Blogger's Quilt Festival 2010

Amy's Blogger's Quilt Festival is always a good place to get your creative juices flowing. She's at it again, so grab your laptop, a cup of tea, and check out all of the amazing quilts. Her list of participants is up to 486. To get started, all you need to do is click on the link on the side bar, and all of the sites are listed. This quilt is for my big, little guy. When he was nine, I made him a cozy, flannel and homespun quilt, something close to 54 X 54. A few months ago he brought the quilt to me and said, "mom, did doesn't fit anymore, I need a bigger one". (He's now 6'2") I figured I just make another cuddly quilt with the flannel, then he also adds, "I don't want one of your 'old lady' quilts, I want bright". I told him about the stack of batiks I had, blues, greens, and purples, you know, nice "guy colors", and he said, "Well add some hot pinks, and yellows too!"

In March, I went on a weekend retreat with my quilty friends to get this thing started. I took my batiks, the black fabric, and with no pattern in mind, I cut 1 1/2" strips, and 2 1/2" strips of all the colors. I started piecing them together randomly until I got a 14 1/2" block. It was easy when I started off with the 2 1/2 square. The combinations just flowed. I thought I could come up with the correct size finished block by starting with the 1 1/2" square, but it couldn't be done unless I added a 3 1/2" strip, so I made the four smaller blocks, and sewed them together to get the 14 1/2". Worked like a charm. I finished the blocks that weekend, but didn't get them sewn together until recently. I let my guy arrange the blocks to his liking, and then sewed them together. I asked him to choose the quilting pattern, and the thread. He wanted lime green, I told him the I had a reputation to uphold, so we compromised. I ended up using a varigated thread that had greens, blues and purples. I used some of the leftover strips to make the binding, and finished it up yesterday. He's a happy guy!! He has another hug from mom.

On a side note, he throws the discus for his track team at school, and took third place at district finals. He'll be going to sectionals later this week.