Blogger's Quilt Festival Spring 2015 - Entry #1 - Counting Stars Quilt

 

It's the annual Spring Blogger's Quilt Festival created and hosted by Amy at Amy's Creative Side. It's grown into a HUGE online quilt show! A fabulous way to ogle quilts and find new online quilters to follow and maybe even connect with.

I often forget or don't have anything ready to show. But this year I've been productive enough to join the fun. To those who visit my blog regularly, sorry for the repetition. To new visitors, thanks for stopping by.

My Entry #1 is in the category of  LARGE QUILTS (this is the link where you will find all the other quilts in this category) and my quilt is called "Counting Stars". It is a wedding quilt recently finished and handed off (a little late) to the newlyweds who have made their home in the middle of the beautiful Saskatchewan prairie where they are in full view of a magnificent sky from horizon to horizon. They see beautiful sunrises and sunsets, the daytime sky in all it's various glories, northern lights, and a vast blanket of stars ... hence the inspiration for this quilt. I grew up on a farm with the same vista's and I remember spending hours standing on my bed (instead of sleeping), looking out the window at the stars ... picking out the various constellations.

I have always wanted to make a "Sparkle Punch" wonky star quilt and so I followed the instructions for it (Oh Fransson has a tutorial but the link isn't available at present while her website is under construction) but used a variation done by The Girl Who Quilts. My quilt may not be an original design but there's none like it nor will there likely ever be.

I included a couple of Heather Ross fussy cut stars.

My colour choices were inspired by the multi-coloured fabric in the big star. I chose the medium grey background fabric (Moda Weave) to make the quilt a little less "girly". In fact, I tried to avoid blatantly girly fabrics. I love the background fabric. It has a nice linen-like look to it ... textural ... and it has a nice sheen, too. Depending on the lighting, the grey can appear lighter or darker than it actually is. 

I used the much coveted and now discontinued IKEA number fabric and some "bramble" for the back (hence the "counting" part of the title) and bound it with some of the leftover star fabrics.

You can read more about this quilt and see even more photos (if you really want to) here.

Quilt Stats:

1. Name: Counting Stars
2. Size: 78" x 100" (74" x 96" after washing)
3. Pattern: Variation of Sparkle Punch by Oh Fransson (no link available) but inspired by this quilt made by The Girl Who Quilts 
4. Fabrics: Background:  Moda Weave in Medium Grey | Stars: Various fabrics from my stash | Backing: Number fabric from Ikea and Bramble | Binding: Scrappy binding from fabrics used in stars
5. Quilting: Done by Lisa on her longarm machine 

 Just by serendipitous happenstance, the happy couple have decorated their home with primarily grey and turquoise - a perfect match!