Pages

Saturday, October 29, 2011

Blogger's Quilt Festival


I love scrappy quilts. I think they'll always be my favorite because they remind me of utilitarian quilts made from clothing scraps and other found material. I have my great grandmother's scrappy quilt and I love wondering who wore the clothing scraps she used to make the quilt. I never met this great grandmother, but I like to think about my great grandfather's pajamas, maybe a shirt sewn for my dad when he was a child, or perhaps a dress she wore to church?

I made this coin quilt top in 2007, the first year I started quilting. I finally sent it out for quilting and got it bound this summer. My large quilt tops like to gel a little bit before I get around to finishing them. This quilt was made from scraps of vintage fabrics, newer stuff, and there's even some tie-dye fabric my daughter and I made together.

Before I quilted, I collected fabric. Crazy, right? My friend Kathy and I spent several years hitting numerous estate sales looking for junk treasures to hawk on eBay and we found great stashes left behind. Hey Kath, Remember Jamajo and Helen Padgett? That Jamajo reference was a house filled to the brim with vintage and retro fabric. Really, I think the oven had fabric in it. There was fabric in every room, every nook and cranny. Gonna be me some day. Helen Padgett was the quilter who sold us her entire quilting operation. That collection was newer stuff, books, rulers, gadgets, and much more. I think it took three carloads to remove everything. Kath still doesn't quilt, but I bet she owns some cute fabric. We're just textile girls I guess.

As we found out that fabric was selling quite well, we started collecting more of it. The vintage prints intrigued me and the first time I saw a collection of old feed sacks, I thought I had died and gone to heaven. So I collected hoarded fabric. I sold a lot of it too, but always thought that one day I'd do something (like quilt) with all the treasures I found over the years.

In 2007, I dusted off my trusty Singer and decided I was going to make a quilt. That first quilt, a postage stamp miniature I shared last year in the Blogger's Quilt Festival. Since then, quilting has gone non-stop for me. I absolutely love the process and try to encourage anyone I can to learn to quilt. If I can do it, anyone can do it, and it's so much fun. I still can't sew buttons on stuff, sweat when faced with zippers, and freak out if asked to hem something. But give me a stack of scraps and a sewing machine and I'm in heaven.

Twice a year, Amy's Creative Side hosts a Blogger's Quilt Festival. Bloggers are encouraged to post about a quilt they've made and link up on Amy's blog. There are prizes too! It's amazing at how our online quilting community inspires one another. I am self-taught by this generous community, so I feel like everyone is one of my close friends or mentors. I hope you'll join in the fun. I'm off to check out the entries. Two more days of Blogtoberfest...gah. I'm sick of myself.

19 comments:

  1. Michele, this is a great post for the Bloggers' Quilt Festival! I love seeing this quilt again, but more importantly, I like reading the story behind the quilt. So glad you turned your incredible talents toward quilting!!! You continue to inspire, and I for one (and am sure there are many others) am better for it! Thanks for sharing! Enjoy your weekend.

    ReplyDelete
  2. JEALOUS!!

    such a great collection of fabrics make a unique and really interesting quilt

    thank you for sharing!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. mmm...scrappy is my most favorite way to do it. this is a lovely example of a coin quilt. hooray!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Michele, thanks for this post. I have some really scrappy strips, and have been wondering what to do with them. (Now I know). Love your quilts.

    ReplyDelete
  5. It's nice to know your fabric story:) It's a great quilt...looks very cozy!

    ReplyDelete
  6. That was so fun reading about your journey to quilting! I love this community too!

    ReplyDelete
  7. What an amazing story! I can relate, but I really hope they won´t find fabric in my oven once I´m dead. Your quilt is stunning! Thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I love coin quilts and this is a beautiful one. I really want to make a scrappy quilt but I need to collect some scraps first! A great entry to the BQF!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Contiene tanti bei ricordi questa trapunta!
    Ciao

    ReplyDelete
  10. Your quilt is great - your story is even better! I'm glad you started to quilt. Now your friend just needs to find that one piece of fabric to inspire her.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I think your quilt is great! I love coin quilts and this one is a beauty. And I can relate to the "resting" a quilt top needs before it's quilted - I do that too. Love the story of your fabric collecting. I think most of us quilters just love fabric.

    I'm so glad you started quilting - your work is very inspiring. I hope your friend gets bitten by the bug before she's stashing fabric in her oven!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Coin quilts are a great way to show off your fabrics. Your quilt looks great. It's lovely to read your story about collecting fabrics.

    ReplyDelete
  13. I love scrappy too. Your use of color really makes this quilt sing.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Love the coin quilt style - and I like scrappy quilts too. Great job and it made me smile to read that you collected fabric before you actually started to use it =)

    ReplyDelete
  15. Beautiful. You're colours are fantastic and it's made a beautiful quilt. I love that you "let them gel" for a while ;o)

    ReplyDelete
  16. Fun quilt! Love how you started your fabric stash!

    ReplyDelete
  17. Scrappy quilts are so much fun. It turned out so well.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Lovely quilt, thanks for sharing. :)

    ReplyDelete
  19. Let's start a club for all of us girl's who can't stop collecting fabric...I would have to be up there in the first members...I just told my LQS owner yesterday (when she was reminding me of her Black Friday sale)that if I started today and sewed every day, I couldn't make a dent in the fabric in my home....love your quilt and I enjoyed your story.

    ReplyDelete

I would love to hear from you. Comments make my day!

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...