ETA:  For those here for the quilt festival - please see my festival entry, found HERE




As you know, on Thursday night, I was all  "ZOUNDS! I must complete my Bloggers Quilt Festival entry!"  But at about 10:00 p.m. on Friday night, BSP and I were both in PJ's, bedside lamps on and I said "Babe, I'm just going to go downstairs and get the Ikea catalouge and a quilting magazine - be right back!."




So, coral pink tulle in hand, I unerringly pulled from my scraps stash two lengths of fabric that were part of a  a scrap bag of batiks I purchased for $5.00.   I thought I would just quickly run a seam up them to make a fat quarter sized piece of fabric 

ETA:  For those here for the quilt festival, please see my festival entry found HERE







Although it's rained for most of the weekend, I did manage to pop out and get some pictures between showers.  So, here is the quilt I orirginally intended to show in the Bloggers' Quilt Festival.

It’s very exciting to be part of the Park City Girl: Quilt Festival - Fall 2009 once more.  My sincere thanks to Amy at Park City Girl and all of the wonderful sponsors for putting this together!

My entry – well – entries, will be a surprise to my regular readers. 

You see, I’ve been working feverishly on a quilt for the Festival and finished it last night at about 11:30 (talk about coming in under the wire!) but sadly – I have not been able to get any pictures that do it justice. I have tried any number of locales and lighting in our house and it just. wasn’t. happening. Not being a great photographer, I think I needed to move “the shoot” outdoors but it’s a rainy fall day here today - so even The Universe is not cooperating.  But maybe the Universe wanted me to move in a different direction.  ;)

So, I’m submitting two quilts that I’ve already posted here in my blog, both of which are examples of what I see as my “jumping off” point as a quilter.

What I mean by that is, when I made my first quilt about a year and ½ ago, I knew, while sewing away, that this was it. I mean, “It” with a capital “I”.  My heart was singing,  my brain was racing: I had fallen in love!  And I knew at a cellular level that this was going to be my passion for the rest of my life.


The sad part was that I was in no way prepared for this passion! As I was quilting that first quilt, I was dreaming of the next one and the next one and the next one, but I didn’t have the knowledge or the skills necessary to construct the tops I saw in my head. And I sure as heck wasn’t able to do the quilting!

So these two quilts, called Mans’ Fans (the chocolate one) and Baby-Go-Round (the graphic white and black) gave me hope. I’d made a lot of quilts before that, but even as I made them, I knew they were only practice runs. Because I knew I had to put in the time, learn the skills, practice, practice, practice (!) – and though I was moderately or sometimes very pleased with the results, they weren’t what I really wanted to make.


"Man’s Fans" on the other hand, was.  It was the second time that I made one of the quilts I saw in my head ( the first was the one I entered in the first Bloggers Quilt Festival ).  The construction of Man's Fans wasn’t what it should have been (in fact, the top was the third or fourth top I made, and that’s when I knew I really wasn’t ready to make those fantasy quilts!); but the quilting - oh the quilting!  was done fairly recently, and it was the first time I ventured into what I think of as “artistic” quilting territory.  When it was done, I was STOKED. *happy dance*


Again, I could see where I went wrong and what needed to be improved, but there it was! A whole quilt top and quilting, that I only ever saw in my head – right there in front of me!!! Could there be a better feeling in the world? (Okay, loving and living with my Beloved Spouse and children aside. :) ) 

Man's Fans excited me personally, because after completing it, I was sure that some day (maybe some day soon!), I would finally be able to make the quilts I want to make.


And the next one that I found amazing was “Baby-Go-Round”.

It’s a simple quilt, but  it was exciting to me because it was the first time in my quilting career that a quilt I conceived in my head came to fruition – exactly as I had envisioned it. Pretty exciting stuff if you’re a quilt nerd like me!

So, I thought I’d share these two quilts with you.  I know I have a long way to go - even as I write this, you should know, there is a quilt in my head that is dying to be made (I've had the fabrics purchased for it for almost a year ) and I think I'm going to be ready to make it soon.  My fingers are itching to cut and sew! 

I hope you like these two offerings to the quilting world.  I'm not where I want to be yet - but I'm on my way.  "Stay tuned" as they say. :)

And in the meantime, enjoy the Festival. I know I will!

For some reason, I thought the Blogger's Quilt Festival started on Monday.  I know, I know, it says right there in my sidebar "October 9" but, I somehow thought, up until yesterday, actually, that somehow that meant I magically had four whole days to finish quilting my Festival entry.



So, er, what am I doing here again, talking to you?

Bye!

;)

My new tote bag.  Yay!  :)

My Friday post will be another small project (involving lots and lots of RED, because the sneak peek I gave you last week of the quilt I'm working on is labour intensive and will be saved for posting next week during the Bloggers Quilt Festival hosted once more by Amy at Park City Girl.

Are you particpating?  I hope so!

See you Friday.  :)

I wasn't feeling well (and to not quilt, you know I'm not feeling well!), and by the time I recovered, it was time to go. 

Beloved Spouse and I went away for the weekend - some much needed R&R time in the country.

So I have nothing to show you for my usual Monday post.  However, I'll make my "Monday" post, on Tuesday.