I enjoy looking at photos of things I've quilted in the past and thought you might like that, too. So....periodically, I'm going to have a post with the title "Once upon a time" and in those posts will show a photo of something I've made in the past....once upon a time!
This first photo shows a quilt I made...once upon a time.... when I'd only been quilting a few months. (You should be able to click and see it larger.) It's simple and far from perfect....thankfully, I can see I've learned a lot since I made it, but I still like to see it. It was for a guild challenge that was called "Stars of Summer". You had to make a certain sized wall-hanging quilt that showed what YOU thought were the stars of summer. To me, the stars of summer are all the delicious fruits that are in season at that time of the year. It puts a smile on my face thinking of them now during our winter season (and looking forward to having them again in a few more months)!
This quilt used various techniques to show the fruits......raw-edge applique, paper piecing, as well as using fabrics that had the fruits themselves printed on the fabric. I was not working from a pattern, and I was too inexperienced not to realize I was taking a chance by planning it as I went along and by NOT planning it ahead of time. I just added sashing and borders as needed., which I did quite often on my projects in the early days. I hand quilted it and I was very happy with how it turned out. I didn't win any prizes, but I enjoy this quilt each year when I hang it up in my home. I was pleasantly surprised last year when I even had a couple of people want to buy it from me when I had it exhibited while I participated in a garden/quilt show in a nearby town! I didn't sell it, though, as it is a piece that has sentimental value for me as one of my first completed and self-designed projects. That's it for this "edition" of Once Upon a Time.
NOTE: My Whirl Into Winter drawing is now closed. (as of 5 a.m. EST when THIS post appears). At some point today, I will be using an online random # generator to choose the 2 winners for my giveaway in the Whirl into Winter event. I will announce in tomorrow's January 16 post here. Good luck to all who entered!!!
Do you remember those fabrics? It's the 4 fat quarters I got (randomly) in the guild's "brown bag" challenge. The challenge was for me to make something for the lady who put these 4 fat quarters in a brown bag. (We are permitted to add other fabric but must use at least some of what is provided.) They are not due until the end of July, but I don't really know this lady and wanted to get a jump on the project. She put a note in the bag that her house is decorated "country". She said she would like anything I made. Photos are below.I used a pattern from a book I have which I believe is called "Patriotic Little Quilts" and made her this wall-hanging. I added the gold fabric. While it is machine-pieced, it is all hand-quilted and if you could see it in person, you'd know the quilting really gives it a great texture! If I can get some decent close-ups that show the quilting details outside one day, I'll post them on the blog.
I even made her an "interesting" backing AND sleeve using her fabrics (and one other that I added since I didn't have enough of hers to do the whole back and sleeve). I'm really happy with the way it turned out, and I hope she likes it, too.
