Saturday, May 22, 2010

Bloggers Quilt Festival!

Hello to those of you who are taking part in the Blogger's Quilt Festival! I'm so glad you are taking the time to stop by! I'm Kellie...I haven't been quilting for very long...maybe 3 years. Three years sounds like a long time, but for me it's been three years of sporadic quilting at best.

As of late, however, I've become more and more enamored with this pastime! I've joined an online quilting bee, which I'm really enjoying and I've even joined the local quilt guild and am going to try my darnedest to complete two quilts for the club sponsored Quilt Show at our local Fine Arts Center.

The quilt I'm sharing with you is one that I've blogged about it before, but it's my best quilt to date and the one I'm most proud of so far, so I hope you don't mind a little repetition.

I made a couple months ago for a gal at work having her first child( a sweet baby girl named Zoey). I'm a sucker for a pinwheel quilt, so the choice of what quilt to make was pretty simple once I saw the tutorial at the Moda Bake Shop. This is Miss Zoey's quilt.

One thing you should know about me is that I have a tendency to be an all or nothing type of gal. If I can't do it right, why bother doing it? And for someone who isn't an experienced quilter...and I suspect for someone who is...perfection is just not possible. Being only my second attempt at machine quilting(and I haven't really pieced that many quilts, either), this quilt reminded me that I need to take that perfectionist mentality of mine and toss it out the window.

While it was not an easy thing to do, I had to go with the flow. I eventually realized there aren't quilt police who are going to come and haul me away for committing crimes against quilting. I had to simply accept the wonky seams, the weird stops and starts on the back, and the not-even-close-to-straight quilting lines and live with them.

A few random thoughts I had while making this quilt:
  • Slow Down!
  • "Straight", for me, is a relative term.
  • I should have taken the bindings class I took two days after sewing the binding on this, before I sewed the binding on this.
  • Longer stitches look better than teensy ones.
  • I ♥ the walking foot.
  • How in the blankety-blank am I supposed to stop and start a line of stitching and keep from getting knots on the back OR the thread from pulling out?
  • Aaaargh!
  • Why is it that I am nearly finished before I finally start to figure things out?
  • I hate basting.
  • The quilt police aren't really going to come after me. After all, the fashion police have yet to find me and I've been committing crimes against fashion for years!
In the end, those mistakes I mentioned earlier didn't amount to much. The quilt got plenty of "oohs" and "aahs" at the baby shower and more importantly, the Mom-to-be absolutely loved it. And really, that's what mattered.

Thanks so much for stopping by my little corner of the blogosphere! I hope you'll become a follower or at the very least stop by and visit again sometime. I've been taking somewhat of a vacation from blogging lately, but now that it's summertime and I have two months off work, I'm feeling the need to get those creative juices flowing again!

Now, I'm off to check out the quilty goodness that is the Bloggers Quilt Festival!

19 comments:

SewCalGal said...

Cheerful quilt. Just fun. Great post too!

SewCalGal
www.sewcalgal.blogspot.com

Allison said...

That is WAY cute. You might even have me convinced to rethink my dislike of all things pinwheel!

canuckquilter said...

Your quilt turned out beautifully. I really like your fabric choices. And all the random thoughts you had while making it? They've passed through my mind too :)

Angie in SoCal said...

Cute quilt! Baby's gonna love it. So colorful. The pinwheel block was my first love - not it's the churn dash.

Thanks for sharing,
Angie

Lynne (Lily's Quilts) said...

That quilt is so pretty and I love your style of writing - really funny - so I had to click follow too and see what you do over the summer!

Annika said...

Thanks for sharing this lovely & bright quilt!

Little Island Quilting said...

Great post - and lovely quilt

Leah said...

Very cute - and finished is DEFINITELY better than perfect :)

Marie said...

such a fresh looking quilt, Beautiful

Carol said...

Your random thoughts are a hoot :) I really like the combination of the pinwheels and the prairie points.

Lis Harwood said...

What a gorgeous quilt and I adore your "random thoughts" and second them all! Keep enjoying your quilting, Lis x

Unknown said...

Really cute stuff!

Denise said...

Love your quilt!

Susan Michele said...

I understand completely the trap of perfection! But this quilt of yours is absolutely perfect in every way. Thanks for sharing it with us.

Eileen said...

darling quilt. i suffer from worrying about the quilt/sewing police. my mother's, "don't sew any faster than you can sew a straight line" echoes in my head as i'm veering off line often!!

Dolly said...

Oh, that is the SWEETEST quilt !
You did a beautiful job, but I still like your story and your list !

As far as the knotted threads go, on my older machine, I always make a point of holding the threads while I take the first few stitches......otherwise, I wind up with a little birdsnest of threads there at the beginning. I hope this tip helps you. I'm still torn on whether to start a machine-quilting line with tiny stitches and then lengthen the stitch, so that I can just cut the threads, or (my much preferred look, but pain in the butt method) pull the threads to the back, tie them, and then bury them by using a big-eyed needle.

Paige said...

That pinwheel quilt is adorable. It's no surprise that the mommy loved it! I'm in the wonky bee with you - that's how I found your blog!

Laurel H. said...

This is a sweet little quilt--and a funny post!

Anne at Film and Thread said...

Your quilt is so cheery and happy looking!