Friday, May 15, 2015

Bloggers Quilt Festival Spring 2015 - Power Nap

Hello and welcome to another edition of the fabulous Blogger's Quilt Festival: the only quilt festival best enjoyed in PJ's and bare feet! I've been participating off and on in Amy's great festival for years and I always enjoy meeting new quilt bloggers and enjoying the work of old friends alike. 

This time I'm sharing my first ever QAYG (Quilt-As-You-Go) quilt, made with upcycled, worn out work shirts of my husband's along with some chambray, linen and a few yardage scraps. I'm entering it in the Scrappy Category. This quilt was gifted to a friend of ours on the occasion of his 50th birthday last month.


Power Nap by Poppyprint

Power Nap by Poppyprint

Most of the blocks were spiral quilted individually, then joined together into rows with narrow joining strips. The rows were then joined with wider sashing strips stuffed with a strip of batting and quilted with straight lines. Initially, I liked the idea of the red "power tie" in the centre of each improv pieced block, surrounded by shirt fabrics, so the quilt was going to be called Power Tie. Then I found out that our friend likes to take a brief nap every afternoon in his downtown office, so I renamed it Power Nap (plus, he's not a tie kinda guy anyway).

Power Nap by Poppyprint
There's even a sleeve placket with button and a chest pocket left on and quilted over. 

 The quilt was started in a class with Marianne Haak at the Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild last fall. Before the class, I precut all of the laundered shirts into strips of various widths. Each block began with a red square-ish shape in the middle area and was built out improvisationally. At one point, I made a very traditional style log cabin with light fabrics on one corner and darker fabrics on the other. When laying out all of the blocks, that one really stuck out, so I decided to make three more and put them in the corners. I like the resulting big blue circle effect!  Check out Marianne's blog for excellent tutorials if you would like to try this technique. It is a great way to create a big quilt, fully quilted, on a small domestic machine.

Power Nap by Poppyprint

Thanks for stopping by. Be sure to check out the rest of the festival. You can really make someone's day by nominating a quilt for Viewers Choice sometime in the next week, then vote for your category favs when voting opens on May 22!

AmysCreativeSide.com

21 comments:

Rumi said...

Love this quilt! I am looking at the pictures and immediately began thinking of Marianne (thequiltingedge). Read a little more and voila. You explained the situation. Thanks for sharing!

paulette said...

I would hardly called these shirts WORN OUT...plenty of life left in those shirts! Your quilt shows this! It is MAGNIFICENT!!! Love the way each block has the different sized red block...and adding the button and pocket...brilliant! A nice twist to an old (but never worn out) block! haha...you hit a home run with this quilt!! I can see a up-cycle book in the horizon...(just sayin')!!

Rene' said...

This is beautiful Krista and I love "Power Nap" as the name of the quilt! The red centers with the chambrays and stripes are perfect for this improv technique. Your final layout is brilliant! I have never tried the QAYG method because I can't wrap my head around the joining step of the process. I think now I need to check out Marianne's technique. Thanks for sharing your fabulous quilt!

Audrey said...

Thanks for sharing. I love your spiral quilting.

grapes and hearts said...

Best shirt quilt layout I have ever seen! Well done, Krista! That big blue ball effect and those red ties really makes it special!

Svetlana said...

This is one totally stunning quilt. Everything about it is just perfect, well done indeed!!!

Dianne said...

You know how I love this quilt! I think I nominated you on the festival. Fingers crossed!

purduepam said...

Great way yo up cycle. An up cycled shirt quilt has been on my list for a while. You have inspired me to get going.

Patricia said...

Love this quilt,great use of old shirts. And love the pop of red.

Kirsty @ Bonjour Quilts said...

Well, I still love this! You done good.

myBearpaw said...

I love recycled shirt quilts and this is a beaut! Also love the twist on a traditional log cabin :)

www.randomthoughtsdoordi.com said...

Another beautiful finish Krista

Cynthia F said...

Ooooh I love this! Love the colours and the juicy red squares, so cool. And the qayg method looks interesting, I am going to try that, thanks for sharing!

audrey said...

Great quilt! Love the recycled clothing use.:)

Charlotta said...

Great quilt; and the book sounds better the more I read about it

Anne / Springleaf Studios said...

Really like how you made the QATG work with this quilt. I'd like to give it a try one of these days.

Pétra said...

I'm clicking along and of course I love yours the best! I entered this year too although I've taken a few years off, I'm in the small quilts category. Beautiful quilt Krista!!!

Pasqualina this & that said...

I love this quilt! But then no wonder since I love to upcycle shirts myself. You did a wonderful layout and your color scheme is very elegant.

Camilla said...

Gotta love shirts, very similar colours to mine. Makes a lovely gift. It's really only the collars and cuffs that go and there's so much beautiful soft shirt cotton left for things like this!

Sherri @ RebeccaMaeDesigns.com said...

I love it! And recycling fabric is awesome of course... the name is perfect! haha love it all!

Beth said...

I'm always on the lookout for something a little bit different. This quilt has that--I love it. Some of my favorite colors, too. BRAVO!