Sewvivor - Ms Midge - Melissa G

Family Ever After have launched their third SEWVIVOR series, and this season is the Quilter's Edition.  Ahuh!  

It has taken me a couple of weeks to work up the courage to write this post and throw my hat in the ring, but here I am.....

I LOVE a good challenge!  I love being thrown a curve-ball or a quilt-ball shall we say.....  I have been told I am a "quilt-churner" or prolific quilt maker, and have on many occasions whipped together a quilt in a day.  So, I think if the judges were to throw in a Survivor like challenge of say, eating a kilo of chocolate whilst winding a bobbin and burying threads - I'd say I could manage that!

So, if you will, read this post with the background sound of Destiny's Child and Beyonce, belting out:

"I'm a survivor, I'm not gon give up, I'm not gon stop, I'm gon work harder; I'm a survivor, I'm gonna make it, I will survive, keep on survivin"........

The Quilt I have chosen for this auspicious occasion is my Butterfly Bloom Bloom Quilt.  Some of you who have been around here for a while may very well remember it?  I finished it over a year ago, as a gift for my daughter Chelsea.  When I was debating which quilt to enter, I ummed and ahhed, but then took in to account what the Sewvivor rules tell me:

         "Be sure it is your best representation of you, your sewing skills, and your                                                                                        creativity!"

Although I have "grown" as a quilter in the past twelve months, I feel this quilt represents the beginning of a real LOVE for quilting and the entire quilting process.  This was my first quilt-along (with Lee from Freshly Pieced) and it challenged me in ways I did not even think possible!  It was the first time I'd thought, really thought, about fabric selection and the way it can change the look of a block.  I mean, who knew there were low and high volume fabrics?  And tones???  I almost gave up before I even began!

 

It was the quilt I really got the hang of free motion quilting on!  

 

I had a ball adding in words and butterflies.....

 

I also went to town piecing the back.

 

It was also the first time I appliqued scraps of fabric to a quilt.

 And lastly - it taught me all about the importance of precise cutting and piecing!

So - there you have it!  Consider my hat thrown!  I'm looking forward to watching Sewvivor unfold - regardless of whether I'm in it or not - I will be sewing along!