Tag Archives: wmqg

finishes, quilting

Blogger’s Quilt Festival: Madrona Road Festival Flags

12 Comments

Madrona Road Festival Flags is my fourth quilt finish!

It was completed as part of the Wollongong Modern Quilt Guild Madrona Road Challenge and just in time for the Blogger’s Quilt Festival. If you’re visiting from the festival, welcome!

Madrona Road Festival Flags - Front Madrona Road Festival Flags - Back

This baby quilt measures 35 inches by 48.5 inches. Most of the bunting flags were hand appliqued to the quilt top, however some flags were made to be double-sided and left loose for little hands to play with.

Madrona Road Festival Flags - Front QuiltingMadrona Road Festival Flags - Back Quilting

I echo quilted the flags with up to 5 lines and the filled up from the string below, roughly half an inch apart. My favourite, favourite bit is in the top right corner where I decided to echo quilt some phantom flags, inspired by a tip from Angela Walters in her Craftsy class on Machine Quilting Negative Space.

Madrona Road Festival Flags - Favourite Detail

The print fabric is Madrona Road by Violet Craft, and was very generously donated by Michael Miller Fabrics for the Modern Quilt Guild Challenge which many members of our guild took part in. Our fabric didn’t arrive until January and was handed out at the February Sew Day, with the finished quilts to be ready for our May Sew Day. While we weren’t able to be a part of the main challenge it was a great experience for many of us, and every single quilt was so different. The solid yellow was also supplied and I used Kona White for the front and Kona Medium Grey for the back. You can see more of the Wollongong Modern Quilt Guild Madrona Road Challenge Quilts on Flickr and the WMQG website.

I finished the quilt off with a cute scrappy binding and after a wash it’s come out nice and crinkly. There’s no label on yet, but once the new owner is chosen it will be included on a extra flag on the quilt back.

Madrona Road Festival Flags - Scrappy Binding

Last year I saw so many wonderful quilts during the Blogger’s Quilt Festivals in Spring and Fall (Autumn), I’m still surprised that I’ve actually made some of my own quilts and am so happy to be able to participate. If you haven’t taken part before don’t be scared, just take part and enjoy being part of this awesome event.

Blogger's Quilt Festival 2013

quilting

My First Quilt – Part 4: Quilt Sandwich, Yum!

2 Comments

Despite a lack of updates here, my quilt has actually progressed quite well. It’s *this* close to being finished which means I’m on track to meet my goal of “finish a quilt this year”. Really aimed high with that one didn’t I? In January it seemed achievable for a first timer and I can definitely say that were it not for the Wollongong Modern Quilt Guild and all the lovely ladies & our visitors at our monthly sew days who have given advice and encouragement, I may not have got this far.

So, time for a bit of catchup…

I picked up a stunning print from Kelani Fabric at the Sydney Craft & Quilt Fair. It’s called Fiesta Firecracker, from the Folklorica collection by Alexander Henry. I thought it would work well as it took similar bright colours from the front but used concentric circles which would mimic the quilting that I was planning. It also helped that it was a nice busy print on a white base so my rookie quilting wouldn’t show too much.

Back at our July Sew Day (yes that long ago) I took along my finished quilt top, the batting, and my backing fabric to prepare my quilt sandwich. I needed to join the backing first to make it wide enough (those long seams are scary!). When that was all ready I got some help from Rachael to tape it out taut on the floor and then we smoothed the batting out on top. Amy, of badskirt fame, helped with clever ideas for getting my top centred and then we pinned… and pinned some more. Huge thanks go out to Rachael, Diane & Jo who helped with the pinning, and came to the rescue with extra pins.

Rainbow Snapshots - Basting

One delicious sandwich all ready for quilting.