Blogger's Quilt Festival - Peace and Harmony

Welcome to my post for Amy's Creative Side's Blogger's Quilt Festival!

 

 

 

  

I apologize to my faithful readers for the repeat of this quilt, but I really felt like sharing it in the festival.  I first blogged about Peace and Harmony here.

 

 

I've always been a fan of the artwork on the Grateful Dead albums and used that as my inspiration for this quilt. It's kind of tie dye meets pixels in batiks. I think of it as color harmony in a twist. 

 

This quilt was part of the "Twisting to the 60's with Batiks" blog hop.  I quilted thousands of peace signs with free motion quilting on my domestic machine.  Variegated cotton thread was used for the top and white polyester thread was on the back.  The back fabric was pieced with a peace sign fabric and white on white flowers.

 

Quilt back showing thread

 




Peace and Harmony with "Love, Peace, and Daisy Hill Forever" Jayhawk

I enjoyed designing and putting this quilt together, mostly because I'm a fan of bright colors.  It is a nice bed sized quilt and was worth every moment of creating.

 



 

Quilt Stats

 

Pattern: Peace and Harmony - Here for free

 

Size- 72" x 90"

 

Quilting- Free motion on my Janome 6600

 

Fabric - Batiks

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you for visiting my entry, 



A Quick Weekend Recap

Our local fair is now over for 2013 and everything is put away.  My entries did well and I learned a lot from the judge. I guess you have to take criticism as well as praise.  That's how we learn.  I entered several quilts, pillows, and even some squash.

The experience of being judged was fun and tough at the same time.  I will definitely make sure my binding stitches are very close together next year....  No fingernails will be able to get under my binding even if I have to glue it down...lol

I'm still not sure what makes for a good squash, but we managed to walk away with blue, red, and white ribbons on our produce.  The one I thought was the best, wasn't.  The one I thought was mediocre, was a first place winner.  Who knew?

Our Barn to be Wild Blocks

 

My Mother In Law and I entered the quilt block contest, "Barn to be Wild" and both placed in the top 3.  We will receive a small cash prize!  More fabric for us!  :)

 

 

All of the "Barn to be Wild" quilt block entries

My friend Val and her husband Rick were here visiting over the weekend and we enjoyed an evening out to dinner and walking the fair grounds with them.  Val is ready to start quilting more and we compared notes and ideas. 

This is where there should be a picture of our friends..

boo :(

One of the best moments of the weekend was when I received this picture from our friends in Joplin, Missouri.

Kennedy playing with her bunny house.

When you create something for someone special and they love it, that is the best prize of all.  Momma and Baby bunny made it home safe and sound.

I have the privilege of traveling for work this week which means some serious hexie time.  I will be doing a bride and her bridal party's hair in beautiful, Denver, Colorado. I'll try to remember to take a few pictures...

Happy Day,

Barn to be Wild Quilt Block

Presenting my block for the Ford County Fair  quilt block contest.  The rules are pretty simple, follow the theme, "Barn to be Wild" and make a 12 1/2" quilt block using any technique or pattern that is pieced or appliqued by hand or machine.  The block isn't due until tomorrow, but, believe it or not, I have finished it.

"Wild Weather"

These contests are fun to enter, but winning just depends on the judges tastes and their interpretation of the theme.  I spent way too many hours on this little block, but it was fun. I tried to make the barn a little wonky and wild by modifying a foundation paper pieced pattern I found on Quilter's Cache.  The pattern is The Old Red Barn by Marcia Hohn.  The pattern wasn't the right size, so I added the background and grass.  The barn door got a makeover and the window became a quilt block.  The weather vane and animals are my addition, also.  Sun glasses on a pig, oh yes I did. 

The fabrics are mostly from Moda with the exception of the wild roof fabric.  It is OP Art II by Gail Kessler for Andover Fabrics.

I've named the block "Wild Weather."  It will be put in a quilt to give away next year at the fair.  I am so excited to see what all the quilters from the area come up with for this theme.  It should make a very fun quilt.

I am linking up with Amanda Jean over at Crazy Mom Quilts  and Sarah over at Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

"Sew" excited for some fair fun,

County Fair Contest, My first

I entered a contest at the county fair for the first time in my life.  What a great experience.  Now I know how nerve racking competition in sewing and quilting can be.  But talk about exciting...  I even got a blue ribbon.

This was a special contest for quilt blocks that will be made into a quilt for a drawing at the fair next year.  The block had to follow the theme, "No Place Like Home...Town's of Kansas." 
I had a crazy time trying to come up with an idea for my block.  I went through books, magazines, and web sites with no inspiration at all.  I wanted to go out of the box and not do a basic house block.  I really wanted to go bright with the colors.

I was about to give up, when I opened the July 2012 issue of American Quilter magazine.  Deborah Gordon created a foundation paper pieced baby quilt called, "Baby Bunting" that looked beautiful and reminded me of  a sunset.  Kansas sunsets are so beautiful.  I knew that was what I wanted to do.

I knew curves would be a good challenge for the judging, but I wanted to do patchwork also.  I pulled out the graph paper and designed silhouette of the roof tops for the bottom of the block with 2 1/2" squares and half square triangles.

Sun on Kansas Horizon quilt block

(Just noticed every paragraph starts with I.  lol)  This one was about to too.  I'll work on my writing skills..................................................

The half square triangles were made with this technique.  I love it!!  There is a chart to help with the starting size of the squares in that link.  It is very handy! 

The rays of the sun were made with charms from  
that I participated in earlier in the year.  The rest of the block was a variety of batiks from my stash.

It's so funny how picky you can be when you are going to be judged.  I sewed and ripped and sewed and ripped and sewed and ripped again.  If I spent this much time on each block every time, I may only be able to make one quilt in my lifetime.

The support I received from my husband and daughter were incredible.  When I was ready to give up the idea of doing this, they encouraged me.  I thought it was a crazy idea to do this when I only found out about the contest a couple of days before the block was due, but my husband knew I could do it.  I'm so lucky to have them in my life. 

The ladies accepting the entries made me feel so good.  The first words were, "Oh my, how pretty."  I was good with that and was on top of the world.  They even invited me to join their quilt group. 

Overall, this was such a great experience.  Even without winning, I would have been a winner.  But winning is cool.  lol  My prize?  50 bucks...oh yeah!!!

Now I'm ready to get out of my comfort zone again.  Maybe I'll enter 2 projects next year. 

My husband also had an entry at the fair.  I want to share it because he is so talented.  Check out more of his work here.

Gone Fishing Metal Art

Now to clean up my sewing room,

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