Monday, November 01, 2010

Sunflowerquilt


Sunflowerquilt
Originally uploaded by crafty mathea
I've decided to show my Sunflower quilt for the Bloggers' Quilt Festival this time around. This is one of the quilts I have made that I have actually managed to keep for myself. I found the pattern in the first Material Obsessions book and thought it would be a good pattern to show off the lovely Sole Sunflower fabric by Valori Wells. I had been hoarding this fabric for a while and been reluctant to cut into it, but with 18" blocks I got to show off the lovely sunflowers. Once I had managed to pick the rest of the fabrics, the blocks went together easily enough, but I had a hard time choosing fabric for the border, and auditioned several choices on Flickr and got lots of help before finally ending up with the red fabric.
I think one of the reasons this quilt feels special to me is that I got so much input from my internet friends and that really made all the difference. I really got the sense of being part of a community who helped and cheered me on.
The quilting took ages. I used quite a lot of free motion quilting on the sunflower blocks, and straightish lines on the strips of the courthouse step blocks. I regretted my choice of quilting more than once, because it seemed to take ages, but I got there eventually. After washing the quilt became very soft and crinkly and remains my favourite nap quilt.
More photos of the quilt here.

5 comments :

Deborah said...

Beautiful and happy!

quilthexle said...

Beautiful quilt! Would love to nap under it, too ;-)) Your setting solution is nice.

Sandra said...

What a cheerful quilt-a breath of summer sunshine. Love the blue quilting thread. An effective use of an unusual color combination.
Thanks for sharing.
Come see my antique 1890 schoolhouse quilt
http://utahquiltappraiser.blogspot.com/
or my black/white/pink scrappy miniature
http://starleyquilts.blogspot.com

Kelli said...

This is gorgeous! I love the bright colours. I can understand why its your favourite : )

Anonymous said...

Brilliant blog post and beautiful quilt. If anyone is looking to put together a similar quilt check out the is needle craft kits site.