Blogger's quilt festival 2018

It's been a long time since I last joined the quilt festival. But I recently finished a new quilt and I really want to share it with you. But first, a big thank you to Amy for hosting the quilt festival again. Seriously, I don't know how you get the energy to do this over and over, but it's much appreciated. I can't wait to see the other contributions and are gearing up for total aweness over the next couple of days

This quilt has been a long time coming - the blocks are from no less than 3 different projects, that I never finished:

• The center is my very first quilt crush - it's the bird from Sara's Fielkes ' Quilting from Little things'. I always admired her quilt and started the first bird in high spirit, but just never got round to make bird #2,3, or 4.
• Same story with the blocks that makes the first frame. It's a pattern the UK quilting magazine 'Love Patchwork and quilting' issue 28. I made lot's of blocks, but never enough for a whole quilt, before caving in.
• The second frame is just simple big blocks. It's a John Adams pattern in the 'Color workshop' book by Fat Quarterly. I even threw my very best Joel Drewberry fabrics at this project, but the magic just never happended, and all the cutted blocks went straight into the cuppoard for a long time.

A Saturday night in the spring, I was feeling  restless and not at all like a quilt-ninja. I had a glass of wine and went into my sewing room, where the bird was still hanging on the design wall. Ottis Redding was playing on Spotify and I starred at the bird feeling slightly annoyed.  Then suddenly I saw the other blocks on the table - realising it was made in similar color schemes. Finally an idea started to take shape. I played around adding blocks next to the bird and finally remembered the blocks from the closet too... and many songs later, the last frames were added on the design wall.

Even though the process was a bit of a nightmare and full of lost promises to myself, I love this quilt. It's fun, vibrant, not what you'd expect and the colors are my all-time favorites. I've mixed lots and lots different fabrics. The center is hand quilted and the borders are machine quilted.  It measures 70x70 inches. I Finished it in August 2018 and was really happy to give it to my best friends birthday the same day.

(sorry - only close up was just after I finished the handquilting, and before ironing - it looks a bit crincled here).

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