Prince Cherrywood Challenge Finalist!

Posted on December 20, 2018 by thequiltedcat

This past year, I entered a quilt into the annual Cherrywood Challenge for the first time. Cherrywood makes beautiful and unique hand dyed fabrics with a suede-like appearance. Each year, they sponsor a challenge where contestants can submit 20-inch by 20-inch quilts in a specific theme using a limited palette of Cherrywood fabrics.

For 2018, the challenge theme was Prince. The Prince Challenge fabric bundle contained 3 purples and 1 black. While we could use other Cherrywood colors as accents, our quilts had to “read” as purple. We could also use embellishments to enhance our quilts.

For my entry, I wanted to feature Prince and his wonderful performance at the Superbowl. In particular, I wanted to highlight the song “Purple Rain” because it was such a stunning moment for him and the audience.

Here’s a look at my completed quilt with a ruler to show the judges the 20-inch size:

Prince Cherrywood Challenge Completed Quilt

I used holographic thread for the swirly quilting in the black background. In person, the thread has a beautiful shimmery look to it. The black background also has little beads with silver metallic threads to represent the camera flashes from the stadium audience. I used a purple Razzle Dazzle thread to give a hint of the “purple” rain during the performance.

For the purple background, I used metallic thread in the straight-line quilting. I used the thread to accent the guitar, guitar strap, and to add music notes.

The Prince symbol represents the stage while Prince faces the crowd in a decorated purple jacket.

Here are some close-up pictures:

There were 388 submitted quilts for the Prince challenge. Out of those 388 quilts, there were 165 finalists.

My quilt made it as a finalist! It is now traveling the country to various quilt shows as part of the Prince Live Tour. I will get to visit the show in person in 2019 when it travels to 2 quilt shows near me: the Clark County Quilt Show in March and the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show in July. Cherrywood will likely have book signing events at each of these shows, and I hope to be one of the artists signing books.

Here’s a look at the Prince Cherrywood Challenge book:

You can order a copy of the book, featuring all of the finalist quilts, from Cherrywood directly or you can buy a copy at the traveling exhibit.

Happy quilting!

~Jen

Forest and Lake Art Quilt Flimsy Finished!

Posted on February 10, 2016 by thequiltedcat

Happy Wednesday, everyone!

For the past year, I’ve been steadily working on what I call an epic paper piecing project! It’s comprised of 2 art quilt-a-long projects designed by Janeen of Quilt Art Designs. The top section is the forest QAL and the bottom section is the lake QAL. Each section is broken down into 12-week chunks.

Here’s a look at the completed flimsy:

Forest and Lake QAL together!

When I do foundation paper-piecing, I tend to keep the papers on for as long as possible for added stability. If the paper makes a seam too bulky, I will remove part of it. Otherwise, I wait until the project is completed, and then remove all the paper at once.

Here’s what the back of the quilt top looks like:

Paper backing on Forest and Lake QAL

Now, that’s a bunch of paper to remove!! I did make one mistake on the forest portion so I had to make an adjustment not on the pattern, but I think it still turned out fine.

I’m not sure how to quilt this project. I’m going to take my take and do a bunch of custom quilting, I think. Once finished, I hope to display it in a couple of local quilt shows.

Enjoy!

~Jennifer

Spring Blogger’s Quilt Festival: Art Quilt Entry

Posted on May 16, 2015 by thequiltedcat

Hi everyone!

I hope you’re having a great weekend and have a little time for sewing.

My regular readers will recognize my entry into the Art Quilt category for the Blogger’s Quilt Festival.

It is a penguin mini-quilt based on Charley Harper’s original artwork! I made this mini quilt for an Instagram-based, Charley Harper themed swap. I made the design up as I went along so there really isn’t a pattern for it.

I started by gathering up blue, aqua, and low-volume neutral fabrics. Some of the fabrics are from the Charley Harper fabric lines by Birch Organic. I created a background by stitching together 2.5-inch squares, with the darker blues in the upper left-hand corner fading towards the low-volume neutrals. The bottom piece represents the ground.

For the penguins, I was inspired by the Charley Harper Nurture penguin fabric. I made my own applique pattern and used individual pieces of fabric to represent the parent penguin and the chic. I then carefully stitched around each fabric piece. The yellow accent lines are straight-stitched using Aurifil thread.

For quilting, I used my Bernina and my walking foot and did some simple, straight-line quilting using white Aurifil thread. I really love the results!

Here’s a look:

Charley Harper Penguin Mini Quilt

Penguin close-up

The backing piece uses all Charley Harper fabrics plus a label:

Hop on over to Amy’s Creative Side and check out all of the wonderful entries in the festival. I’d love your vote in the Art Quilt category!

Happy stitching!
~Jennifer

Forest QAL, Weeks 5 and 6

Posted on April 15, 2015 by thequiltedcat

Hello, everyone!

I caught up on the Forest QAL this weekend by completing weeks 5 and 6. This QAL pattern is by Quilt Art Designs and you can buy the pattern from her and do the project at your own pace.

This project is entirely paper-pieced and there are some really tiny pieces. In week 6, we made a little frog with pieces almost too small to measure. I had fun challenging myself to make the frog, and I’m pleased with how he turned out, nestled in the lower portion of a tree.

Here’s a look at my project so far. I haven’t stitched weeks 5 and 6 to the weeks 1-4 piece yet.

Forest QAL, Weeks 1-6

The finished quilt will be 38-inches by 52-inches so a pretty good sized, landscape-oriented art quilt! Just look at all of those cute birds and animals!!

Linking up with Sew Fresh Quilts for Let’s Bee Social. Check out her cute pigs and corn cobs!

Happy quilting!
~Jennifer

Blogger’s Quilt Festival 2014, Art Quilt Entry

Posted on May 23, 2014 by thequiltedcat

Happy Friday!

Many talented quilters are linking up some fabulous quilt projects this week over at Amy’s Blogger’s Quilt Festival for 2014.

At first, I was uncertain whether to add a project that I worked on this past year that has special meaning for me. I did blog about this art quilt earlier so long-time readers may recognize it. The art quilt is a fabric portrait of my very special cat and quilt inspector, Tiger. This is my first time entering the Blogger’s Quilt Festival, and I’m loving all the entries!

This quilt is my own design based on a photograph that I took of Tiger. I used different orange fabrics to imitate the orange stripes in his fur. I also accented the piece with free-motion quilting on my domestic machine. This quilting really accents his fur, the clouds in the sky, and the illusion of grass in the lower background.

I did some paper-piecing on the corner border blocks to draw the eye into the center of the quilt and to accent the colors in the cat’s fur.

I really love how this project turned out, and I now use a cropped image of the cat face as an avatar for various social media sites.

Here’s a view of the whole quilt: