Bloggers Quilt Festival Spring 2011

Welcome to Poppyprint!

This is my third Bloggers Quilt Festival and while I'm a bit late for this one, I am still very excited to share this tiny quilt with you. It is one of my most favourite things I've ever made (1) because it was inspired by one of my own photographs, and (2) it is made entirely from wool which was a new experience for me, and (3) it ended up being our 2010 Christmas card!

The inspiration photo for my little art quilt, taken in rural Ontario near my parent's cottage

I don't actually have this quilt. I made it for a mini-quilt swap on Flickr. I was very sad to see it go, but I had faith that it's new owner would love it as much as I do. The theme was "houses" and my partner is a major bird lover and well-known on Flickr for bird motifs in her work.

This is how our Christmas card looked after I'd framed the photo in a museum mat and increased the colour contrast in Picnik

Now, while this may not be the kind of thing you expect to see in a quilt festival, I can tell you it does have three layers, all joined together with some stitching, and it is bound as well. I created it without using any templates, just a sketch, some wool, sharp scissors, steam-a-seam lite, embroidery floss and my machine. The large background wool areas were butted up to each other on a canvas foundation and top stitched together with a zigzag stitch.

I free motion thread painted the grass over top of some spikey wool cuttings that I had fused on. The Queen Ann's Lace are french knots and the fence wire is embroidery floss couched on with some stitches where the 'wires' cross.

I think my favourite parts are the round bales of hay, though. Here is a picture of the whole mini complete with it's thicker-than-usual binding.

Thank you for stopping by to visit Poppyprint in the festival (and thank you Amy for giving us the chance to meet so many new quilting friends through sharing our work!!) - I hope you'll come again soon!

If your coffee/tea cup is empty, head for a refill and come on back to enjoy the rest of the festival right here. There are over 300 quilts entered already!!!