautiful! one of my favorites this time! I really love your colors and this is a great design.
lovely quilt. i also like the less frenetic quality of it although i do love string quilts in almost any figuration. lucky little child to receive such a nice gift. thanks for sharing and have a great day!
I absolutely love the fabrics you used! So bright and cheery!
Absolutely gorgeous! I’m with you on avoiding the paper piecing, so that’s why I like this design….it’s one giant block!
I also do machine binding on my quilts. The only thing I don’t like is that I can’t seem to get the stitch to catch on both the front AND back. So my back ends up having the binding stitching like 1/8 inch off the binding fabric.
Any suggestions?
You’ve made a lovely quilt! It’s so happy and fresh!! Great job and I love the strip on the back!
What a bright, cheerful, fun quilt!
A lovely, happy quilt! I am planning to make a string pieced quilt someday! I just love the look of it!
I really love your quilt. The mix of fabrics is just right and the design is wonderful. Thanks so much for sharing.
What a happy quilt! Love the border… Just love it!
A pretty, bright, cheery quilt, I love it.
THis is a happy quilt! Love it. Some wonderful fabrics in there and everything looks great together.
mom’s eating their kiddos halloween candy…such a concept!!!!!!
lovely quilt and lucky baby to receive it. really like how it all looks together. thanks for sharing and have a great day
This is a gorgeous quilt and I imagine it went together really quickly. what size are the strips, the blocks and the final quilt?