Bloggers Quilt Festival ~ Spring 2012

 

Well, it's that time of the year again.  I've decided to show of my Swoon quilt for the Spring Edition of the Blogger's Quilt Festival.  I just finished putting the binding on this week.  Already two people have claimed it, we'll have to see how well that works out!

In January I joined the Swoon-a-long, over at I'm a Ginger Monkey.  It was the first QAL I've done.

Here's the quilt top:

And the back:

I used Kona Coal for the background fabric and Kona Charcoal for the binding.

Thank you for visiting my blog.

May your bobbins always be full,

Swoon QAL - ready for the long arm quilter

I had a lot of scraps left over from the top of the quilt.  I decided to do a couple of stripes across the back of the quilt.  When I purchased the coal kona I bought 10 yards, now I have just over a yard left!

I ended up with an error in my finished quilt top.  In all the photos I took of the individual blocks the collage and of the entire quilt top I failed to notice the error.  On the photo below, I've highlighted it.

Obviously I don't have or use photoshop, or I would have circled the problem.

I'm not upset enough to take the quilt top apart and redo block #6.

This will just be a conversation piece, if anyone ever notices.

Like my friend Jan told me when I first started quilting, "the only one who never makes a mistake is God"; and Lord knows I'm not God.

May your bobbins always be full,

Swoon Quilt Top complete

The Swoon quilt is about 80 inches square, huge.   With Bob standing on our outside planter, we could get the length, but his arms couldn't spread to 80 inches to get the width.  So, I spread it out on the grass, stood on a chair and held the camera over my head to get the next shot.  It's not great, but you get the idea.

Tomorrow, I'll work on the quilt back.  I have a good amount of scraps from the top to use.  

It'll be fun to see how the back turns out.

May your bobbins always be full,

No design wall

No design wall, and this is going to be a big quilt.  I decided the best way to choose a layout would be to create a collage using Picasa.  The first one was really not doing anything for me.  I think I'll go with the second one.

If you have any input let me know.  I still have time to decide.  We just got back from Bob's physical therapy, and my hour long walk; and I have to get to the grocery store, or we'll have no dinner tonight.  

May your bobbins always be full,

Swoon QAL - Block # 9

The final block!  Tomorrow, I'll start the sashing and assembly, if I don't decide to clean the house.  My home has been sadly neglected while I've been swooning.  With two dogs and a husband who is still recovering, it's all on me.

On this last block, I made a whopper of a mistake.  I hate taking my seams out; but boy oh boy, was it necessary, this time.  I didn't even spot the problem until I took the block outside to snap a photo.  Duh!

Good Grief!

May your bobbins always be full,

Swoon QAL - Block # 8

Number 8 swoon block completed.  Yeah, one to go.

May your bobbins always be full,

Swoon QAL - Block # 7

Here it is, my 7th block.  I never thought I'd have a use for the orange fabric, but I think it looks great with the purple.

May your bobbins always be full,

Swoon QAL - Block # 6

 I'm still "churning" out the Swoon blocks.  This is number 6.

May your bobbins always be full,

Swoon QAL - Block # 5

 Number five completed and in the finished pile.  This block and the first one went together smoothly, the other three were a trial.  I think my mind was wandering; not a good thing while you're quilting.

May your bobbins always be full,

Swoon QAL - Block # 4

 Here's my 4th swoon block.  I'm making some with the print in the middle and some with the solid in the middle.  So far, it's a tie, regarding which I like best.  I'm planning on making a block a day, because I want to be finished with the blocks by the weekend.  Monday, if all goes well, I'll put the whole thing together.  My 18 year old granddaughter has requested a special quilt, and I want to start on it, next week.

Now, I'm off to teach Tai Chi.

May your bobbins always be full,

Swoon QAL - Block # 3

Yip, Yip, the dogs are all over this one.  Now, on to # 4

May your bobbins always be full,

Swoon QAL - 2nd block.

I finished this one last night.  Today, we're having a bit of rain, so I took these in the garage, in order to have natural light.  Now, I'm going to work on the 3rd block.

May your bobbins always be full,

Swoon QAL - first block complete.

Today, I completed my first swoon block.  I really love it.  I decided to change the background fabric, after consulting with my favorite consultant, Bob.  This is the first time I've made flying geese; easy peasy.  Only 8 more to go.  The rest should be a bit faster.  I'll keep posting them, as they're finished.

May your bobbins always be full,

Auditioning for Swoon

I decided I didn't want to use my Echo fabric for the Swoon quilt.  I really thought most of the prints were too large.  I'm not usually indecisive, but I spent way too much time yesterday afternoon and this morning "trying out" different fabrics in my stash.  I think I've settled on these prints and solids.  I think they're a good mix.  I'll use the Kona pfd, for the background.  I'm not cutting anything until tomorrow at the earliest, just in case I change my mind, for the eleventy millionth time.

May your bobbins always be full,

Auditioning for Swoon

I bought the popular Swoon pattern a while ago.  But other quilts and life keep getting in my way.  I'm committed to making my own Swoon quilt and I joined the Swoon-a-long, over at I'm a Ginger Monkey.

 

Yesterday I took a few minutes to "audition" the FQ bundle of Echo that's been screaming at me.  I love this fabric.  I eliminated the the two with pink, for this quilt, two FQ's had to go, after all.  This morning I laid out the groups of two I'm thinking of working with, on background fabric.  I eliminated  white and cream right away.  I think I like the first one, the coal background.

The second one, on charcoal, isn't bad, but I think coal has it.

I'm also thinking that most of these prints may be too large for the pattern, oh, boy.

Here's a Swoon quilt from Fussy Cut, you can see it's a large quilt.  Maybe this fabric will work. 

I'll have to think, some more.  What do you think?

May your bobbins always be full,