Blogger's Quilt Festival Starts Tomorrow!

One of the highlights in the quilt blogging universe is when Amy Ellis' Bloggers Quilt Festival arrives in the Spring and the Fall.  Amy hosts the festival to give those of us who will not be attending the big International Quilt Market show (held in Houston, TX each Fall) a chance to show off our newest and best work! 

Just like in the Spring BQ Festival, there will be entry catagories based on the style of quilt:  Mini, Small, Large, Applique, Art, Hand Quilted, Home Machine Quilted, Modern, Original Design, ROYGBIV and Scrappy.  Anyone can enter a project (beginner, intermediate or advanced) so if you have something you'd like to showcase, please post a link so we can all check it out!   If you missed any of the previous festivals, you can still access all the links here.

 

Starting tomorrow on Amy's site, you will be able to link your festival blog post (and it must be a new post, not an old one) in the appropriate catagory and you can view other's links until October 31.  During this time you can also vote for your Viewer's Choice favorites.  After that, the ability to add links will close and everyone can go back and vote for their favorite quilt in each catagory up until November 7.  Amy has a slew of sponsors who will be awarding prizes to the winners in each catagory when they are announced on November 8. 

 

I doubt I will entering something in the festival this time but I know I will be taking time each day to view all the wonderful quilts that have been made by bloggers around the world.  It always offers new creative inspiration and is a great chance to pick up some new blogs to follow.  Join the fun, post a quilt, support the prize sponsors and give Amy a virtual pat on the back for continuing this wonderful tradition! 

3rd Quarter Finish Along Check In

The Bad News?  Despite the long list I hoped to complete for the 3rd Quarter, I only managed one finish.  The Good News?  It's a gift for my neighbors that I am very happy to be able to finish and give!



This was #4 on the 3rd Quarter Finish Along List I posted here.  It's now dubbed "The Mack's Morning Catch" from the pattern "Morning Catch" by Rochelle Martin of Cottage Quilt Designs from her book "Man Cave Quilts".  

I did it up in batiks taking the fabric cues and color scheme from the pattern but added the bobber and tackle box applique from the book "A Star "4" Every Season" by Kansas Troubles.  I also changed the names of the fish used in the pattern to the types of fish in our local waters.  While the fish applique at the bottom was also made from a batik, the others were cut from regular quilting cottons.  The words, fishing rod and bobber were made from Windham hand-dyes leftover from another project and some Cherrywood fabrics from sampler packs that I had purchased at a quilt show a few years ago.

Some detail shots:

My favorite fish....

 although these came out pretty good too.

 The "fishing line" is pearl cotton couched on to the top.

The tackle box is made of a brushed cotton plaid and flannel from my scrap stash.

You can really see the quilting on the back which is also flannel.

      
It took me a while longer to complete than I thought it would and it's been hard to get good pictures because it has been cloudy the last few days.  But I needed to get this done if I was going to make the quarter reporting deadline!

This wasn't the only thing I worked on this quarter.  They don't rank as a finish (which is why I'm not reporting them separately), but I was able to move #2 on my 3rd Quarter list, the two Civil War Repro lap quilts, to the flimsy stage:

While I'm still in quilting mode, I'm hoping to get these quilted up over the next week (although knowing me, it will probably will wind up taking a few weeks).

Now that I've checked in, it's time to go see what everyone else got done! If you want to see that too, head on over to Katy Cameron's blog The Littlest Thistle and see all the other lovely quilted goodness that was completed this quarter!