Amy's Creative Side - Blogger's Quilt Festival


I've been so looking forward to the festival and getting to see everyone's lovely quilts and reading about them.

My entry is called Summer Bubbles. Maybe I should have something a little more autumnal for the festival but it's spring here in Australia and I finished this quilt about this time last year so it's a nice way to celebrate its 1st anniversary.

I used a pattern called Ginger Spice by Hugs n Kisses. The original pattern is a baby quilt but I up sized mine to make a queen size quilt. Instead of a jelly roll I used 4 inch strips of Amy Butlers Midwest Modern range and I enlarged the curves and circle sizes as well to keep it all in proportion.
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This was such a fun quilt to make. It would be super quick to make if you attached the ric rac by machine and raw edge appliqued the circles. I did both by hand but back then I had more time to enjoy hand sewing in quiet moments.


I finished the top but somehow got it into my head that the circles looked too flat. In the end I decided to stuff them which consisted of cutting in behind each circle and adding some extra batting then sewing up the hole again. It was a lot of extra work but definitely worthwhile. The circles look so much better and it's so nice to run your hands over them.


The border fabric was some fabric I found in a bargain bin years ago before I was a quilter and bought thinking it'd be perfect for a skirt. I never got around to making the skirt luckily because the colours and circular flowers matched the rest of the quilt perfectly.

I hand quilted in perle 8 cotton in lots and lots of different sized circles in different colours. I didn't mark the quilt but just pinned paper circles to the quilt and stitched around them. Some are a little crooked and look more like potatoes than circles but it adds character. Quilting with perle cotton seems so much faster than quilting cotton. I guess it's the bigger stitches. I really like the obvious hand sewing look of it and the way the colour of thread really shows up.
If I had the time I'd hand quilt all my quilts, I find it so relaxing, my mind drifts away. I guess it's like meditation for me.
This is one of the quilts I entered in the Springwood Community Quilt Show. It's such a nervous but wonderful feeling to see something you've made being displayed in public. It received some lovely comments which is always encouraging. I now sometimes refer to this quilt as my Show Quilt. It's really earning it's title now!

Before this quilt I'd made a few quilts in a row as gifts for family and friends. This quilt I made especially for me, and I'm so happy with the way it turned out.

Thanks again to Amy for bringing everyone together for the Bloggers Quilt Festival and 3 cheers to all the wonderful sponsors!! It's going to be a fun week , I'm going to try to visit everyone who is posting a quilt!!

Cheerio