Blogger's Quilt Festival entry

Hello! Here's my entry in the ROYGBIV category of the Blogger's Quilt Festival fall 2016 edition, hosted by Amy Ellis.

How wonderful when an idea you have in your head turns out even better than you imagined! For days I had toying with my ideas for a new pillow, but couldn't settle on one. Then at our guild meeting, a fellow member showed a herringbone baby quilt she made and a light went on. What a perfectly simple pattern to show off a rainbow of colour! And oh do I love how it turned out!

Here's a(n almost too) sunny shot to show off the quilting:

I first drafted a pattern that was five by five, but then thought why go for 10 by 10! That would make the finished HST 2", and I'd need 50 different fabrics. Let the stash rummaging commence! I pulled this glorious stack of prints, primarily Alison Glass and Tula Pink with a little Cotton + Steel, Carolyn Friedlander and a few other designers thrown in to round out the mix.

Then it was time to get to work making and trimming 100 HST. That task took quite a few podcasts to get done! Thankfully it's not a job I mind, and you end up with the most lovely trimmings. Piecing all the HST together went quite smoothly, helped by the simple pattern not even I could mess up.

I was thrilled when the top was together and I could stand back and admire it in all its rainbow goodness!

Thankfully I had another stroke of inspiration when I was mulling over the quilting. I couldn't decide on what thread colour to use, then it hit me to use them all! I have a small collection of Aurifil thread, but I was able to find 10 colours that went perfectly. I stuck with simple straight-line quilting, starting close together in the centre of each row and then adding a bit more spacing as I went out. I didn't want the quilting to distract from the bold pattern.

And here it is all quilted with the threads I used. It was down to the wire on the yellow!

I had no doubts about what fabric to put on the back when a very lovely woman I know from Instagram (@keizerquilts) sent me a metre of this Heather Ross unicorn print that I adore. That rich plummy background seemed perfect for the saturated colours of the front. And unicorns! I just had to be careful in the cutting to not end up with scary unicorn heads floating on the back. I did end up with a unicorn butt on the right, which oddly seems to happen every time I work with unicorn fabric.

I love this shot I took of the pillow on the front porch of an old stone farmhouse not too far from my home. I bike by it all the time and find it just so sad to see a home abandoned and empty. I always imagine all the moments both sweet and bittersweet a family shared inside its walls, now replaced by silence.

You can check out the festival here on Amy's Creative Side blog. Be sure to check out all the amazing entries in each category and vote for your favourites!