Sofiya’s Dresden: Blogger’s Quilt Festival Fall 2012

I was all worried that I didn’t have a quilt to share for the Blogger’s Quilt Festival this time around.  I know it doesn’t have to be a new quilt, but I always worry that I’m being boring showing the same quilt more than once.  But, somewhere in the back of my head, I managed to remember that I had held off posting about Sofiya’s Dresden Plate Quilt when I finished it in January.  It was being presented at our church and I wanted to keep it a bit of surprise, but then I just forgot after it was presented, so there we go, a new quilt, rediscovered, just in time for the BQF.

Sofiya’s Dredsen was made for the latest baby born at my North Carolina Church.  For a little of around 50, they kept me busy with six baby quilts last year.  I’ve had a little break now, but we’ve got three more coming up now.  My North Carolina Church has been so supportive of me as a quilter and as a person, even though I’m now back in Pennsylvania, so making each of their quilts is really special to me.

The back

And the quilting

Amy, who so graciously hosts this fun for all of us twice a year, has suggested that we include the following info to help people in voting for their favorite quilts.

• Quilt Measurements: Roughly 40×50, I never really bother to measure my quilts, and it’s now happy in it’s new home, so I’m not going to swear to exact size.  It’s a healthy sized baby quilt.
• Special Techniques Used: Hand Appliqued, Hand Quilted
• Quilted by: Me
• Best category: Baby Quilt or Hand Quilted

Thanks so much for stopping by!  Hopefully I’ll be by your blog soon, I always find new and inspiring people during this festival, I really look forward to seeing everyone’s work.

A Quilt for the Quiltmaker: Bloggers’ Quilt Festival Spring 2012

My very first quilt, my childhood special blanky, was from Ma (my maternal grandmother).  I treasure each of the quilts she’s made for me.  She not only taught me to quilt, I learned the joy of giving from her, a woman who made so many lap quilts for the local nursing homes over the years, that she ended up getting one she made when she had to go to the nursing home this year.

We’ve been very blessed in my family to enjoy my Grandparents living long and healthy lives.  This January when I moved to Harrisburg, both of my Mother’s parents were with me, Pa helping to reassemble furniture and Ma setting up my pantry.  And in February we all celebrated my Grandfather’s 90th birthday.

It was a hard decision to move back to Pennsylvania, but being closer to my Grandparents was definitely on the Pro list.  Unfortunately that became even more true the past two months as Ma’s health steadily declined.  And as she’s been back and forth between the hospital and the nursing home, I’ve been incredibly grateful that I’m just two hours away and able to visit often.

She seems to finally be on the mend a bit now, though her mobility is still quite limited, but when she first went into the hospital we really had no idea what was going on and I was worried sick about her.  That first week, sitting in my apartment two hours away seemed much to far.  I absolutely HAD to do something to keep busy.  So, I channeled my grandmother as best I could, and cleaned my apartment to within an inch of it’s life, baked some cookies, and made a quilt.

I started with some handkerchief butterfly blocks that were appliqued and given to me by my other grandmother. I embroidered them, pieced the top, sandwiched, and hand quilted the quilt in a little under two weeks.

Though it’s not my modern style, it is the most important quilt I’ve ever made, perhaps the most important quilt I could ever make.  I hope Ma knows exactly how much it means to me to share the love of quilting with her.  More importantly, I hope she knows that I fell in love with quilting because of how much I love her and love spending time with her.  I’m at a loss for words to say how proud I am to be her granddaughter, so I’ll just close with the quilt label:

To Ma, with love, Jill

I know this is a lot of story for the BQF, when there are so many blogs to visit and so many quilts to see, so if you’ve read the whole way to the end here, thank you for taking that time.  I hope you enjoy all the quilts in the festival.   I know I can’t wait for a good evening of virtual quilt show.  And, of course, a big thank you to Amy for hosting this again!

Starring Anna: Bloggers’ Quilt Festival Fall 2011

If you’re stopping by for the first time from the Bloggers’ Quilt Festival, welcome to my little corner of the quilt-blogosphere!  Isn’t the best part of BQF discovering to new and inspiring blogs?  I’ve found some fantastic quilters, not to mention the whole of the quilt blogosphere, through this festival, so let’s just say I’m officially a fan.

I just finished up Starring Anna for the newest little baby at my church, the adorable Anna.  I’ve wanted to do this wonky overall star pattern for a long time now, so I was really excited to be given free reign on this quilt, all the parents asked for was bright colors and maybe some green.

It was a bit of a challenge for me to figure out how to quilt this without distracting from the stars.  I debated outlining every other star, outlining the inside of the stars, straight line, and wavy lines.  I think this was the right direction.

For the back, I found this pear print that’s been in my stash for quite awhile.  The colors are just perfect and the print is fun.  And of course, my signature embroidery label for church quilts.

I love this quilt, but it’s also a sad one for me.  I will be making at least one more church quilt, but this is that last one that I will be around to present to the new baby and family.  In three weeks, I’ll be moving back to Pennsylvania to continue my job hunt and hopefully return to school.  It’s been a true delight to be a part of Chapel Hill Mennonite Fellowship for the past two and a half years and an honor to celebrate the growth of the congregation this past year with baby quilts.  One of the things that I’ll miss most about North Carolina is being a part of a wonderful congregation that has given me, amongst many other things, a place to be affirmed as a person with gifts to share and a place in the church to share them.

I hope everyone is enjoying the oodles of inspiration over at Amy’s.  I know I’m forward to a great evening of blog hopping later this week!

Blogger’s Quilt Festival Spring 2011

There is a special place in my heart for BQF, I google search stumbled onto it a year ago just as the spring festival was starting and it introduced me to the quilt blogosphere.  And here we are again!

For those of you who are regular followers, you’ve seen this quilt before, but it’s my favorite recent finish and it has the best story, so I thought it was appropriate for the festival.

I made Trees for the Forest as a gift on behalf of my friend April.  I met April through a writing class held at Raleigh Correctional Center for Women that brought together Divinity students, community members, and women serving prison sentences to explore spiritual autobiographies and write our own stories.  I know it’s may sound like the trite thing that people say about things like this, but seriously, it was life altering.  It was powerful and freeing to write my own story and to share in the stories of other wonderful women.

A lot of women in prison are crafty, crochet hooks and yarn are allowed and from what I can tell, lots of women make stuff.  But, gifts that April was making her daughters were confiscated and destroyed.  I was so sad when she told me that.  I know angry it would make me if someone destroyed something that I had made with my hands.  Not too mention how sad it would be to not be able to give birthday presents to your own daughters.  So, with her oldest daughter’s birthday coming up, I offered to make a gift on her behalf.  This story could get really non-quilty and this is a quilt blog and a quilt festival, so, if you are interested in hearing more a bit more about prison stuff, I invite you to read this essay I wrote about visiting prison.

The quilting is nothing to write home about, I’m still a total newbie to machine quilting and would have rather hand quilted it, but I needed to get it done pretty quickly to get it there in time for the birthday.  Still, it’s my favorite quilt this year because it was such a joy to get to not only make a gift for someone, but it really for two people.  And at the end of the day, the gift is always the best part of quilting.

Can’t wait to stroll through everyone’s festival entries!  Make sure you get over to Amy’s and check out the AMAZING quilts!

Blogger’s Quilt Festival!

In my last post I showed a little sneak peek of the quilt that I wanted to show for the festival, but alas time has gotten away from me and so I’m going to have to make that my next post.  It’s a very special quilt to me and it’s got a great story…but everyone will just have to check back for that

So what to show?  I decided to go with a quilt that I completed earlier this year that hasn’t been on the blog yet.  This quilt is great inspiration to dig into your WIPS and make something glorious.   One of the children I nannied for in undergrad had a great kite quilt on his bed and I wanted to try something like it.  His was pieced and I didn’t have a pattern (also, I do not thrive on patterns) so I decided to applique some kites onto a blue background and go from there.  But it never went anywhere.  Alas, it sat in a box for the better part of five years, just three kites appliqued and two pinned on a blue rectangle.  Then this spring I had a little (sadly short lived) kick to finish up all of the WIPs I could.  I think this one turned out marvelously!

 

I kind of went all out on the quilting techniques! First I hand quilted the background swirls with a white metallic quilting thread.  Then I quilted around the kites with cotton perle.  Then I embroidered some bows on the kite strings.  Then I machine quilted the borders.  Finally I bound it up.

Sadly it has been sitting in my etsy shop, well, linen closet for a few months now.  I’m hoping to find someone to give it to soon.  I’m pretty sure this quilt is just waiting to become a “special blanky” for a child somewhere!

Make sure to check out all the quilts in the festival (click the widget on the sidebar to find your way there).  I know I’m just waiting for a slow night this week to click away!