About Me

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Catton, Northumberland, United Kingdom
I love all kinds of stitching and enjoy learning, experimenting with and sharing new techniques. Married with 3 children, 2 daughters and a son, a dog and four cats, I also get involved with my daughters 3 horses.

Friday 21 May 2010

Amys Quilt Festival

Discovered this event via Mogs Blog and thought it sounded interesting.  Amy is hosting an online quilt festival and if you visit Amys Blog you can not only see (at the present count) 252 quilts but you can also share a picture of one your quilts and its story. 

Here's mine.


















I'm not cheating - it is only one quilt but I made it double sided.  I made it for my daughter and started it around 4 years ago when she was 13.  She chose the animals she wanted from A Quilters Ark by Margaret Rolfe and I set to work piecing them using freezer paper templates.  When the animals were finished I then took a while to work out how to place them and also in finding a fabric that would blend with them all.  By now she is 17 and, although she says she still likes it, I am worried that it is too childish.  In addition we had been collecting fabric for this quilt at all the quilt shows we have visited together and I hadn't used half of it - it must be the most expensive quilt in history!  I decided to use some of the stash to create the backing, keeping the animal theme but in a more (I hope) sophisticated way.  I was pleased with the second quilt but it did give me a headache when I came to quilt.  In the end I free machine quilted leaves on the top using a varigated thread but put invisible thread on the bobbin so the quilting did not detract from the pattern on the back.  I know patchwork and quilting is traditionally about using what you have and improvising but I would have made life easier if I had followed a pattern or at least created my own plan when I started.  It was fun though and she still uses the animals on top - at least for now.

14 comments:

  1. It's a wonderful quilt! An animal themed quilt doesn't have to be one that only a child can love. I have a feeling your daughter will be snuggling on it for years to come.

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  2. Very nice, especially the back!

    http://www.ivoryspring.wordpress.com

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  3. Lovely. I just finished a quilt with sock monkeys on it for my 22 year old. Now that is childish LOL. But she loves it as your daughter loves this quilt.

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  4. very beautiful quilt work!

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  5. What a good idea...a two sided quilt that grows with the owner! It is beautiful.

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  6. This is Beautiful ! can not decide what side I like better ! If she tires of it , you can send it to me !!!! thanks for sharing .

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  7. What a great idea to make it reversible.

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  8. Beautiful quilt. Great job.

    SewCalGal
    www.sewcalgal.blogspot.com

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  9. One lucky daughter. Those animals are cute.

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  10. fantastic!!! an interesting combination using the animals theme on both sides but in such a different way. a nice job

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  11. You did a great job on the animals. I'd never have the patience to Paper Piece those! There were way too many PP clocks in my SBS. Thanks for stopping by.

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  12. Animals are always fun, no matter how old your daughter gets to be. Love how your quilt is reversible and your embroidery slideshow is really impressive!

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