Blogger's Quilt Festival: Spring 2010 Edition

Picking a quilt for this quilt festival was tough as I've made a lot of quilts I truly love over the past 6 months. Moreover, I've made a lot of quilts that have tested my skills, taught me new tricks, and yielded new ideas.

So what to pick? I selected the quilt that I think represents both what I've learned and where I've learned what I've learned about quilting in the past few years. I've learned a lot about fabric -- designers and manufacturers, color selection and combinations, places to buy it online -- and I've learned most of what I now know from the blog world -- from inspiring images to excellent tutorials.

How does this baby quilt reflect what I've learned?

1. It uses a simple shape (the tumbler) to emphasize both the fabrics used and a sense of movement.

2. I used a tutorial that Amanda Jean (now back and blogging again!) posted on the Moda Bake Shop (a great place to go for ideas and instructions).

3. I used fabric accumulated through the vast network of online fabric shops (including Hawthorne Threads, Above All Fabric, Cotton Candie Fabric, Sew Love Fabrics, and Pink Chalk Fabric ) as well as some picked up in-store based on an online recommendation (for a store near where I used to live but never knew about prior to blog-reading).

4. Speaking of fabric, this quilt showcases fabric by designers & companies I now know well but couldn't have named, identified, or recognized 2 years ago. It includes some Laura Gunn Lantern Bloom, some Sandi Henderson Meadowsweet, some Amy Schimler animals, some Anna Maria Horner Garden Party, some Urban Chiks 1974, some Joel Dewberry, some Erin McMorris Wildwood  as well as some batiks and a fabric from my stash whose provenance is unknown to me.

5. It has a back, a pieced back! An interesting pieced back (which might be my favorite ever). Incorporating a design concept from the front on the back and figuring out a new way to use is something I learned from looking at lots of other people's quilts.

6. Quilting: The quilting is 1/4" offset from each of the vertical seams, another trick I learned from the amazing wealth of quilt images and descriptions available online.

7. And then there are the pictures. Back in the day (the high school and college day, that is), I was very into photography. Mostly of people and sports. But for various reasons, I moved away from darkrooms and film, only to rediscover an interest in photography in the digital age. While I'm far more invested in quilting and crafting, I've started thinking more about how to document the quilts I make. Looking at other people's images -- the ones I like and the ones I'm not so keen on -- has helped me think about how to photograph my quilts. I still have a long way to go, but it's one of the benefits of the interconnected world that it's so easy to scroll around and get ideas for how to do something. I'm itching to play more in Photoshop and Illustrator, and I never thought I'd say that a decade ago.

And with that, head on over to Amy's master site for this quilt festival and check out other people's awesome creations.