Blogger's Quilt Festival - Fall 2012

Yes it is that time of year again!

One of the biggest events of the online quilting community run by the fabulous Amy of Amy's Creative Side.  There are already over 300 quilts linked up and I stayed up way to late last night looking at a fraction of those.

So this time round it was quite easy to choose which quilt to share - the mini I made for round 3 of the Brit Quilt Swap.

One of my goals of 2012 was to join in more and after testing the water with a Rainbow charm Swap I decided to brave the Brit Quilt Swap and actually make something for someone I didn't know! To all you seasoned swappers that might not seem like a big deal but I was anxious, particularly considering some of the amazing quilters in the group.

I was assigned my parter and found that she didn't have a blog and had only a few photos on her Flickr stream so didn't have much to go on.  But she liked rainbow colours, cute embroidery and her mosaic featured a couple of appliqué trees so almost immediately the idea of a rainbow tree with embroidered animals popped into my head.

I had a leftover Layer cake square of a woodgrain print and my rainbow charms from the swap and was pleased by how close to my original idea it turned out.

Then I set to work with the embroidery.  I used Doodle Stitching Motifs by Aimee Ray, although I altered her racoon into a fox as I thought that was more appropriate for the UK.

The fox did cause some issues as initially he rather disappeared

But I replaced the white with a pale brown and that sorted that problem. Originally I had planned a pieced rainbow border but I got as far as the piecing before realising it was going to overwhelm everything else. I kicked about some other ideas but in the end decided it didn't need a border. I wanted to keep the quilting simple (mainly as my skills in that department are a work in progress) so I quilted round each leaf and then quilted 'grass' using two shades of green. I bound it in brown solid, although I found I was just short so I added in a scrap of an Ann Kelle print with a brown background.

Once it was bound I loved how that scrap seemed to carry the rainbow leaves out onto the binding - funny how these things work out!

So here is the finished item
I was so pleased with it, completely different from anything else I've done but I would happily have kept it. I loved the whole swap and enjoyed getting involved and trying something new. The only tiny downer was that although I know the mini arrived at its new home, I never got any acknowledgement. But hey, I don't know what was going on in the recipient's life and I had a blast making it so that was enough for me (that and receiving my own fabulous mini!).

So thanks for stopping by.  Be sure to visit some of the other wonderful quilts in the festival.
Sarah

The stats: 

 Size: 12" by 12" 

Special techniques: Raw edge appliqué, Embroidery 

Quilted by: Me 

Best Category: Mini quilt/ROYGBIV quilt