Anniversary Blooms

Anniversary Blooms - Final Reveal!

Wow, this year has gone so so fast!  I can't believe we are in spring here and you are in fall.  Welcome to my blog and if you are visiting for the first time, let me introduce you to my darling quilt called Anniversary Blooms!

In her full glory hanging

and here she is laying on the bed!

I would encourage you all to check out the lovelies being posted on the links at Amy"s Creative Side!  Once again, thank you Amy! You have been hosting this festival for 8 years and have lots of prizes available for everyone, not just for the bloggers. You have done a wonderful job to get this festival underway.

I would dearly love to have one of my quilts nominated as a favourite overall quilt and here is the Viewers Choice nomination form which can be completed now until the 24th of September.

Voting Starts on 25th of September,  you can vote for your favourite quilt in each section from then.

I am entering Anniversary blooms into the Hand Quilted Section here

And my other quilt is called Lollipop Drops and it is in the Original Designs Section here

Remember to leave comments on the blog posts where you can for your chance to win also.

Nitty gritty of Anniversary Blooms!

I am sure you are all dying to see some lovely photos and here about this quilt.   It all started 2 years ago when the American Quilters Society released the 30th Anniversary Dogwood Fabric Collection.   They had a competition to design a quilt.  I did but didn't get it quilted in time, I finally finished this year.

Here are the fabrics and the starting of the piecing

I decided to use the familiar Churn Dash Block to form a lattice and the drunkard paths to form a wedding ring flower.  Hence the name of Anniversary Blooms.  When these fabrics arrived I couldn't believe how delightful they were.

this was my rough mock up which I had decided upon

So after the top was sewn I commenced the hand quilting.  I decided to use Aurifil 28wt threads in several colours.  I also wanted to give the striped border a slightly different look so I went with doing small baptist fans and then I highlighted the flowers and made a cross hatch in the centre.  I then started putting leaves around in the churn dash blocks.

The adding of the background leaves

nearing the end of quilting

I just love the texture of the hand quilting

For this quilt I used Hobbs Tuscany Wool Wadding.  It is definitely my favourite for loft and stitch definition.  Now I just loved working on this quilt but as I thought I was finished I would keep deciding it needed more background quilting.  So I kept going on and off for the 2 years.  Many other quilts were completed in this time but for me this is my favourite quilt so far.  Many have asked who this quilt is for and my answer is ME!  It will be my quilt for ever even if the family are all claiming it!  So I hope you have enjoyed my Anniversary Blooms Blog.

a few shots of the background filling 

Don't forget to visit the other bloggers and their quilts over at Amy"s Creative Side.

So Until next time take care and have fun, 

and many thanks for reading my ramblings,

Wendy

Love Calms the Seas - A blog for Spring!

Please vote for Love Calms the Seas for Viewers Choice Thanks

Please vote for Love Calms the Seas for best Large Quilt Thanks

Thanks must go out to Amy's Creative Side for hosting the Spring Bloggers Quilt Festival.  What a wonderful opportunity of joining blogs together and gathering a lot of magical eye candy.  I like to thank all of the sponsors and also all of the bloggers who are linking to make this a wonderful interactive festival such fun.

Completed Love Calms the Seas

Love Calms the Seas Quilt was made for my youngest daughter as she completed her final year at Secondary College. I planned to finish this so she could have it with her on her new journey in life at University, to have a little bit of home and me with her.

starting of the piecing and placement of colours

I decided to piece this on the machine using the freezer paper foundation method.  This really helped as it was a very large quilt.  In fact this is the largest quilt I have ever made measuring 93" x 96".  Initially it was to only have one heart in the centre, but my daughter loved it so much we decided to put four more hearts in the quilt.  I am so glad we did for I feel it is very balanced now.

Quilting the waves

I love to hand quilt so with Aurifil 28 wt thread, in a blue, green and a purple and a turquoise. and my John James needles quilting began.  I was using the storm at sea quilt block but as the quilting  flowed I decided this quilt really needed to be called 'love calms the seas'.  I quilted waves into the quilt with blue going one way and the green areas going the opposite direction.

another shot of the waves being quilted

after the waves are quilted ready to quilt the hearts

When it came to the quilting of the hearts it called for something different.  I felt like the waves needed to be calm within them, as my desire for her life ahead to be full of more calmness than stress.  I was quilting my love into this quilt, so she can forever have a hug from her mama bear.

starting the quilting on the centre heart

another heart in the midst of quilting

Label just had to be a purple heart

At last the label screamed to me to be a heart.  This quilt took me 18 months to make and another few months of planning and gathering fabrics.  Whilst my daughter had completed her first year of University before I finished it, she now has her quilt and loves it very much.  I am so glad I took the time to quilt it the way I did.

here she is hiding in my back garden

Thanks for reading my post and for voting for my quilt, I also have another quilt entered in the hand quilting section - Hand quilting 'Time Warp' and I would appreciate your vote over here also. 

Please enjoy the eye candy and be inspired,

Keep on quilting and quilting,

Wendy :)

Hand quilting 'Time Warp' - Spring bloggers quilt festival!

Please vote Time Warp here for:- viewers choice

Please vote for Time Warp here for:- hand quilting

Thank you to Amy's Creative Side for hosting the Spring Bloggers Quilt Festival and for all of the wonderful sponsors and you the reader for visiting and voting for everyone.

Time Warp

Let me introduce my Time Warp Quilt.  This quilt was made for the Pantone 2015 Quilt Challenge and I made this quilt using the Creative Grids Hexagon Trim Tool and Pam Buda Prairie Gatherings and for the border I found Judes Album Quilt fabric by Jude Rothermel.  My hand quilting thread of choice for this was Aurifil 28 weight thread Numbers 1103 red and 2315 cream as you will see in the close ups.

some detail of the quilting

a little more detail

love the sunlight dappling in the shade

Time Warp measuring 52" x 44"  has Hobbs Tuscany Wool wadding to highlight the quilting design.  I decided to quilt hexagons in the border and pebbles and swirls in the negative space with the main hexagons of the quilt being quilted with perspective to create a three dimensional effect.

hexagons in the border

upper part of the quilt

lower area of quilt with pebbles and swirls

centre of the quilt

Just another fun shot in the back of the garden.

Thanks so much for reading my blog and for voting for my quilt.  I also have another quilt entered in the Large Quilt Section - Love Calms the Seas and I would love you to check this out also.

Until next time, enjoy all of the eye candy available this week.

Quilt and keep on quilting

Wendy :)