Blogger's Quilt Festival : Two Birds, One Stone

Its time again for the 2015 Blogger's Quilt Festival.  I'm entering my favorite finish yet: Two Birds, One Stone into the Original Design category.

For those of you that follow the blog, are you sick of seeing this quilt yet?  I'm not!  Every time I walk into the living room I'm happy to see it sitting there on my couch with the kitties.

Well don't these two look comfy? Apparently they like my quilt also. #birdsintheairquilt #challengequilt #martincat #agentarcher #catsofinstagram #pantonequilt2015

A photo posted by Jennifer Fullerton (@neverjustjennifer) on Mar 22, 2015 at 11:10am PDT

This quilt was made for the 2015 Pantone Color of the Year challenge and for my local quilt guild's annual challenge.  It is an original design comprised of two different sized Birds in the Air blocks.  I set the blocks on point and then played with the layout until I had something I was satisfied with.  The real challenge here for me was creating something modern out of a more traditional quilt block.

I've had so many requests for a pattern for this quilt and I've heard you.  I hope to have something done by the end of the summer, though it's my first foray into pattern writing, so who know's how it will go.  (Any tips from you experienced pattern writers out there?)

This quilt also hung at my local quilt guild's biennial quilt show this year and received a very warm response.

You can read more about this quilt here, here, here, and here.

Link ups are open until May 20th, voting is open from May 22nd to May 29th, and winners are announced on May 30th.  Good luck to everyone who is participating!

Voting is Open! | Pantone Quilt Challenge 2015

Voting is now open for the 2015 Pantone Quilt Challenge (#PantoneQuilt2015).  Visit either of the two challenge hosts blogs to vote for your favorite by clicking on the heart in the top right corner of the link up image.    You get one vote per category!  Voting is open until 6pm 29 April 2015 NEW ZEALAND TIME!  (That's 2AM on 4/20 here on the east coast).

Good luck to everyone!

Anne at Play Crafts

Adrienne at On the Windy Side

If you like my Two Birds, One Stone quilt best, I'm #5 in the Quilts category.  

Two Birds, One Stone hanging at our local guild show a few weeks ago.

2015 Pantone Quilt Challenge Linkup!

The linky party is now open for the 2015 Pantone Quilt Challenge.  I know a lot of people dislike this year's color, Marsala, but honestly, I really like it.  It's a color I gravitate towards in every aspect of my life: beauty, quilting, home decor....

I'm submitting my quilt, Two Birds, One Stone to the challenge this year in the quilt category.  You can read the full post here.  You still have time to get your projects finished (or started).   The link up is open until next Friday, April 24th.   I'm hoping to snap a few more pictures of this quilt at our Quilt Show this weekend where it will be hanging. 

Linking up with Finish It Up Friday and Crazy Mom Quilts!

Two Birds, One Stone | A finished quilt

Warning this is a picture heavy post!

I was very exited when Adrianne and Anne announced the 2015 Pantone Quilt Challenge using this year's color: Marsala.  A lot of people aren't thrilled with the color but I really like how warm and versatile it is.  Just check your fabric stash, I bet you'll find some as a secondary color is quite a few of your fabrics.

official Marsala Swatch

Luckily for me, the announcement of this year's challenge coincided very nicely with the beginning of a design concept for my local quilt guild's yearly challenge.  And I, being the ever practical and logical person that I am, decided to combine them!

I have been sharing sneak pictures of this quilt since I started working on it but because our local challenge is supposed to be blind voting I couldn't share a picture of the finished quilt...  However, we had our presentation of the challenge quilts on Wednesday and our guild meeting and now I can!

Many thanks to my good friend Jenn and her co-worker Jason for holding up my quilt for me in a few of these pictures!

This quilt uses fabrics from a variety of designers, including Cotton + Steel, Kaffe Fasset, Anna Marie Horner, and many others!  The solid I found closest to the official Marsala swatch was American Made Brand in Brick Red.  Not exact, but close enough for me.  The background is a from Carolyn Friedlander's newest collection, Doe.  It's the Ladder Lines print.  I love how this print gives the whole quilt warmth and is less aggressive than a stark white print would have been.

I quilted on the diagonal on my home machine, a Janome Horizon Memory Craft 8900QCP, using my walking foot and a brandless pink-red thread I picked up last year at Vermont Quilt Festival.  I love the pop of color on the backgrounds and how it blends into the prints.  I also really like the texture it gives the back of the quilt, just enough to be structured but still soft and cuddly.

The background is pieced, half with a nameless print I picked up at a clearance sale last spring and half with this adorable animal faces fabric... blanking on the name of it right now.

I used a fun purple/orange/marsala triangle print... again blanking on the name... and leftover scraps of the American Made Brand brick fabric to bind the quilt.

Despite it's size this quilt, when it's done hanging in our local quilt show, will become a couch quilt for my husband and I.  It measures a hefty 84" x 68"!  My husband gets genuinely upset when he can't find a large enough quilt to cuddle with on the couch so I have been given strict instructions not to make anymore lap quilts!  This ought to fit the bill though.

I'm calling this one: "Two Birds, One Stone"

It uses two different birds in the air blocks, two main color-ways, and will be entered into two different challenge quilt competitions.  You can see my previous progress post on this quilt here: Instagram Progress | Challenge Quilt


Linking up with Caroline at Sew Can She for Show off Saturday.

Instagram Progress | Challenge Quilt

Last week I made a quick trip to Quilted Threads in Henniker, NH for some new fabrics.  They are one of my favorite local quilt shops.  They carry a great selection of new and modern fabrics.  One of the only places in the area that does.  My plan was to make a Marsala Quilt for the Pantone Color of the Year Quilt Challenge.  I also wanted to make something for the annual challenge at my local quilt guild and thought why not combine the two??

I left with this lovely bundle of pinks and reds.  The main fabric I purchased is an American Made Brand solid in Brick Red.  It was the closest I could find the Marsala.  That's the bottom fabric in this picture.  I rounded out the bundle with some Kaffe Fasset, Cotton + Steel and Anna Marie Horner plus a few more solids.  I also picked up some Doe Ladder Lines in a white on white print for the background.

Using the templates here I got to work sewing and cutting HST.  You are essentially paper piecing when you use this method.  It's quick and easy to make a ton of HST at one and there is very little waste or trimming... when you print the right size template.

I printed the templates too large and had to trim all of them down by a half-inch on both sides.  Luckily my husband took pity on me and actually helped me trim them!  He did great and I only had to touch up a few of the pieces.  I even offered to let him trim all of my blocks from now on ... an offer he declined quite quickly.  Oh well!

I'm using several different methods to make my blocks but the end result will all be Birds in the Air blocks.  The blocks below will finish at 6".  I plan on making 12" and 3" and 2" finished blocks also! I was mostly inspired by this quilt when I was thinking about my design.  I can't share much more because some of my guild mates do read my blog but after the quilt reveal in March, I'll be sure to share more progress pictures!

Can we also just take a moment to appreciate the octopus peaking out of the corner in the center HST of the bottom right block, and the perfectly lined up critters hanging out in the center HST of the top right block?  So cute and fun!

Last night I had some more time to sew while my husband was in a class and have another 20 blocks completed in addition to the four above.  Our adopted cat, Martin, also got in on the action and decided to visit with my on top of my sorted HST.  The sewing went a little slow at that point because his tail was dangerously close to my sewing machine.  But I was glad he came to visit!  He and his brother Archer are finally starting to warm up to us after almost a year.

All of these pictures are from my Instagram feed.  You can follow me here, @NeverJustJennifer, if you'd like to stay up-to-date.  I tend to share there the most.  And if you want more of the cats (you know you do!) they are at #MartinCat and #AgentArcher.

I'm linking up with this weeks WIP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced.