A BLOGGER'S QUILT FESTIVAL Entry!!

It's late morning and the kitchen is filled with the fragrance of boiling apple cider as I make the boiled down thick version that cooks like to use to flavor fall desserts.  This is my first attempt but if it tastes as good as it smells, it will be delightful.

 

So I can't go far -- my office is adjacent to the kitchen so I'll spend the rest of the morning stirring the simmering cider at regular intervals and getting ready to submit my first entry to the Blogger's Quilt Festival which begins today over at Amy's Creative Side! 

 

This is my entry in the Small Quilts Category.  It measure 25 1/2" square and was made as a participant in Karen's Soupcon QAL earlier this year.   All the steps are still posted on her blog!

We (the followers) didn't know where the process would take us so it was a mystery as well.  We began with the EPP star flower motif in the center.  After it was pieced and appliqued to a background fabric, she urged us to embellish it with embroidery.  Mmmm, not my strong suite by any means but I do a pretty decent buttonhole stitch and so kept it simple.   

Then we created the circle and appliqued that to another fabric.  This yummy large floral was the inspiration for my color scheme and so it was time to get in into the piece!  I wrote about doing the pieced border using Marti Michell's templates here, and organized a "cheat" sheet on using all the square templates in her line for this style of border.  If you use her templates you can download your own copy by going to this post! 

The final border was designed for lots of small hexie motifs using 1/2" hexies and EPP.  I did do three as you can see but caved into my desire to get more of that large floral into the piece.  When Karen over at Pieces of Contentment started writing about using silk thread to quilt her Peaceful Stars I remembered a small box of silk thread which my mother brought back to me from France many years ago.  I haven't used it often enough but I added some big stitch quilting around the hexie motifs to make them stand out a bit more.

All the quilting was done with my walking foot.  I usually quilt FMQ but have been reading many posts about walking foot quilting and am reminded that was how I began machine quilting over 25 years ago.  The "argyle" lines in the pieced border were inspired by another blogger's big stitch quilting (sorry, I can't rediscover that post).

 

I'm always delighted to accomplish a finish!!  Thanks to Karen H at Faeries & Fibres for the QAL and to all the gals who participated for their lovely compliments and encouragement along the way. 

 

You can visit the Soupcon Flickr page here to see the amazing work of others!! 

 

Voting has begun!!  You can check out all 86 entries in the small category by clicking here!!  I'd love you to vote for mine, but it will be a hard choice!!

 

With this finish under my belt, I can jump into another QAL!?!

 

Mary Huey

www.maryhueyquilts.com