Bloggers' Quilt Festival

Today, I have entered my quilt in the Blogger's Quilt Festival hosted by Amy's Creative Side.  Thanks Amy for hosting this festival.  I am often the viewer, but this time I want to share my favorite quilt..If you have a little time, please click on the link below.  There are some fantastic quilters and beautiful quilts participating in this virtual quilt show!

I picked this quilt because it had a very unusual start.  Most of my quilts start with the fabric or a pattern, but this one started with a photo and became the most fun quilt I have ever made.

We were staying in Camp Lejuene's campground near the beach.  There were "Seashells" marked on a map as squares on the beach.  Curious, we took a walk and found these lovely pastel picnic shelters.  I love the colors so much that I had to dig through my stash to see if I could match them.

Camp Lejeune's Seashells

I'm attracted to bold and primary colors so I was amazed to find these sitting in my stash.  Surprised to see them and actually liking them, I decided to make a quilt.

Using a simple pattern, the top started looking more like a cluster of flowers instead of reminding me of the beach.

Now I am not very talented when it comes to drawing so I like to use books or clipart.  I have a book with some amazing Art Nouveau free clipart.

  I love doing turn-under appliqué, so I picked out a butterfly and a flower patterns.  I find using batiks are very forgiving and easy to manipulate.  I picked colors that would blend into the background and yet I wanted it to look like one flower standing out from the rest.

Close-up of hand-stitching

I challenged myself by making this the largest appliqué project I have done.  I had so much fun with this one that I want to do another.  I'm on the lookout for another photo to inspire me and I'm keeping a few appliqué projects in mind.

 Thanks for stopping by! Happy Quilting!

Size: 49.75 x 40 (126.36 x 101.6 cm)

Quilting: Free form meandering on sewing machine
 
Butterfly and flower from "The Complete Book of ART NOUVEAU DESIGNS"

Seashells by the Seashore (Camp LeJeune, NC)

Seashells

On the Camp LeJeune beach map, the above picnic shelters are labeled as "Seashells".  Perfect!  I love the seashell colors.  I like them so much that I dug through my little stash and found some similar colors to make a new quilt.  I wish I had more pastel yellow, but this will just have to do.  I know I have too many projects on the sewing machine already, but what's one more?

Mmmm, I can't wait to start this quilt project!

Monday! Monday! Monday!


I can't wait for this evening!  Both Eureka and Warehouse 13 will be on SyFy and I will be able to watch them!  WhooHoo!  Yea, I'm a geek at times.  We rarely have cable in the campgrounds so this is an extra treat to have cable and be in the right place at the right time.