Crazy Old Lady Picked ME!!!

So, not only did my Super Mario Bros. Quilt win "Best In Show", but my Bangles quilt won the Emily Herrick Designers Choice Award!

Each year there is a Challenge fabric that you may purchase a fat quarter of at the show.  The following year, you submit a quilt to the show made from that fabric.

Last years challenge fabric was Emily Herrick's Bottle Caps from her Going Coastal collection.

Since Emily is a local, I asked her to come and judge the Challenge category and choose her favorite.

I made her promise that she would be impartial and chose her favorite.... even if it was mine ;D

You can see ALL of the challenge quilts HERE on Konda's blog.

You can read all about the making of this quilt HERE.

Blogger's Quilt Festival

I am SO excited to enter this quilt in AmysCreativeSide's 2013 Spring Bloggers Quilt Festival :D

My quilt is entered into the baby quilt category #18 HERE (VOTE for me there too ;)

Each year for our local quilt show, The Peteeneet Quilt Show, there is a challenge fabric.  

The challenge fabric for this year is a darling print from Emily Herrick's fabric collection, Going Coastal.  Specifically, it was the bottle caps print. (Which is my FAVORITE!!)

I used prints from Emily's Going Coastal and Shore Thing collections to make this quilt.

Last year, I turned the bottle caps into 1.5" hexies.  ...and set them aside for a bit (like 8 months ;)

I used English paper piecing for my method of hexifying the fabric ;D

My original design for the quilt was totally different from what I ended up with :)

The bangle design was inspired by pictures I saw on Instagram of hexies made from Sarah Fielke's new book Hand Quilted With Love called Bangles.

I have been crushing on English Paper Piecing (epp), so I came up with a paper template that would get me an EPP bangle.

I have become TOTALLY obsessed with EPP.

Deciding how to quilt this sweet baby was really hard.

I finally came to the realization that the quilting would have to be a hybrid, 

a little hand quilting and a little machine quilting.

(The back)

With the nautical theme, the white fabric required small pebble quilting.

The hand pieced English paper pieced bangles and border hexies required hand quilting.

For the hand quilting, I used pearl cotton embroidery thread.

I used white for the bangles and navy for the border hexies.

Fussy cutting lent to an AWESOME hexy in the border ;D

This quilt will eventually belong to our future (someday) grandchild. ;D

You can read all about this quilts evolution HERE.

Quilt Stats

• Quilt Measurements- 35" x 33.25"
• Special Techniques used- English paper piecing, hand applique, entirely hand pieced.
• Quilted by ME! ;)  I used my home machine for the pebbles and hand quilting for the English paper piecing.

Spring 2013 Blogger's Quilt Festival over at Amy's Creative Side.  

You can check it out  HERE

Bangle Head Way

The pebble quilting is finished :)

Next came time to figure out how to bind the quilt.  There are 8 million epp tops out there and only THREE that are finished ;)  ....and even fewer that are finished with the edges left with the hexy edges. (does that make sense?)

Anyhoots, I found a tutorial over at Badskirt HERE.  I started by making a mirror border of the front hexies.

I needed 54 more 1.5" hexies to make my hexy binding.  Once they were basted, I laid them out on top of the "top border of hexies" to arrange them before I hand sewed them up (you can see the "hexy binding" in the picture below. They are upside down and still have the papers in them.).

Next I hand stitched the "binding hexies" all together to make a bid hexy ring :) (sorry I didn't get a shot of the ring of "binding hexies")

Once the binding hexies were in a giant ring, I hand stitched the "top hexies" to the ring of "binding hexies" along the outside edge.

Then I cut away the extra backing fabric and batting to meet the edge of the quilt.  I found tracing a line was helpful!

Finally I flipped the binding hexies over to the back of the quilt.

...and pinned...

...and pinned...

...and pinned...

You probably have the idea ;D

Next came the hand stitching of the "binding hexies" to the back of the quilt.

See my needle at the bottom of the picture below?

This is how the front looks now :) 

I have started my hand quilting on the bangles.

I am using size 12 white pearl cotton.

I'm really liking the quilting :) ...even though it is pretty "organic" ;D 

I am a bit worried about hand quilting the borders.  There is a TON of fabric on the edges.  I'll probably need piers to get the needle through :/  Should I quilt the edge in white or navy?  I am leaning toward navy.  Thoughts?

Here are a few shots of the back side.

I decided to use left over scraps from my Shore Thing and Going Coastal stash.

It's busy, but I like it :)

 :)

Top Completed & Quilting Begun

I finished assembling the border today :) I hand appliqued it on :)

I basted it!

I began the pebble fmq.

LOVE it!

Bangle Borders

I decided to do a 1.5" hexy border with the white background prints from Emily Herrick's Going Coastal and Shore Thing.

The border will be finished so that it is still all hexied out ;)

For the quilting, I am thinking very small pebble fmq for the white.  Hand quilting for the hexies :)

I'm using the tutorial from Badskirt HERE for finishing the quilt.  Its BRILLIANT and DARLING!!!

Because Bangles ROCK

Ta-Da!!!  The bangles are all hand stitched together :)

I have a REALLY BIG crush on this quilt. (I LOVE epp)

It pressed up so nicely with a little Maggie's Classy Hooch Press ;D

Next came the applique process.  I decided to hand applique the bangles to a white background.

Once I was finished appliqueing the bangles on the background, I snipped the white backing away.

We have company coming tonight, so I am not sure if I'll get much more if this quilt done this week :)  I'd like to get the top finished so I can baste the quilt and have it handy for all of the hand quilting this sweet baby is going to get :)

xoxo

Bangle Update

Basted bangle pieces.

Backs of bangles.

Sets all set for sewing.

4 finished... should I do more?

Of course!! ;D