Blogger's Quilt Festival - Monkey Around

I had a hard time picking another quilt for the Blogger's Quilt Festival, but I finally decided on this one!  This is a fun baby quilt made from a line called Hello World by Abi Hall for Moda.  This is a pattern I designed that I usually make with a light background fabric, but for this one I used a dark fabric and I think it came out looking terrific!

One of my favorite things about this quilt is the two different sizes of Monkey Wrench blocks (also called Churn Dash).  I just think it really adds to the fun look.

I fussy cut the animals for the centers of the small blocks, and they are so cute!

So fun!  I think this would be a great quilt for a little boy.  I quilted swirls all over it - fast and easy.

Thanks for looking!  If you like my pattern it is available in my Etsy shop - just click the picture below.

Click here to buy this pattern!

Make sure you go check out the rest of the posts for the Blogger's Quilt Festival - and add your quilts to the fun, too!  You might find a new blog or two to enjoy as well as lots of gorgeous quilts!

Bloggers Quilt Festival - Miniature Quilt

It was so hard to pick what my second entry should be in the Blogger's Quilt Festival!  I finally decided to go with the Miniature Quilt category.  Miniature quilts are one of my favorite kinds of quilting.  I've made mini's of all kinds over my years of quilting, in many different techniques.  My favorite so far this year is this one:

This was a miniature version of a lap quilt I made.  It measures 11 1/2 inches square, including the binding.  It is made from Island Batik fabrics, and I made it as a prize for a giveaway in a blog hop sponsored by Island Batik.  The winner was quite delighted with it!

Here is the back - I had fun with the quilting on this one, and really like how the stars pop on the front!

You can see how small those squares are in this shot - the squares are 1 inch finished.  Not the smallest I've ever pieced, but small enough!

Go check out all the categories at the Blogger's Quilt Festival!  Have fun getting to know some new bloggers and enjoy all the great quilts.

Blogger's Quilt Festival - Modern Quilt

It's that time of year again - the Blogger's Quilt Festival!  I've enjoyed participating in this several times as the event has grown every year, and look forward to seeing all the wonderful entries.  This year we can enter two quilts in different categories.  It's so hard to choose, but this quilt is one of my favorite quilts that I have created this year, and I think I was successful in designing a modern quilt using Batik fabrics (from Island Batik!)

This quilt was made using a package of 10 inch squares (Florida Oranges) and was a quilt that I think really made me grow as a quilter!  The simple piecing set the stage for me to do some more elaborate quilting on it, which was a lot of fun.

As I worked my way through the marking of straight lines and quilting some freehand wedges I was really inspired to try some different techniques and stretch my skills as a free-motion quilter.  The open spaces invited me to quilt spirals and swirls.  I was challenged to try to add more dimension by adding dense quilting in some areas and open channels in others.

I was delighted to receive a blue ribbon in my county fair for this quilt, along with a positive comment on my quilting!

 It was fun to see it hanging there, it really makes a statement!  I call this quilt Solar Flare - it measures 72 x 72.  I used Aurifil thread in a light gray to quilt it (50 wt) and Warm and Natural Batting.  

I hope you like my quilt as much as I do!  Make sure you check out the rest of the Modern Quilt Entries as well.