A Jungle Quilt

Here is my latest quilt.  My son was in need of a twin-sized quilt.  He decided he wanted a jungle theme for his quilt.  Here is the quilt I made for him:

The pattern I used for this quilt was designed to be a scrappy quilt.  It was posted on Julie's Blog with Big Horn Quilts.  I used several green prints and used about 11 jungle-theme prints.  This quilt was finished in October 2009.

Fall Quilt Festival 2009

When I started this blog, I decided it would be a good way to share my quilts with their stories.  I'm new to blogging, but just found out about the Fall Quilt Festival which is hosted by another blog (Quilt Festival Entries).  A fellow blogger encouraged me to submit an entry and join the festival.  Now, to choose the quilt....


I guess a good story is my Kameleon Day and Night Variation.  Pattern by Eldrid Røyset Førde of Norway (Kameleon Quilt) 


I was a new quilter - only quilting about 6 months - when my husband and I went to a quilt show in Emmett, Idaho.  We were intrigued by this quilt shown by a vendor.  There were gradations of color in four color families.  The quilt has flaps that can be buttoned in different ways, and it dramatically changes how the quilt looks.  

My mother is also a quilter, and I was trying to explain it to her. She couldn't conceptualize a quilt that could change colors after completion. She came to visit me that summer and again we visited the Two Sisters quilt store. I showed her the quilt and bought the pattern. 

Excited now to try this, we went home and studied the directions. The next day we found ourselves at the fabric store making fabric choices. Red and black have been “our theme” for a while so we started there. Choices made - we hurried home ready to begin.


We were an ambitious lot. We looked at the strip quilting method and decided on constructing the quilt that way. We could get two Kameleon quilts out of the fabric - one would be in reverse gradations. 


We assembled all the base blocks for 2 quilts, and cut the flaps for one. The flaps were daunting for me.
Even after figuring out the best way to tackle them, I kept procrastinating.

The next summer my mother visited again, and she encouraged me to finish the flaps.  Then the flaps needed to be quilted, again I procrastinated until another visit from my mother was coming up. I finished the quilting of the flaps, and while she was here we assembled the quilt and marked it for quilting. I was on a roll and got the quilting done.


Next came button selection. I could not find buttons I liked and was reluctant to do fabric covered buttons but finally chose them as the best option. I enlisted the help of my daughter, age 5, and she really enjoyed helping me cover the buttons. I sewed them on and the quilt was finally complete.


It took almost two years from start to finish for the first quilt.

It was a real challenge but I really feel like I have accomplished something. I think I was naive to even attempt this project, but I am happy with my results. Our quilt won 1st place viewer's choice for small quilts at the Tug Hill Quilters Quilt Show in September 2004.


These four pictures are just four of the options of ways to display this quilt.  There are over 500 geometric ways to button and display this quilt, thousands more possibilities if you aren't concerned about balance.


Here are a couple of pictures of the companion quilt - all the same fabrics, just in the reverse order.

Guild's Show and Tell

This weekend was my local guild had their bi-annual Show and Tell. It is a quilt show where you actually get to hear the stories behind the quilts as they are being shown one at a time. Quilts are beautiful, but knowing the stories behind the quilts add so much to the appreciation of them.

The first quilt I showed was a Queen-Sized quilt. I started making the blocks seven years ago as a block of the month at Hancock Fabric. So to make the 12 large blocks took the first 12 months. The top was completed by the end of 36 months. I worked on hand-quilting the quilt for 4 years. So this is my 7-year quilt.

The interesting thing about working on a quilt for that length of time (with several projects during that time), is that it points out visibly how much I've learned. As I look at the finished quilt, there are things that I definitely would have changed, but I'm not going back and remaking the quilt.

This photo was taken at the quilt show as it was being walked across stage so it was difficult to get a straight picture. The red and blue border does go completely around the quilt. This quilt was finished in June 2009.

The second quilt I showed is a favorite of mine. It is a large queen sized quilt, titled: "Oh! My Stars!" This is a controlled scrappy original design utilizing the friendship star blocks. It is about 96" square. I pieced it over 3 years and it was hand-quilted by my mom in 2.5 months.  Stars are also the quilting theme.  There are over 563 stars in this quilt.  This quilt was completed   March 2008.

Finally, there was a "Go Green" Challenge.  The challenge was to create a quilt 24" with the theme of "Go Green".  We were able to interpret that anyway we wanted.  This quilt was finished September 2009.  Here is my submission:

“Useitup” 

“Use it up, Wear it out, Make it do, or do without”

I wanted to incorporate both the color green and the re-usuable/repurposing aspect of “going green”.

Background is green fabric from my stash

Basic Quilt

• selvedge edges of my stash fabrics that included the color green
• letters cut  out of old t-shirts, toys, and fabric to write the message.

Flowers

• wool sweaters with a sewing machine bobbin that was found “as is” in the Burkholder’s Fabrics parking lot
• old blue jeans
• plastic milk jugs (clear and white), green soda bottle plastic and the green plastic top of a floral water tube
• Capri Sun pouches with a button purchase at a re-use-it shop (the only thing purchased for this project).

Cord

• sock yarn
• fuzzy yarn
• white plastic Wal-Mart shopping bag
• yellow plastic shopping bag
•  clear and green plastic bread bag.

Backing of the quilt utilized a friend’s shirt – the sleeve of the shirt has been modified to become the hanging sleeve.