Polka Dot Garden

Welcome, everyone! This is my second time participating in the Blogger's Quilt Festival and I am happy and proud to be giving this quilt its debut in such auspicious company.

 I made this quilt for my sister H who celebrated a milestone birthday this year. It spent much of its life referred to as Polka Dot Sampler until my Mom helped me decide on a name for it. As children, we spent a fair bit of time at James Gardens, a beautiful place full of green and flowers and fish ponds, the latter being an important feature in our family's lore because a very young H fell (or jumped, depending who you ask) into one during a particularly memorable visit. Mom said the colours in the quilt reminded her of James Gardens and the name Polka Dot Garden sprang to mind.

 This lovely measures 58"x58". The polka dot fabrics - all from my stash - were collected over time with no particular project in mind. When I finally got around to thinking about what I was going to make with all those polka dots, a sampler sprang to mind. And serendipitously, Amy announced her Simple Sampler Quilt Along very soon after that. The green solid in the sashing and blocks is Kona Chartreuse - a really fabulously "neutral" colour that seems to go with everything.

For me, choosing a quilting design for a sampler is difficult. I'm not proficient enough of a machine quilter to do something fancy and unique in each block, but an all-over design like stippling didn't seem right so I needed a different idea. The quilting is bubble-style in the sashings, and after much deliberation and discussion with my creative consultant (my husband, who has great design sense), I chose to quilt this from the back following the circles on the backing, adding just a few circles in areas that seemed too empty.

Speaking of the backing, it is a thrifted IKEA duvet cover. The binding was a genius find in the stash - it highlights each colour in the quilt and adds some stripey goodness to a very circular design.

 Thanks for stopping by, and enjoy the eye candy that abounds in the Blogger's Quilt Festival!!

Polka Dot Garden sneak peek

So it's done, it's washed, and it's labelled. And it's been photographed.

But you're going to have to wait to see the whole thing. Why? Because I'll be entering it in the Fall 2010 Blogger's Quilt Festival, that's why!

Click on the button and go to Amy's blog and read all about it. I participated in the Spring and it was a blast. Well over 500 quilters participate and there is a tremendous amount of inspiration, eye candy and other quilty delights.

Come back on the 29th and check it out!

Quilting In Progress

Polka Dot Garden - quilting in progress

I'm quilting, I'm quilting!

This sampler has a circle/polka-dot theme, obviously. It's called Polka Dot Garden, so at first I thought I'd quilt something viney in the sashing, but the bubbles/circles just called to me and I went with it. I am VERY pleased with how they turned out.

For the blocks, I thought I'd do various circles based on each block's layout/shape. But after chatting with my design consultant (aka husband, who has great taste), I went with another tack.

I decided to quilt from the back and follow the circles on the backing fabric. I've done 4 blocks so far, and I am about 75% sure I did the right thing. Once this baby is washed and dried, I'm sure my wobbly quilting stitches won't be as visible (the thread is nice and slim). I am using a crean-coloured thread which accentuates wobbles on darker fabric (like that dark purple stuff), but I didn't know what else to use, and I am not comfy enough yet with nylon thread to use it on such a big and important piece.

Stay tuned for the results - I hope to have it all quilted by the end of (my) preschool break tomorrow.

Have you entered my 100th post giveaway yet? Check it out!

Simple Sampler Quilt Along - Week 3

Blocks 5 and 6 are done, and the instructions for 7 and 8 are up today. Eek!

Here are this (last?) week's blocks:

The block on the left is my favourite so far!

And here they all are together.

Yay! Lookin' good!

I'm loving this quilt-along. There's no question that it's making me a better quilter. Taking the project slowly and methodically really, really works for me. Hooray!

Simple Sampler Quilt Along - Week 2

Blocks 3 and 4 are done!

Block 3 - Plus

Block 4 - Double Four Patch

The good news is that I only had to rip out one seam. That double four-patch construction can be tricky as the small four-patches are directional. 

In other quilting news, Thursday is Canada Day and I have Friday off, so I am determined to quilt The Very Hungry Caterpillar. The amount of procrastination that is happening with that quilt is just not for believing. So I'm proclaiming it here: it will be quilted by Sunday evening. 

Simple Sampler Quilt Along - First 2 Blocks

These blocks were fun to make - nice 'n easy. Having said that, I was momentarily paralyzed by indecision regarding fabric choices! I pulled all of my dotty fabrics for this QAL, and there are a lot and I truly didn't know where to begin.

Then I got over myself. Here's the result:

I know the photo quality is even worse than usual. I do my weekday sewing at night after my little one has gone to sleep, so photoshoots happen in the dark. You get the gist, anyway.

I'm very excited to have started this sampler. I don't yet know what I'll do with it when it's done. Time will tell.

Simple Sampler Quilt Along

With my first swap behind me, I have decided to move onto another quilt blogger activity: the Quilt Along!

When Amy announced her Simple Sampler Quilt Along, I remembered that I'd been toying with the idea of making a sampler with the polka-dot fabrics I've been collecting. The universe clearly wants me to start on that Sampler now instead of later so I've joined!


I've decided to depart slightly from her colour suggestions - I'm using more than 8 fabrics, and I'm going to use some of this awesome Kona Chartreuse instead of the white in the blocks (and possibly for the sashing). Wild 'n crazy, that's me!

I'm not entirely certain that all of these fabrics are going to make their way into the quilt, but this is my little grouping of dotty fabrics to begin with.

Excited!!