Wordless W.I.P. Wednesday - What I Did Tonight.

Butterfly Bloom Bloom Pow - Blogger's Quilt Festival

I only learnt about the Blogger's Quilt Festival a few weeks ago......wow!  If you, like me, want to know more, head over to Amy's Creative Side and be amazed!  Literally a festival of quilts.  A feast for the senses.  And much to see and learn!  You can nominate quilts from the 17th - 24th May and then vote for your favourites in each category from the 24th - 30th May!

I am entering my beloved Butterfly Bloom Bloom Pow.  It is my most recent finish, and dare I say - my favourite!  You can read my original post HERE.  But tonight, I'm going to gush a little more over this baby!

I decided to join Lee from Freshly Pieced in her quilt along - my first ever!  And on the 11th of April, began this beauty in ernest, hoping it would turn out "ok".  Just under one month later - it was finished! I followed the quilt along week by week, and in that last week decided that I just HAD to have it done in time to give to my daughter who was turning ten.  I finished with a couple of days to spare.

I chose to surround the blooms with a big white border....

Which then lead to loads of free motion quilting!

Once deciding on its recipient, I got creative....

And ended up with around eight butterflies throughout.

The pieced back is nothing like I had planned.  The zig zags are scraps from cutting out the blooms.

I appliqued them on to the homespun with a funny stitch that made it a nightmare to do!

But was very effective.

In the afternoon sunlight.

To say my Chelsea girl was thrilled with her quilt would be quite the understatement.  She has slept under it every night since and says it's the prettiest thing she's ever had!

The Details:

Quilt name: Butterfly Bloom Bloom Pow
Finished size: 73" x 61"
Fabric: Valori Wells Cocoon & assorted fat quarters & Homespun
Thread: Aurifil 50wt #2000
Machine quilted by Me on my Bernina 430
Group/Category: Bed Quilt

Thanks so much for popping in!  If somebody had of told me twelve months ago that I would be entering a quilting festival - I would have had them scheduled!  But here I am.  
Have a great weekend!

W.I.P. Wednesday #5

In what could be one of the most craziest decisions I've made, I chose to use the Freshly Pieced Kissing Fish Baby Quilt Pattern to make a cot quilt for a best friend's impending arrival.  As per usual, I did not read the instructions much before making the choice, and once I'd started, there was no turning back.  So now I find myself in some kind of HST hell!  I have cut out a total of 461 squares ranging in size from 2" up to 8 1/2".  And have now sewn together half of the 3" squares to get my HST on.  Here are all my pretty little piles of "to do's".

I chose five different coloured prints for this quilt, all to co-ordinate with some gorgeous butterflies that will be on the nursery walls.  I don't usually do pastels, so this is a first!  The ribbon print is going to be the backing, I have no idea what I'm going to do for the binding though......  I have a feeling that by the time I get to that part of the quilt, I may just have had a meltdown or two and will just choose whatever is closest to me!

When I asked my friend Gemma from Pretty Bobbins if I was crazy to contemplate making this quilt, she was very encouraging, telling me that it would be great practice at points.  Yep, I should have points down pat by the end of this project!!!!!  Here are the first eight blocks done.  Only 102 to go!

See the little kissing fishies???

I haven't gotten any further with this quilt, except for buying some grey homespun for the back and contemplating just one pieced block smack bang in the middle of the backing.  I also bought a really bright plain purple for the binding, but literally haven't had a chance to see if it all ties in well.

And I decided to pull this Hungry Little Caterpillar panel out.  I was given the other pieces of fruit etc, so trimmed them all up and put them around the panel.  And haven't gotten any further.

I do believe I'm starting to become one of those crafty people who start things but doesn't finish them?  I don't want to be - so am eagerly awaiting the end of school holidays, the end of the chicken pox epidemic that has taken over my family and the start of my four year old's Kindergarten year!  Then I will have more time during the week to myself than I've had in fifteen years!  Yeeeeeehawwwwwwww!

Linking up with Freshly Pieced

A new day

A new day for me today! I feel like the ten days leading up to my market debut were so hectic and consumed by sewing, that today brought some time to breath and just "be". So this morning I took the youngest poppet to her swimming lessons, followed by baby cinos! By the time we got home, I was feeling very zen......and proceeded to pull out a pattern I had purchased a couple of weeks ago but had not found the time to attack! And this is the result.......

I am so in love with this little design, but even more in love with my little darling wearing it. "Mummy, can I wear this to the beach?"........Ummm, sure honey - maybe when the temperature reaches 20+ degrees! Treasure.

If you love this little playsuit, feel free to pop into my Facebook page - MsMidgemadebyme - and have a looksy!