Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Blogger's Quilt Festival - 488


Hello everyone and thank you for visiting!

I have always loved to look at all the entries in the Blogger's Quilt Festival but was always too busy to participate. Well, this time I am busy studying Spanish. And where to better learn a foreign language then in one of the sunniest cities in Spain :) 

  

When I arrived here, we were having winter like weather in Germany and I was delighted to be greeted with blue skies and temperatures that I associate with summer. Fast forward to now: rain that won't stop and that makes me wish I had taken a quilt with me. More precisely, I am wishing for my flannel quilt made with Anna Maria Horners "Folksy Flannel" line. 

  

 I hoarded these fabrics for what feels like forever before finally deciding that it needed to be turned into something because I wanted to look at them more frequently. It took me hours to get settled on that zigzag pattern, mostly because I was looking for a pattern that didn't require too much piecing (because flannel is not very cooperative) but that wasn't too simple. Finally I gave in to the zigzag thingy and cut my fat quarters into smaller brick like shapes.


Because I don't have a design wall, I laid everything on our living room floor which was barely big enough and we all had to tiptoe around it. It took me hours to finally get the layout to work out (I tried to make the patterns match and keep everything as rainbowy as possible), I had just enough fabric to make the quilt and not a single inch more. I even pieced some of those bricks because some of the fqs got distorted after being washed. I remember watching two James Bond films in February while discussing the layout with one of my roommates, who oddly seemed to enjoy our conversation (after all, most boys don't).



Here it is all rolled up and I just love the rainbow it creates. Just like I love all things rainbow.
And doesn't it look so cuddly? I wish it was here with me :)


 I backed it with a flannel panel I had since I ordered the fq stash. You can see that I didn't have enough of Folksy Flannel and I had to add white flannel around it. I used a special high loft cotton batting and quilted some swirls, just a few so it wouldn't take away any of the cuddliness (is that even a word?).


This quilt holds a special place in my heart, not just because I love each print and because somehow freemotion quilting seemed to work on it (most of the time I can't get my quilts to cooperate :) yet this one was really wonderful) but also because it reminds me of evenings spent deciding on the layout and discussing it with others which I usually don't do.

Quilt Stats
Finished quilt measures : 1,4m x 1,8m / 55" x 71" 
Special techniques used :none
Quilted by : me!
Best Category :Throw Quilt, ROYGBIV Quilt, Home Machine Quilted Quilt

Please go and check out all the other wonderful quilt entries in the festival, they are simply stunning!
Enjoy the festival!
Johanna




Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Winner, Bee fabric and Account settings

Thank you to everyone who entered the Dolce giveaway! 
I will hope to do that soon again, I just love giving stuff away!


And the winner is:
who is Junebug. Congratulations! I will email you in a bit to get your address.

In other news, October is my month in the Bee Europa.  I have been busy deciding what to send out and what to request. I really love sewing things for others, most of the time it is something I wouldn't have come up myself and I love the challenge!
This time the challenge was to request something new that hasn't already been done and which I can later give to someone special. I decided to go with paperpieced letters with fabrics from a Kona Cotton bundle that I picked up at Sew Fresh Fabrics on Etsy. I really love this bundle and I think that the recipient will do so, too. Because I want to surprise him/her :) I won't tell you more but I will post pictures as soon as the quilt has been gifted.



So, last but not least, a question for you. I have been told that blogger apparently set back some of my settings on this blog and that word verification was turned on (thank you again for telling me!). So I turned it off and promptly received tons of spam mail. So now I have turned off the anonymous comments but I know that some people like to comment who don't have an account at any blogging. 
Should I turn the verification thingy back on and know that this bothers tons of people? Or should I stay with my setting of not getting anonymous comments? 
Of course I would just prefer to not get spam comments :)

Have a great day!
Johanna


PS: Tomorrow is "Tag der deutschen Einheit" (Germany Reunification Day) which will be celebrated in almost every city here. I can't believe it has already been 22 years! If you want to read more, please go here.