Quilt Festival -- Spring 2009

>> Friday, April 17, 2009

Park City Girl is hosting a blogger quilt festival. She's asked us to post about our favorite quilt. This was a tough assignment as choosing a single favorite meant passing over many quilts that I love. In the end, however, I decided to go with the Bento Box quilt I made for my mom and posted about here. I've pasted in that post here and added a few more details at the end:

* * *
My mom, as I wrote on the label of this quilt, taught me how to read and how to sew. She retired this June after 39 years as a reading teacher, and I decided to make her a quilt as a gift. Now that she'll have time to do her own pleasure reading, she (and the cats) will have a quilt to use.

As she loves yellow, I knew I wanted to use yellow in her quilt (and as the very soft fleece backing). I chose the other colors by thinking about what colors she wears -- bright green, royal blue, turquoise, various shades of purple. In addition, I had a lighter blue fabric in my stash with flowers in green, blue, purple, and yellow, and I figured it would tie all the prints together (you can see it in the bottom picture). It's also the last border strip before the purple binding.

I've seen quilts that use this bento box pattern, often with light and dark shades of one color. I went with light and dark shades of 4 colors. I have to confess that along the way I got worried as the individual pieces didn't look as great as I expected. But my roommate's dad, who happened to be in town the weekend I pieced, backed, quilted, and bound the quilt, remained confident that it would look fantastic together. His confidence bore out, as I really like the big quilt (a good-sized lap quilt, about 60" x 70"). It may be hard to see in the pictures, but I free-motion-quilted the top, playing with the intersection of rolling curves.


* * *
I was home last weekend for Passover and spent last Sunday curled up under the quilt (trying to) write a paper. Every time I see the quilt I like it even more, which is good, because, as noted above, I was very unsure of the color choices when I was in the middle of making it.


But I'm happy with the way the lights and darks play off one another. It was a quilt that taught me a lot about playing with a lot of colors in one quilt. I also went all out in terms of free-motion (really free!) quilting on my little machine.


And finally, since Park City Girl mentioned brownie recipes, here's mine.

27 comments:

Tami @ Lemon Tree Tales April 17, 2009 at 11:43 AM  

I think that it looks fantastic! The colors work very well together and creates a lot of movement. Don't you just love minkee as a backing fabric? It's soooo soft which is perfect for a lap quilt.

Beth April 17, 2009 at 1:36 PM  

This is fabulous, I love the colours and the Bento Box pattern is awesome!
Beth
cornerhousequilts.blogspot.com

Amy Sp April 17, 2009 at 3:13 PM  

I think the colors look wonderful together. I'm so glad you finished it, and I'm sure your mom loves it. Great work!

Zonnah April 17, 2009 at 9:02 PM  

I love it! The colors are amazing.

Jocelyn April 17, 2009 at 10:11 PM  

Wonderful quilt! The color combination is great for this pattern. Know you Mom loves it.

Anonymous April 18, 2009 at 12:31 AM  

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Emma April 18, 2009 at 4:15 AM  

Great use of bento boxes!

Terri Stegmiller April 18, 2009 at 3:04 PM  

This is a great pattern and I hope to one day make it...yours is beautiful.

Anonymous April 18, 2009 at 3:29 PM  

Beautiful story and quilt.

stitchinpenny April 18, 2009 at 8:04 PM  

That quilt is the most colorful and fantastic bento box I have seen. You stepped up and chose lots of color with an interestin design and the result is great.

Unknown April 19, 2009 at 12:46 AM  

It's beautiful! What a special treasure for you mom :) I love all the bright saturated colors you choose - great work! Thanks for sharing :)

Quilt Rat April 19, 2009 at 1:21 PM  

Oh this is great! SUPERB!
Enjoy the festival

Micki April 19, 2009 at 2:13 PM  

I enjoyed the quilt and the story.Great job!
Micki

Angela Nash April 19, 2009 at 2:18 PM  

I really love how this quilt looks from a distance. The blocks make such cool patterns, especially with your color choices.

quiltmom anna April 19, 2009 at 4:28 PM  

Bento box is a very funky pattern- your mother's is really pretty...
I bet she loves snuggling under it..
Regards,
Anna

Coloradolady April 19, 2009 at 5:16 PM  

This is beautiful. Love the colors in the quilt.

Dolores April 19, 2009 at 5:45 PM  

Something you learned from beginning to end. Thank you goes out to your mom.

two hippos April 19, 2009 at 11:19 PM  

Thank you for all of your lovely comments. I hope you stop by again :)

whoopdedoo_5 April 20, 2009 at 6:42 AM  

I love the bento pattern! I have made several myself! great job and love the colors you chose!

Anonymous April 20, 2009 at 4:12 PM  

I love the play of colors and values. Beautiful.

Heather April 20, 2009 at 6:03 PM  

my mom and I attended a class where we did this pattern as a mystery. We used mostly batiks and the quilt looks very different. I love your choice of colours.

Ilena April 20, 2009 at 9:48 PM  

Your color choices are wonderful and your quilt is very very beautiful! well done!

Ariane April 20, 2009 at 10:10 PM  

I love this quilt. Beautiful!!!

Dresden Quilter April 25, 2009 at 11:24 AM  

It is so stunning! The colours are fantastic!

Becky April 27, 2009 at 6:26 PM  

Awesome quilt! What a wonderful gift and tribute to your mother!

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