Happy Halloween!

ceramic pumpkins by my DH, The Potter

Wishing you a Halloween that's all treats, no tricks!

Blogger's Quilt Festival Fall 2013 - Whisper

I love this time of year!  Autumn is in it's full glory here in Western Washington, the weather is turning cooler and it's time for the best quilt show of the year - Blogger's Quilt Festival!  

The festival is open to everyone, and there are so many beautiful quilts to admire and be inspired by, not to mention, "meeting" new-to-me bloggers!  If this is your first time visiting Indigo Threads, welcome!  I hope you'll come back often.  And if you're familiar with my little blog, welcome back!

"Whisper" 69 1/2 x 85 inches - all ready to snuggle up with!

Here is my entry in the Scrappy Quilt category.  This is my version of a "low volume" quilt.  I was intrigued by the idea, as so many of my quilts are done in bright and/or intense colors.  

some of the awesome quilting my LA'er did

I was amazed that I made this all from my stash.  Who knew I had so many light fabrics??  *grin*  I used true scraps, fat quarters, and I also cut  pieces from some yardage as well. 

There are new fabrics and old fabrics, pastels, novelties, 30's reproductions, conversationals, shirtings, polka dots (of course!) and even some of my hand-dyed fabrics.  And lots of cat fabrics too!

You name it, if it was white, off-white, light tan or pastel it went in here.

The only fabrics I bought specifically for this quilt are the border and backing fabrics.

These were my first two blocks.  I got the pattern from the book "Successful Scrap Quilts" by Margaret Rolfe.  These are very easy blocks - just cut strips 2 1/2 by 4 1/2 inches.  And no matching of any seams when things get sewn together!  Whee!  Just easy-peasy.

I started this quilt almost a year ago, here.  I've shown, on the blog, some of the progress on this quilt over the last year.  I actually had this finished at the beginning of the month so it could go in our local quilt show, but I was wanted to show the big finish on the blog for the first time for the BQF.

the back of "Whisper"

The quilting can be seen in this photo.  I asked my long-armer, Shari, to do free-hand hearts and flowers, since this is such a "girlie" quilt.  I love her quilting on this - it's perfect!

Here is more of an all-over shot of the quilt.  My poor DH is struggling to hold it up, as it's so big!  It's definitely big enough to wrap up in.

I can't wait to start reading my book and snuggling up with "Whisper".  

Follow this link to see my other entry into the Blogger's Quilt Festival, The Halloween Quilt, in the Bed Quilt category.

If you haven't had the chance yet, hop on over to the Blogger's Quilt Festival and take a look at all the wonderful quilts to be seen!

Blogger's Quilt Festival Fall 2013 - The Halloween Quilt

Time for ghosts and goblins to be out and about in the neighborhood.  Are you ready?

And it's time for the Blogger's Quilt Festival too!  Which one are you more excited about?  In spite of Halloween being my favorite holiday, I'd have to say I'm pretty darn excited about the BQF! 

The Halloween Quilt - Front
69 x 84 inches

Here is my entry into the festival in the Bed Quilt category.  This is The Halloween Quilt, made with lots and lots of Halloween fabrics. Not a very original or catchy name, but it works. 

 I actually finished this quilt last fall, but I've never shown the finished quilt on the blog before.  It is so big that I couldn't find a way to photograph the whole thing.  (the above photo was taken while it was hanging at the county fair this year)  It's been on my bed for the entire month of October, getting me in the proper mood for this fun holiday - one of my favorites!

The pattern I used is Scrappy Trips by Bonnie Hunter over at Quiltville.  I know a lot of people have made Scrappy Trip quilts over the past year - it seemed to be a Big Thing on the quilting blogs!  This is my third quilt done in this pattern since I discovered Quiltville about 8 years ago, and it will probably not be my last!  It's such a fun, easy pattern.

I deviated from the original pattern a little bit by using 3 inch cut strips instead of 2 1/2 inch.  I wanted to really show off the novelty fabrics I was using, and didn't want them cut so small that you couldn't see some of the details. That size strip makes a 15 inch quilt block, which means the quilt is made a little faster. 

But I didn't use only novelty fabrics either.  There are plaids, dots, hand-dyes tone-on-tone and other fabrics.  Whatever looked like it would work.  I had a hard time stopping buying Halloween fabrics!  Mind you, I started with a pretty good stash of Halloween novelties, since it's one of my favorite holidays.  I still have enough for 3 or 4 more quilts!  *grin*

When I was ready to set the blocks together, I laid them out on the living room floor.  My husband and son decided on the zigzag layout, and which block went where.  It was fun to have them help me!

The Halloween Quilt - Back

This quilt decided it wanted to be two-sided.  I added lots of Halloween panels that I've collected over the years.  I can't decide which side I love more - they're both fun.

Here is a picture of the back when I was just getting started on constructing it.  I laid the quilt top down on the living room floor, then started adding the panels and chunks of fabrics on top of it.  I figured that would be the most direct way of knowing when it was big enough. LOL  You can see parts of the blocks on the front peeking through the panels.  I think making the back took me longer than making the front!

I added not just panels, but chunks and pieces of Halloween fabrics, and leftover bits from the front blocks as well.  Nothing went to waste.

Some of the panels I cut up and added bits of fabric around the smaller panels, to make things more interesting.  It was a lot of fun.  Like doing a gigantic jigsaw puzzle.

I didn't have quite enough border fabric, so I pieced flying geese in the corners.  I think it added more interest too, although it's subtle.

My long-arm quilter quilted all kinds of fun things on this quilt, but most of them don't show up well enough for a photo.  She added witches riding brooms, moons, stars etc. and then quilted Halloween words around the border.  Things like "haunted house", "spells", "boo", and so on, all the way around.  It's lots of fun to play I Spy with the quilting!

This is one of my favorite quilts.  I sure was looking forward to using it for the month of October.  I hope you've enjoyed seeing it too!

Follow this link to see my second entry into the Blogger's Quilt Festival, Whisper, in the Scrappy Quilt category.

I hope you'll take some time and cruise around the rest of the BQF and be awed and inspired by all the rest of the quilts!

Missing Blogger Found Alive!

Wow, that was a much longer bloggy break than I had planned on.  After such a long time,  I'm feeling a little out of practice with blogging.  So, I'll just jump in and get past that awkward feeling!

I did get my Quilt of Valor finished in time for the Quilt Show.

I started with this panel, way back in June.  Then I stalled and stalled, until I found out it needed to be a finished quilt, not just a top, for the quilt show.  I pretty much panicked at that point.

Okay, in the interest of not boring you, Dear Reader, nor myself, I'm giving you the condensed version.

First try at the star - I didn't like the way the white "bled" into the border.

I added an inner border to contain those fierce birds, then starting adding the blocks I received from Magpie Sue over at The Magpie's Nest blog.  I made a false start when it came to the stars in the corners, but eventually got them right.

Final star - used some older fabric and it looks great.

I went to a quilt show and found a Q.O.V. fabric that was perfect for the outer borders and binding.  I talked to Bridget at my LQS, who has a long-arm machine.  I knew I couldn't do a decent job on this (as it would be my first try on a long arm), so Bridget volunteered to donate her time and talent to quilt this for me (Thank you, Bridget!!).

Finished!

I got it back from her on Tuesday at 9 p.m. and had until Thursday at 10 a.m. to get the binding done.  And I got it done in time!  Yay!  I think our collaboration worked really well, Sue - Thanks!

When I went to the quilt show I mentioned above (where I found the Q.O.V. border fabric), I also bought myself a new wallet.  Isn't it cute??

The creator's card is visible in this shot.

Lots of storage room in here!

And look at all these cute selvages!  I haven't had a new wallet in years, and I'm loving this one!

I participated in a block exchange with my friends in California.  They were doing blocks for The Future's So Bright quilt that Crazy Mom Quilts did.  Here are my blocks.  We made 8 each of Block A (the double 4 patch) in two color schemes, and ditto for the Block B blocks.  Using brights, of course!  I missed the exchange date (didn't read the calendar correctly . . . too focused on the quilt show), but they should be there by now.  And the blocks I'll receive will be here soon.  This is gonna be a fun quilt to do. I should get busy making more blocks for the quilt, as I certainly have lots of bright fabrics to play with.  But I want to play with some other things for awhile first.