Viewer’s Choice Finalist!

Posted on May 26, 2015 by thequiltedcat

Hi everyone,

The spring Blogger’s Quilt Festival voting is happening this week over at Amy’s Creative Side!

I’m happy to announce that my mini butterfly quilt made it into the Viewer’s Choice category as a finalist.

Viewer’s Choice Finalist!

If you have the chance, hop over to the site and check out all the quilts in many different categories. You can vote for up to 3 quilts in each category. Each photo takes you to the quilt maker’s blog so you can read about individual quilt details.

If you’re inclined, I’d love your vote!!

Happy quilting!
~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

A Supernova Finish for Blogger’s Quilt Festival

Posted on October 28, 2014 by thequiltedcat

Happy rainy Tuesday (at least here in the PNW)!

Yesterday, I blogged about entering my Celtic Solstice into the scrappy category of the Blogger’s Quilt Festival, hosted by Amy Ellis.

Today, I want to share my entry into the modern category with you. This quilt is very special to me because it is the first one that I have done with a swap partner. I joined the Supernova Friendship Block Swap earlier this year and partnered up with Cindy Wilson of What’s One More Project. Starting in June, we each made 2 Supernova blocks and kept one for ourselves and then mailed the other one to our partner.

We swapped our last blocks just this month. We used the Ansonia fabric line by Denyse Schmidt. Cindy took the pink colorway, and I took the green colorway.The background is Kona Snow.

Here’s a look at our October blocks:

Supernova October Blocks

Lee over at Freshly Pieced designed the Supernova quilt to have borders, but I wanted my finished quilt to fit a smaller space. So, I made a decision to leave the borders off on my finished quilt top.

I used a light cream Aurifil thread to quilt an all-over design so that the attention stayed on those exploding Supernova blocks! My family loves this quilt because it reminds them of fireworks.

The binding is a dark brown piece from the Ansonia line. The quilt measures 54-inches square versus the original design of 62-inches square.

I really wanted to take pictures of the completed quilt in natural light, but it looks like the rain just won’t let up this week. So, with my quilting assistant standing by, I took some pictures this afternoon (having just finished the binding last night).

Tiger on Supernova

Another View of the Completed Supernova

Completed Supernova Quilt

Since I had one extra Supernova block, I decided to make the quilt back scrappy by using the block, left over Ansonia fabric, and a label.

Here’s a look:

Supernova Back

This quilt was so much fun to make, and helped me to stretch my piecing skills! I made a new quilting friend along the way and now have a one-of-a-kind quilt to proudly display in my home.

Enjoy!
~Jennifer

Blogger’s Quilt Festival – Scrappy!!

Posted on October 27, 2014 by thequiltedcat

Happy Monday, everyone!

For Blogger’s Quilt Festival, I just knew that I had to enter my Celtic Solstice into the scrappy category! The quilt festival is hosted by Amy over at Amy’s Creative Side.

Celtic Solstice is a mystery quilt designed by the queen of scrappy quilts, Bonnie Hunter. I participated in this mystery quilt last year. Although the free pattern is no longer available, Bonnie will include Celtic Solstice in a future book.

Quilt stats:

Started November 2013 and finished summer 2014.

Fabrics include: 7 oranges, 5 creams, 7 blues, and 9 yellows. Most pieces were from my stash, but I did pick up a few fat quarters here and there to add to the project.

I did a meandering quilt design using a domestic machine. Whew!

This was my first all scrappy quilt, and I think it turned out wonderfully!

Finished Celtic Solstice Quilt

Voting begins on November 1st so I can’t wait to check out all the beautiful quilts in the scrappy category and the other categories.

Enjoy!
~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: