Monday, November 1, 2010

Blogger's Quilt Festival: Rainbow Sherbet Snowball Quilt

In the crazy quilt of life, I'm glad you're in my block of friends.
–Unknown

Amy's Creative Side - Blogger's Quilt Festival

Now, on to the really important stuff. I chose my Rainbow Sherbet Snowball Quilt to share for the Blogger's Quilt Festival. This quilt was a journey for me; it was the first quilt I did from start to finish — the first quilt I machine quilted. Well, not counting the table runner. Or the Wedding Ring Wall Hanging. Or the scripture covers :lol:. Those were all small projects with the walking foot, though. Practice. Warming up. This was the first actual quilt-size project with real free-motion quilting that I did {instead of taking it to professional}.

I started out loving this quilt. I pulled the fabrics for the snowballs from my stash {which was a revelation because I consider my stash to be pretty small and certainly not developed or diversified enough to make a whole quilt}. And I bought the white-on-ivory background fabric at 50% off {getting a good deal is one of my absolute most favorite things; the out-of-pocket cost for the background, backing, binding and batting was $16.30. It doesn't get better than that!}. The colors were so bright and cheerful that I decided to make two quilts; one for me and one to give to my youngest sister as a wedding gift. But after I got the top together I didn't like it as much. Thanks to some kind encouragement from the blogishpere, I pushed ahead hoping that I'd love the quilt again when it was finished.

But then came the scary part — the free-motion quilting. By me. A complete novice. My intention when I started this quilt was to do it myself. All along I planned to do a stipple {or meander} but my practice attempts were pretty craptastic and when it came time to actually commit needle and thread to fabric I was, to say the least, a little intimidated and found myself wishing to take it to a machine quilter. Again with the encouragement of some excellent bloggersI dove in. It didn't take too long for me to get into a groove and some of the quilting actually came out pretty nicely. This is a section that I am particularly fond of {if you click on the picture you can see the quilting better}. And once the quilt was quilted and washed and bumpy and wrinkly and soft, I did love it again.

One of my favorite parts was the baby snowballs on the back. I saved the corners I cut away from the snowball blocks and made them into half-square triangles. Then I sewed them all together to make baby snowballs. While I was working on it, I wondered if it was really worth my time, but as it turned out, they were completely adorable and perfect.

The artsy pictures are fun and interesting to look at, but I always find myself wanting to see the whole thing, so for those of you who are like me, I've got your back. Thanks for stopping by.

24 comments:

Linda said...

I LOVE it! I love the colors, the pattern and the stipple quilting. And especially the baby snowballs on the back. That gave it the extra love.

Anonymous said...

That is BEAUTIFUL!!! I was hoping you were going to do a giveaway. ;)

Tina Cockburn said...

Sew pretty! I'm going to have to add a snowball quilt to my list of patterns to try. Love the little tiny squares in your sashing. And thanks for your sweet comments on mine. =)

Alison said...

Beautiful!

whimsyfox said...

Woohoo, you did AWESOME!!! Not craptastic at all. =D

♥Duff said...

I, too, have gone through the love it, hate it circle and your little snowball number is definitely a love it! Glad you decided to persevere! I am especially smitten with the baby snowball back. Mind if I copy?♥

QuiltSue said...

This is just beautiful. I love it.

Quiltbenaco said...

Grazie per la visita!
Il tuo quilt ha dei colori fantastici!
Ciao Domenica

Paulette said...

This is such a pretty quilt, Elizabeth! Your quilting on it looks terrific! Now aren't you glad you just dove in? Remind me of this when I'm waffling on one, will you? :)

Shay said...

Loved this quilt when you were making it, when you finished it and again now.

This one was one of your best (IMO) Love the colours and I recall you got this finished very fast! (Mine is still sitting in bits in a box somewhere )

Thanks for choosing this one to share E.

Marg said...

It's beautiful Elizabeth, and wonderful stippling too. I love the snowballs on the back, that was well worth the effort in making them. I think most of us have been through the love it, hate it, love it cycle of a quilt. I am glad you persevered as it looks fabulous. I am almost tempted to go back to working on my snowball quilt....almost!

Jennifer Lovell said...

Congratulations, Elizabeth, on your beautiful accomplishment.

Sarah Craig said...

It's beautiful, Elizabeth - and I love the back, too! And I know what you mean about the pictures - the artsy ones are fun, but you still need a full front and back shot to record it for posterity!

Anonymous said...

The colors and fabrics are so feminine

M. Regina said...

Olá Elizabeth, obrigado pela visita.
Amei teu quilt, as cores estão fantásticas, acho lindo cores suaves. Um grande abraço desde o Brasil.

SheilaC said...

I just love your quilt and you did a great job on the quilting!
Thank you for sharing this in the show.

SHeilaC

kaye said...

Such an effective use of color. Thanks so much for sharing it!

Unknown said...

E, it's beautiful! I love it and I also love that you use the word craptastic LOL. the colors are great and the baby snowballs are adorable!! Great job!

Karen said...

Your quilt has come up so well. It looks great. I love the colours and your quilting looks great.
I really like the idea you used with the small snowballs on the back!
Lovely quilt.

Ann Marie said...

The quilting is great. Congratulations on diving in and doing it yourself!
The baby snowballs are adorable.

Rachaeldaisy said...

A beautiful quilt!! Love the name! Good on you for diving in with the quilting. I've got a pile of tops ( and it seems to be growing) that need me to dive into with some FMQ. You've inspired me to do some practice this weekend.

Carol said...

That's a very pretty layout.

Ivory Spring said...

That is a sweet sweet quilt, Elizabeth! I love th colors. You ought to be so proud of yourself! :0)

QuiltNut Creations said...

love it! congrats on finishing it; it looks great. and i so love the baby snowballs!