Vote - Bloggers Quilt Festival

Hello everyone!!!  I just got back from my cruise vacation and I am simply honored, stunned, and amazed with the comments on my "Busting Out" entry for the Blogger's Quilt Festival.  I hope that I have responded to everyone and thanked them.  When I say that your comments made me smile, I mean it!

And.....can you believe it? I have been nominated for an award.  Really, its true!  Please check out the entries as there is some amazing inspiration out in the blog world.  There is also a bit of time left to go to Amy's Creative Side and vote in all of the categories.  My quilt is nominated in the hand quilting category.

(exhale and deep breath).......OK.....I am so, so, so hesitant to write this.  And if I do post it, I may go back and delete this entry later.  But as I alluded to in my last post, I am having internet issues.  The truth is that a few days before I left for vacation my house was broken into around 3 p.m. when I was at work with only the schnauzer at home.

The usual things were taken as well as the ice cube trays from the freezer, trash can, dresser, plant stand, and yes.....some quilts too.  I don't want to go into it, but I can tell you that during all the hours that I spent creating and hand quilting these quilts, I never once thought they would be used to carry away my shoes, handbags, and other items.  I am sure my mom didn't think about that either when she made me a Christmas quilt that I displayed year-round because I liked the colors (dark blue/red). 

I have quilt pictures in the PCs, iPad, and camera that was taken.  Busting Out was somehow spared because I had moved it to a different location to take photos for the festival.  My passport was also left behind so I was able to go on the cruise.  Although my quilt room was ransacked and some WIPs were destroyed, I found the fabric that I received for the In the Bag, Ugly Fabric Challenge in a neat stack downstairs.

So, looking ahead.....I still have the fabric to participate in the Ugly Fabric challenge.  And my mom is finishing this month's Color Palette challenge piece so I will try to post tomorrow using my dad's PC.  Also, I will be participating in the Lets Get Acquainted Blog Hop later in June at Plum and June.

Trying to stay positive.....

Blogger's Quilt Festival!

Who doesn't love a festival?  It is the Spring 2012 Blogger's Quilt Festival held by Amy at Amy's Creative Side.  I have been looking forward to this because I realized something big during the last festival.  I didn't have anything to enter because I give most of my quilts away.  I needed to make some quilts for me.  This led me to declare that 2012 would be my year of trying totally new techniques and stretching my quilts skills.

My entry is titled "Busting Out".

This is a piece that I would never have thought that I could make!  When I saw the inspiration piece for the 2010 Mod Mood quilt along at Daintytime., I reminded myself that 2012 was my year to stretch and I decided to go for it.  

First, I am not someone with a history of working with solids.  But when I started to pull out all my scraps (I save everything!), I was amazed at the variety of colors.  The instructions for the quilt along are excellent and I soon found myself sewing arcs together.

The piece was then hand quilted in a random design using random colored thread.

I absolutely LOVE the way that this turned out.  Although the title is "Busting Out" (as in the scraps busting out of my bag), I also thought of calling it "Willy Wonka's Music Factory".

Please stop by the festival and check out the entries.  There is so much inspiration out there!

(Note:  I'm having some internet issues, but will reply to comments as soon as I can.)

Color Palette Challenge - April

The inspiration piece for April's challenge was created by Vicki Welsh at Field Trips in Fiber.

I actually did not start on my project for a few days because I thought that this was an April Fools Day joke. The colors for this month's challenge were inspired by a moldy pie!

After pulling fabrics from my stash, I thought that all of the colors match nicely to my Flea Market Fancy (FMF) bundle.  But I had plans for the fabric.  So I thought about how I could use snippets from the fabrics in a piece and decided to use them as a frame.  Next was determining something to put in the frame.

I have been wanting to work on a project that features my dogs and thought about creating them in redwork or bluework.  Now, I had a plan.

First, I talked to my mom to see if she could embroider something drawn by me.  My mom sews by hand and creates beautiful redwork.  I actually have many of her blocks that need to be turned into quilts.

I wasn't quite sure how to transfer a design, but I found pictures with a strong outline.  I enlarged the pictures and printed them in black & white.

I traced the outline on a piece of white Kona and gave them to my mom to embroider in deep blue.  I left the snout area of my schnauzer blank and told my mom to create something because I wasn't sure how to draw that outline. 

I think I need to still work on a way to capture the schnauzer's bushy face!  I decided to work with the dalmatian.
 

My dalmatian reminds me of Mona Lisa.  Her name may be added later, if I can find where I put the blue embroidery thread.

I am really pleased with the result!  Its ready to hang in my mom's house.

Stop by Patchwork Times to check out the other entries in this month's challenge and view the color palette for May's challenge.

Also, its the first of the month so I am linking up to the Small Blog Meet at Lily's Quilts. I always enjoy this meet up because I get a chance to discover new blogs.