Blogger's Quilt Festival

Once again, Amy has organized a wonderful quilt show for us bloggers!  New visitors, Welcome to Annie's Quilt Orts.  I have been blogging for just over a year and the quilt I am going to show is one I made for my Australian friend Sue.  Though we originally met online through quilting, it was the commonalities in other parts of our lives that made us friends.  Sue came to the U.S. meet me and my family in 2001 and we have remained friends since.  Her life changed more than mine and eventually she found herself getting married again, to the soulmate she had been missing.  Jokingly, she asked if I fancied coming to the wedding and I knew the time had finally come for me to repay the visit.  I had always wanted to go to Australia!  After making my travel plans and plane reservations, sending off for my passport and making arrangements to take off work (I had 3 jobs at the time!), of course, I decided to make a quilt.  It had to be simple to suit Sue's modern tastes yet sparkling and lively enough to reflect the couple it would belong to and the gorgeous Queensland locale of their home.  And it had to be done in six weeks! 

The star pattern came from an old American Patchwork & Quilting magazine from 1999. I loved the two color idea but it just wasn't enough variety for me!  Then I found a fat quarter collection of Robert Kaufman hand-dyed batiks that I felt was perfect.  Cutting commenced with a template.  I am not the greatest cutter outer and luckily I found out early how poorly I was doing--epic fail with a test block!  If I had continued, every single point in the entire quilt would have gotten cut off when I joined the blocks.  So, recutting was started and then lots and lots of sewing...the blocks were 6" finished, fiddly things.  There was a lot of sliver trimming that took place but all my points came out well and the quilt had the variety of color I wanted.

The completed top got its sashing and became this:

The throw-sized quilt was completed in six weeks, even though I was sewing on the label in the car on the way to the airport!  It stayed with me through four airports and traveled thousands of miles and many, many hours to Port Douglas, Queensland, where I met Sue again and was introduced to her love and her family.  While we were on their gorgeous boat on the Coral Sea, anchored near the Great Barrier Reef, I presented the quilt to my dear friend Sue and her man Jon, and was overjoyed at the happy and surprised reaction.  They loved it and Sue said it would grace their cabin bedroom, as it contained all the colors of  the sea.  It truly does!

Taken in their backyard, poolside!

I love a pieced back! Simple wave quilting was done and a scrappy binding with leftovers from the batiks.  The quilt is named "Coral Sea for Two".  I will always treasure making this quilt and getting to deliver it in person in the great Down Under land of Oz. 

Lessons learned in this quilt:

• Don't settle for fabric that's "okay".  Wait for the right ones to speak to you.
• Make a test block EARLY in the cutting process!
• Use value to your advantage.  The shades in this quilt are from palest blue to deepest blue-black, with aqua and some green thrown in.  Visually more interesting than a two fabric quilt I think.
• Make a mistake work for you!  I cut the backing too small and improvised by sewing a bunch of strips and squares together to increase the length.  It turned out to be one of my favorite parts of the quilt!
• Remember to enjoy the process.  It's easy to get caught up in "get it done" instead of concentrating on how much love you are sewing with every stitch.
• Finally, take lots of pictures of your gift with its recipients!  I didn't get any photos of Sue and Jon with the quilt and I am so sorry.

Thank you for visiting, please come again any time and see what I'm up to!