Bloggers Quilt Festival-- Fall 2009

After participating in the first Bloggers Quilt Festival back in the Spring, and finding so much amazing inspiration from everyone's entries-- I knew I wanted to participate in the Fall one as well! If you haven't heard about it, or want to participate, check out the link below.


So I know I chose a bargello for the Spring festival too, but this is another one of the few quilts that I have designed myself, and I feel pretty proud of what I put together.


Our friends Ryan and Kristi got married in June 2003. Of course, I had to make a quilt for them! They both have a love for the outdoors, so Keith (my husband) and I thought that earthy colors inspired by nature would be perfect. Keith helped me pick out fabrics, and we found ourselves gravitating towards greens and browns and some pretty oranges and blues. The palette made me think of sunlight coming down through a canopy of trees. And so it was named, "Forest Lights Bargello."


I quilted the center with waves following along the curves of the design. What I really love though is the borders. It looks like bark, and I just love it!


And here's the label.


I know it's hard to see (a mix of my poor photographic skills and an old camera). The label reads:

"Forest Lights Bargello"
For: Ryan and Kristi
May love help light your way in your new life together...
Care: Machine wash warm, gentle cycle. Lay flat to dry or tumble dry low.
Created by: Robin Zaback, June 2003.

The best part of this quilt experience for me was giving it to them. They really, truly seemed to love it. And they use it! Knowing that makes me so happy.

Many thanks to the fabulous Park City Girl, Amy, for putting this fabulous event together. You rock, Amy! And especially, thanks to all of you who are participating-- sharing your quilts and stories, reading the stories of others, and offering all sorts of fabulous inspiration. Thanks so much for taking time to visit here!

Jane Stickle Quilt: G-2 & J-6

Unfortunately, it was just too hot to do any sewing upstairs (think sauna hot!). So, no progress on any actual quilting. But, I did get a couple Stickle blocks done...

Block number/name: G-2 “Mohawk Trail”

Date completed: July 24, 2009

Number of pieces: 28

Notes on block: The fabric for this block came from my friend Cindy. She knew I was looking for more greens and generously offered up swatches from her stash. How cool is that? And I just love how this particular fabric looks in this block. I really like this block a lot and I’m pretty happy with how I executed it too… nary a point cut off!

I did most of the work on this one on Thursday night, and then finished it up Friday afternoon.

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Block number/name: J-6 “Granny Weaver”

Date completed: July 24, 2009

Number of pieces: 25

Notes on block: I love the look of the white fabric in this block—kind of like tree bark. It seems appropriate with the leaves. The green fabric is an oldie but a goodie. It is from a 2” strip I had remaining from my third quilt, made back in 1998. A little blast from the past:

Here I am with my third quilt, Happy Otters. I gave to my best friend’s mother, who was pretty much my second mom (also known as Mom²). (Sorry for the image quality... picture of a picture-- but the quilt really was rather blindingly bright.)

Some stairwell improvement

It seems I have been taking a little inadvertent blog break. It's not that I have been doing nothing. It's more that I've been doing a lot of the same thing, namely, quilting the Mod Sampler Quilt. I finally completed the quilting over the weekend and did the first stage of binding. Now I just need to do all the handstitching on that. Of course, I haven't finished the binding on my Stacked Coins Quilt yet either. Hopefully, I'll get some binding action going and have a finished quilt to share this week!

In addition to lots of quilting, we finally managed to get one of my quilts hung. Woo hoo! We've only lived in this house for 2.5 years now. I figured it was about time we finally get a quilt on the wall.


Yay for handy husbands! (Thank you, Keith!)


It is hanging on the landing between the first and second floors of the house. It's kind of tough to get a good picture.


I started this quilt as a block of the month back in 2001. It is a Maggie Walker design called My Cat's Garden. It is all machine appliqued using a satin stitch. It was a lot of satin stitching. I have a pretty awesome thread collection as a result. The quilt was completed in 2005. I kind of chickened-out on the quilting and just outlined all of the applique. I really wish I had done more. Despite that, I am crazy proud of this quilt and am so happy that it is finally hanging up where I can enjoy it every day.

My Quilt Festival Entry

This is Megan's Butterflies.


The quilt was a gift to my sister-in-law, Megan, for Christmas in 2001. The evening I gave the quilt to her, my husband asked her what kind of quilt she would like to get someday. She responded, "Oh... something very traditional, maybe red and white." I nearly blanched. Ack! Well, I figured, it was too late for that-- she was gonna get rainbows. :)

This was my first original design, created all by myself with my imagination and some graph paper! (Can you tell I'm proud?)


Megan loves fairies and butterflies, and at the 2000 Quilt Festival I picked up some nifty batik butterfly squares (the ones in the border). For a long while, I was stymied as to what to do with them. But after making my first couple of bargello quilts, inspiration hit. I chose the colors for the quilt from the batik squares, and the design just kind of flowed across the paper. It came together very quickly.


The other fun aspect of the quilt for me is the back. I pieced the back using the remnant of fabrics from the front, as well as the last butterfly square, and another beautiful butterfly batik. I then used the pattern on the batik and quilted the design from the back-- so on the front you see lots of butterflies seemingly randomly fluttering about.



And, the label:



(I apologize for the pictures... I don't have the originals anymore, and I couldn't take new ones as Megan is currently gallavanting about New Zealand.)

If you have the chance, try to check out the other entries in the Blogger's Quilt Festival (if you click on the link and scroll down a little, there are links to all the participants). There are some amazing quilts and many wonderful stories out there. So inspiring!

April guild projects (and a little bit of nostalgia)

Tonight I finished up my guild projects for tomorrow's meeting. Yay!

This month's block lotto had a theme of "spring." The yellow paisley Hoffman floral was provided.


Creating a block just did not go well for me. I started out with a hairbrained idea to do a little mini Lone Star block. I swear, every time I made a measurement, took a cut, or even did a stitch, I messed it up! After more than seven hours of work, this is the best I could do. Doesn't look very Lone Star-ish, does it? But at least I got something done. And I do kind of like the center of it. It is a Jane Stickle design (block E-1).

One bright note with this block: I used silk thread for applique for the first time! Whoa. It's pretty amazing how well it just sinks into the fabric. The stitches really are nearly invisible (especially impressive since I didn't even use matching thread... it was an off-white). At the same time though, it's a little scary because silk thread is super-duper fine. I really wonder how well it will hold up over time. Does anyone have any experience with silk thread? How durable is it?

After the boy went to bed, I also was able to whip out some pillowcases for ConKerr Cancer.


ConKerr Cancer is one of the charitable organizations that my guild supports. It is a great charity that distributes bright, cheery pillowcases to sick children in hospitals throughout North America.

Last month I picked up three kits to bring home and complete (the ones on the left). I also managed to do three more from my own stash (the ones on the right). The Bugs Bunny print and the gold stars on red are left over from my second quilt:


I made the quilt for my friend Brad-- he was a basketball fanatic. We lost track of each other after his graduation. I often wonder whatever happened to him. (And his quilt!) Anyway, I'm not sure how I ended up with an extra two yards of the Bugs Bunny fabric, but it's been languishing in my closet since 1996. It's nice to finally have a chance to put it to good use.

First quilt

Nothing terribly exciting to report from the craft front today. I've cut out the latest block for my Jane Stickle quilt, I've started work on another applique block for my Grandma's Country Album II quilt, and I still haven't quilted my challenge quilt (but it's going to happen this weekend!).

Since I am feeling somewhat nostalgic today, I thought I'd share a little of my quilting past.... my very first quilt.

(Sorry it's not a great picture... it is a picture of a photograph, and it was taken a long while ago.)

For Christmas in 1995, my mom gave me a rotary cutter, a ruler, and a cutting mat for Christmas. I didn't even know what they were, and all she could tell me was that they were for quilting. (This was back during her random-gifts-out-of-left-field phase.) I started graduate school the following month, and discovered that I lived about a mile away from a quilt shop. I decided to walk on down there and see what the deal was with my funky new tools. Lo and behold, they had an opening in their beginning quiltmaking class, and I immediately signed up.

I finished my first quilt in February 1996 and gave it to my mom for her birthday.

The happy little 2-color lap-quilt is a pattern called "Snowball Quilt" from the long out-of-print book Template-Free Quiltmaking by Trudie Hughes. I have to say it was a great pattern for a first quilt-- not too overwhelming in terms of pattern and color, but it introduced lots of great basic techniques.

I used a dark purple marbled print for the chain, and a bright turquoise and purple paisley print made up the background. The border and binding are sky-blue batik... I remember my quilt teacher raised her eyebrows at that choice (particularly for the binding), but in the end, I think we both liked it... and of course, Mom sure did!

The quilt is in tatters now... very well loved!