Monday, September 19, 2016

Blogger's Quilt Festival 2016 Entry 1


Yippee! It's Blogger Quilt Festival time, hosted by Amy at Amy's Creative Side. I've been looking forward to this for a long time. And do I have a quilt to enter this time around! It's my Big Quilt. That's how I referred to it the whole time I worked on it, and the name stuck. I made it for my son and daughter-in-law as part of their wedding present. They had to wait nearly two years for it, but that's okay. I started it in early 2015 and finished it in April 2016.


The design is original, but the center of the quilt is based on a screen-printed pillow on dotandbo.com. I expanded the rest of the design out from the center. The quilt is actually a giant 9-patch with each block made up of two 40 by 20 inch rectangles. Because the pieces are so large, I used a freezer paper technique to stabilize them and keep the seam joinings precise. I pieced the quilt on my Singer Featherweight using Superior Masterpiece thread.

I quilted the Big Quilt on my Singer 115 treadle with four motifs; straight lines and wavy lines with my walking foot, and stipples (meanders) and an abstract floral based on Flower Power by Lori at The Inbox Jaunt with my freemotion foot. I used two Superior King Tut variegated gray threads.

The quilt top measured about 120 inches square, and the finished quilt after washing was 115 3/4 inches square. (I was hoping for a little more shrinkage, but there you go.)

I'll add more pictures now, but if you'd like to see the rest of them and read more about the details and process, click on the Big Quilt label at the bottom of this post or on the sidebar.
















I'm linking up with the Original Design category of the Blogger's Quilt Festival. Although the design of the center is derivative, the quilt as a whole is my own design. Please go take a look at all of the quilts, and consider voting for this one as one of your faves. Thanks!

20 comments:

Alison V. said...

This is SO beautiful!

TheEclecticAbuela said...

BIG and quite beautiful!

AStrangerView said...

Love this! Beautiful quilt and quilting! Thanks for sharing!

Bernie Kringel said...

This is surely one of your finest projects Janine! I will be casting my vote for you. I loved watching this quilt grow and learning about your process of creating it. Spectacular!

Quilting Babcia said...

Wow, just Wow! Fabulous quilt. Your treadle-quilting is just amazing.

Linda Robertus said...

What a fabulous quilt!

Danih03 said...

Love your color choices. This is a real eye catcher!

PaintedThread said...

I loved it for the colors and the design, but now that I've gotten a closer look, the quilting is terrific, too. Nice quilt!

Margaret said...

Oh my, what a fabulous quilt. It looks especially great on the bed--I can only imagine how your shoulders felt wrestling this baby around!

Kaja said...

So glad to see you've entered this, it deserves another outing.

Ariane said...

Wow! This quilt is gorgeous!! Congrats on a beautiful finish.

lelandavestudios said...

Wow, I love this! The colors are so striking and it's beautifully made! Love!

Melody A. said...

What a fantastic quilt, I hope you will write a pattern for this quilt!!it is so striking!!! I bet your Son and Daughter In Law feel very happy about having it!! I would.

Kat said...

Beautiful quilt! I love how you quilted each stripe differently. This is such a cool design!

Michelle @ From Bolt to Beauty said...

This is just gorgeous! I need to go back and read the process posts; I'm intrigued by your use of freezer paper ...

Zenia Rene said...

This is a fabulous quilt JanineMarie. Everything about it is fantastic! And what a wonderful wedding gift. Good providence in the festival.

Preeti said...

This is the quilt to beat!!! Janine, I love this quilt and I want you to know that you have my vote.
Hugs,
Preeti.

Shannon said...

This is fabulous! One of my favorite quilts in the whole festival. Such perfect color selections as well. Thank you for sharing!

Robby said...

I can't tell you how much I love this quilt, I'm sure it's a winner. Any possibility you'll be doing a pattern? Of course, since it was for your son & DIL, keeping it an original would be understandable. You've got my vote. Good luck!

Sewmotion said...

OMG! This is amazing!! The colours, the piecing and then the quilting!! Absolutely stunning! Well done, and you certainly have my vote!