Picnic Critters . . . and more!

The Calgary Longarm Quilters Group put a "group" entry into the Heritage Park Festival of Quilts.  Each entry was made using the same pattern - Avignon Picnic by Andrea Harris of UrbanQuiltworks - but, we each chose different fabrics and quilting designs.

I am proud to say, I made mine without purchasing ONE piece of fabric - not one thread - it all came from my stash.  I had a selection of bright prints - some with little critters on it, others with floral or other kinds of designs.  I called my quilt "Picnic Critters" -


If you look closely, you will see real "critters" on the quilt - the bugs like the quilts too!

A few weeks before I quilted my quilt, I was in Edmonton attending classes by Judi Madsen of Green Fairy Quilts - that was the inspiration for my quilting.  I admit, I took a lot of ideas from Judi's quilting, but added a few elements of my own - here it is still in progress.

Dragonflies, pebbles and border design

Flowers, leaves, swirls with border design



Flowers and swirl fill

Butterfly, swirls and leaves

Diagonal lines and "butterfly wings" filler

I learned something about marking quilts - and thank goodness this quilt is mine and I can work at removing the marks.  You can see the yellow lines - well that is a "half point" mark so my quilting would be uniform in the blocks.  I used quilting marking chalk - and was surprised when it didn't brush off easily - but as I was washing the finished quilt anyway, I wasn't too concerned.

All nice and clean and crinkled . . . . and still has yellow marks!  (gasp!)

Hmmmm  - after washing, the marks were STILL there! . . . and, because I did all this the night before I was to deliver the quilt for the show - I couldn't work at getting those marks out - my bad!  I hope it wasn't too distracting  :(   When I get my quilt back home, I'll be working hard to remove those pesky little yellow marks!

I wasn't able to attend the Festival of Quilts so I didn't see all the finished quilts - but if you click here , you will see a very nice display on Michelle's blog (mmm quilts) . . . . or click here to see Andrea's blog post about the group entry.


Here is a photo of Picnic Critters (Little House Creations); Picnic in the Rockies (mmm quilts) and Avignon Picnic (2) (Urban Quiltworks) hanging out at Michelle's home.  Thanks Michelle for picking the quilt up for me, and letting me post some of your great pictures on my blog.

One pattern - three very different quilts!
 

  Make sure you check out Michelle's blog (mmmquilts.blogspot.com) for more pictures of Heritage Park Festival of Quilts and get an up close and personal look at her Picnic in the Rockies - it's just stunning - Michelle's quilting is superb!

Picnic in the Rockies - Michelle Middleton

AND - big news is that Andrea is working on an article about the Heritage Park group entry for Quilter's Connection magazine - should be published in September - I'll keep you posted on that.

The Summer Solstice has come and gone . . . . Happy Summer from the Little House!