Blogger's Quilt Festival entry

Here is my entry to the Blogger's Quilt Festival:

You can click on the image to make it bigger.

The pattern was from the Karen K Stone quilt book. I made it a couple of years ago and it was my first attempt at curved paper-piecing. Not convinced I could machine quilt it without masses of puckers, I reverted to hand quilting it.
It was a brilliant excuse to go wild with Kaffe Fasset fabrics and although some of the curves are not perfect, I still love it.

I got so hacked off picking all the paper out that I had a 'bright idea.' I completely soaked the quilt top and then hung it on the washing line because for some non-logical reason I decided it would be easier to pick soggy paper off it. 

It wasn't.

And so I left it on the washing line for a day or two and the wind helped spread all the paper bits all over my garden and next door's garden too just for good measure.

I still love it though.

A 'designer' quilt

Question for you. When is a jelly roll not a jelly roll? When it's a 'designer' roll of course.

And what's the difference between a jelly roll and a designer roll?

 Up to 18 less strips in a designer roll. That's right. Up to 18 strips less than a jelly roll. Of course I didn't realise that when I bought it. I thought all rolls were equal.

But they are not.

So, for the roll-uninitiated of you out there. A jelly roll normally has around 40 strips of width of fabric and a designer roll seems to waver wildly from anything from 22 to 28 to 32 but never seemingly 40.
What does that mean if you are making a designer roll quilt?

 It means you're going to have to dip into your stash to supplement your designer roll if you want a half decent sized quilt...which is exactly what I did.

In this case I added random pieces of Kona Celery and Kona Parsley.

The back is a bit random as well. Used up all the last 'designer' scraps, built a panel of Kona Parsley around it and then added on a different fabric either side which I have now decided looks a bit curtainish. Looks like the curtains have been pulled back to reveal the block in the middle.

Tah Dah

So the moral of this story is. As in life, with anything that has the word 'designer' in it, you are going to pay more for less ;-)

A winner...and another finished quilt

I was totally overwhelmed by the two people who decided to play along and enter my giveaway. Two is even better than the nine I thought it might be - definitely a case of quality over quantity. So Daughter No.1 had such a big decision to make, finally deciding that both are winners.
So, Renee G gets the fabulous Fancy Nancy At The Museum plus the fabric as described for being the first to play along and Alysowl I will also be sending some fabric to - please email me with your address: robins@cwgsy.net. Renee I have your email address so will be asking you for your snail mail address. Well done ladies!

Meanwhile, I took two charm packs of the Amy Butler 'Love' and made this:

First charm pack I cut the squares up to make half square triangles:

And then I took the second packet and made quarter squares and used it to make a border:

And the plain fabric I used on both the front and the back centre panel was Kona Pond.