Amy of Amy's Creative Side is again holding the Spring 2014 Bloggers' Quilt Festival and I'm excited to share with you my entry in the Hand Quilted category - Whirligig.
One dictionary definition of a whirligig is 'something that continuously whirls or spins'.
Ironically, at a time when life had me in a spin most of the time trying to juggle work, family and creative adventures, it was this quilt, 'Whirligig', designed by Aussie quilter Sue Ross, that provided relaxation and calm for the two years it took me to hand piece, appliqué and quilt it.
I machined the first step of the binding on, the long borders, and the checkerboard background of plain white alternating with a white and black polka dot, but the rest was done completely by hand giving me plenty of time to contemplate the final step, the quilting.
I wanted it to be soft and comforting, a quilt I could bring out when an extra grandma-cuddle was needed.
Much as I love machine quilting, I believe it doesn't work for every quilt, and this one was asking for those hand stitches.
I love the quiet, rhythmic rocking action of hand quilting using my wooden hoop by Thimblelady, Liuxin Newman. I'm tall, and this hoop, with its stand, raises my work up so I don't find myself bending over too much and placing strain on my back and neck.
Hand quilting also allowed me to appreciate the many beautiful Kaffe Fassett fabrics I'd collected, teamed up with co-ordinating basics including some from Sue's own fabric company, A Day in the Country.
I quilted a quarter of an inch inside pieces of my whirligigs, and up close around all the appliqué flowers and leaves on the borders to make them pop. The black and white striped bias vines received the same treatment, with tiny hand quilting stitches along their edges.
I made a plastic template by tracing one of the larger border flowers, and used this as a guide for quilting where each background square intersected.
And I did the same with a different flower shape in the larger spaces on the borders and placed confetti dots in their centers, for a bit more fun and colour.
Regular readers will know I'm a bit dotty for dots, so I couldn't go past this pale yellow polka dot for the backing.
Darker times were ahead for me, but my soft, hand-quilted Whirligig, my first modern quilt, is still one of my favourites and I love its bright, clear colours.
It never fails to evoke happy memories of sitting in a deck chair beside my late husband, and stitching in the sun on board a cruise ship sailing the Aegean.
My previous entries in the Bloggers' Quilt Festival
Spring 2012 - Alhambra Romance (Finalist Appliqué Quilts)
Spring 2013 - Daisy a Day (One of 3 Viewers' Choice winners)
If looking at hand quilting makes you happy too, pop on over here and scroll down the page to see links to all the other quilts entered in the same category as mine.
Or perhaps you'd like to click on these categories to see even more entries...
ROYGBIV quilts (red, orange, yellow, green ... You get the picture!)
This week gives you the time to do your blog visiting, then on Friday (23 May) voting will open and you can vote for your favourite quilts in all these categories.
You can be a winner too, even without entering a quilt in the Spring 2014 Bloggers' Quilt Show. Just leave Amy a comment on this post
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Viewers' Choice - Go here this week to nominate your special favourite from the entire Bloggers' Quilt Festival by using the Add Your Link button on the page.
On Friday (23 May) Amy will list the 25 most popular nominations and you will be able to vote for your Viewers' Choice from these.
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Got it?
Off you go then, but don't forget to leave a calling card (aka Comment) to encourage the bloggers whose posts you read. We all like a little bit of quilt love, don't we ❤️
Finally, a huge thank you to Amy and all the generous sponsors for once again doing all this work so we can have fun!
