Blogger's Quilt Festival - October Sky

It's one of my favourite times of year -- the Blogger's Quilt Festival hosted by the amazing Amy Ellis.  I'm entering my October Sky quilt into the art quilt category. There are a number of gorgeous quilts already linked up so check it out when you get a chance. Even better, enter one of yours!

My October Sky quilt had quite a journey. It evolved quite a bit from the original design, then there was a lot of deliberation over the colours, and finally undergoing a lot of hand stitching and machine quilting.

The quilting is about 1/8" to 5/8" max. I'm thrilled with the movement that the quilting and hand stitching gives it -- like air currents.

Hope you don't mind a LOT of photos. ;)

This quilt is going to Lethbridge, Alberta for the Quilt Canada 2015's National Juried Show in a couple of weeks. Woo hoo!

Final size: 24" x 44.5"
Fabrics: Kona solids
Threads: DMC embroidery threads and Aurifil (50wt.)

I'm entering this one in the art quilt category.

Happy long weekend!

Some Mother's Day Weekend Specials!

I mentioned the Sew Sisters special this weekend, but I learned that my other sponsors are having some sales too! Woo hoo! Now that's my kind of Mother's Day gift!

Mad About Patchwork - All 10″ squares (layer cakes) have been marked down 20%. And the linen/cotton Mochi dots are marked down 25%. Now thru Sunday May 10.

The Running Stitch - For those in the Ottawa area, the first 25 customers on Saturday, May 9th will receive a VIQ (Very Important Quilter) canvas tote with a $25 purchase.

Fabric Spark

Canadian National Fabric

I hope you have a great weekend. Enjoy!

TGIFF! - Codex

Welcome to TGIFF! It's been a crappy week in the Quilt Matters household so I'm especially glad that it's just about done and I can celebrate something positive. :)

This quilt began as part of two challenges for our local Modern Quilt Guild -- the Block Design Challenge and the Montreal Meetup/Modern Design Challenge. Running out of time but wanting to participate in both challenges, I shamelessly combined the two. ;)

More than most of my quilts, this was a therapy quilt. To me, the lines in it feel strong and hard and powerful -- the opposite to how raw I'm feeling these days. It's not a sweet or joyful quilt. Funny weird (not funny ha ha) how my other 'therapy' quilt Innocence Lost, Courage Found uses the same colours. Sensing a theme...or dare I say series?

As I mentioned in my last post about this quilt, the design feels like it's a code of some sort so I added hand stitching with some embroidery floss in spots to mimic morse code. The machine quilting, done with a 50 wt Aurifil 2460 using a walking foot, adds a crop circle effect, which we all know is a code from aliens from outer space. ;) The quilting is controlled and precise -- again in juxtaposition with how chaotic my life is feeling right now.

One problem I had with this quilt is bearding. Bearding is when the batting comes through the pores of the fabric. I think I may have put the batting on backwards. Oops. I've been using tape and clothing rollers to remove the lint, but as you can see, there's still some bits and bobs here and there. Hopefully it will settle over time and not get worse.

Finished size: 33" by 40".

Did you hear that Sew Sisters Quilt Shop is having a Mother's Day Sale? 20% off yardage on May 10. Who needs flowers or chocolates when you can receive fabric?!

An InLinkz Link-up

All For Show

For those within driving distance of Ottawa, the Ottawa Valley Quilters Guild is having our Festival of Quilts Show from May 8-10th at the RA Centre. It's also the Tulip Festival if you wanted to make a weekend out of it. Woo hoo!

I have six pieces in the show and I will be the Artist in Residence on Saturday, May 9th. That term -- Artist in Residence -- sounds very weird to describe me, but we're going to go with it. I'll be demonstrating free motion quilting and improv piecing. If you come to the show, please come and say hello. I'm pretty nervous about this.

The Ottawa Modern Quilt Guild, of which I'm also a member, has an exhibit featuring our Montreal Meetup challenge and Block Design challenge pieces at the show.

Ottawa has a lot of very talented quilters so there will be lots of fabulous quilts to see! I can't wait!

***

There was just so much inspiration shared at the Montreal Meetup with the Montreal Modern Quilt Guild that I thought I'd share more photos (with the participants' permissions).

Our challenge was to design a 30" by 40" quilt that used one or more modern quilt design principles.

FYI, these are not my quilts.

This is a jelly roll quilt. Yeah, doesn't look like one, eh? Love these colours!

The back!

Cinzia's quilt:

Katy's Forgot to Check the Stove:

Laura's Boom Clap:

April's New Bridge:

Kirstin's first quilt:

And her second!

Look at that quilting! 

Josée's quilt:

Heather's quilt:

I haven't included mine here. I'll share my challenge piece later this week, when I host TGIFF! Yes, I'll have a finish to share...I hope!

Have a great weekend!