Saturday, 14 May 2011

Amy's Blogger's Quilt Festival

It was Amy's Quilt Festival that got me started on blogging.  I loved looking at the submitted quilts for a couple or festivals , and then decided that I wanted to play - so needed a blog.  Thank you to Amy, not only for the festival but for the introduction to Blogging too - I've made SO many friends!

To visitors FROM Amy's site, welcome.  To my guests who would like to see the wondourous quilts in the exhibition, click on the top box in the right hand column: make sure you have plenty of time, there is LOTS of lvely stuff to look at!!!!

The quilt I want to show you this time is this elephant of a quilt:

[hopefully you can move your cursor over the photo and it will zoom in]

This was made in 2004 as a leaving present for our Vicar and his wife.  They had been a big part of the lives of people in two villages for  about 12 years, and lots of people wanted to contribute.

It's about 6 foot high, and about 10 foot wide! Dozen of organisations and families contributed a small, medium or large block which where then all stitched together.

We didn't use the stitch-and-flip method, as the block were not uniform in size (tip 1, if you do a project like this, send out blank fabric squares for people to use, don't trust them to measure and cut accurately) and some groups had decorated right up to the edge (tip 2, draw a margin to give yourself a seam allowance).  Instead we joined two flat sheets, placed the blocks on the sheet wrong sides together, and used cotton tape over the joins. (tip 3, you need somewhere with a lot of clear floor space, and that is clean!)

A variety of decorating methods were used ... fabric pens
 


counted cross stitch
 

photo transfer




hand embroidery



Applique


We all have fun making it, and keeping the secret (300 children involved from the school where Mrs H worked -- and not one told them!!!) and they really loved the reminder of their time with us.

15 comments:

  1. How fun! But HUGE! I can't imagine working on something so large! Love your tips for it though, just in case.....

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  2. What a true labour of Love! Well done and thank you so much for sharing!
    :)

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  3. I love doing these kinds of quilts, you never know what your will receive for the blocks, they are always so unique. And the quilt is always so much appreciated by the recipient! How lovely.

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  4. wow a lot of work involved in that and a very nice thought too!

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  5. Vow, this is really an unique quilt full of special memories!

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  6. Whata lovely quilt! So personal. What a nice thing for you to do!

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  7. What a great quilt - I love it! And I love that you got into blogging for the exact same reasons that I did. :) I started almost a year ago for BQF! Welcome to blogging!

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  8. I just love hearing about special quilts like this...

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  9. Memory quilts are new easy, but allways rewarding. Great job.

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  10. That last comment was supposed to say memory quilts are not easy, but always rewarding. Typing while talking does not work!

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  11. What a big job! This has turned into a wonderful memory quilt. Well done!

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  12. A great quilt and a wonderful gift. Your tips are spot on. I did something similar for a school secretary that was departing for healthreasons. Each class signed a panel and I had the teachers all sign triangles. I marked the do not cross lone for the kids but figured te teachers could just understand, "don't write closer than 1/4". " I was wrong but I was able to fix it by writing the hidden text onthe adjoining piece. It was just a frustrating extra step. Lol

    I'm glad everyone was able to provide them with such fond and bright memories.

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  13. Precious quilt. How wonderful for them to have such a great memory. Thanks for sharing and have a great day

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