Friday 26 October 2012

Bloggers' Quilt Festival

Only earlier this year did I discover The Bloggers Quilt Festival which runs twice a year. Sometimes it seems that if I follow the blogs of other quilters, every day can be a bloggers quilt festival! It's always energising to see others' work online; but this event  is a great chance to really enjoy everyone's finished work all at once. It's also a good way to discover new creative people whose style you admire.

I've posted about this quilt before, but I chose it for the festival as I think it's my favourite so far, insofar as it was me stepping outside my comfort zone and trying to capture the essence of something I never tire of looking at. It was the first time I tried to do something completely out of my own head. It's very simple, but it's encouraged me to continue to practice being creative...



Since I've been in Australia I've loved the seeming endless tones of gum tree bark on the trees in our local conservation park.

































Combined with the many and varied soft eucalypt greens of the leaves, it's an inspiring colour palette.


For the process of making this quilt I took nearly a hundred photos of the aforementioned bark and then ordered over 60 colours of Kona solids (- yay for the colour card) in tones I had seen in the bark and made a simple block with strips of three or four colours each. I cut pieces of fabric a bit bigger than the finished blocks of 19.5 x27 cm (71/2 x 101/2 inches) slashed them in to three or four and recombined them. In the end I culled the blocks to consolidate the colour range to capture the palette I was after, using I think only 23 shades in the end.

I took it back to the source of its inspiration for the photos.





 I pieced a strip for the back, which is mainly Kona Coal, using scraps and inserting a couple of slivers of Kona Pomegranate to reference the gum flowers.









That tree must be very old!


I wanted the skinniest binding in the darkest brown (Espresso I think), so I cut it 2" and doubled it over and it was hard work hand-sewing it down that skinny. Resolved to do 2 1/2 " next time...



I machine quilted it in this free motion bark like pattern, which actually goes lengthways on the quilt


Stats:
Size: Throw size- 64x47" (163x120cm for you metricists)
Quilted: FMQ by me on domestic machine
Best Categories: Throw; Home Machine Quilted and Quilt Photography?
Entry Number: 58


39 comments:

  1. This is my kind of quilt - the piecing, the colour palette, the size - everything. A fab entry in the BQF.

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  2. Love your colour palette - and that tiny bit of red on the back !!!

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  3. I love the colors. And I like the back as much as the front ;-)

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  4. I have never seen a photo of the back before and you did a lovely job of capturing the gum blossoms. I have to say that this is one of my favourite quilts ever. I am a sucker for eucalypts and their colours too. All the best for the festival.

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  5. love the quilt...the trees are so nice...wonderful interpretation of the trees

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  6. Isn't it amazing how many individual colours there can be in tree bark? You sure captured it in this quilt, - love the muted colours and your design.

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  7. Love your quilt!! Beautiful photos of the quilt with the gum trees.

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  8. This is one of my all time favourite quilts - everything about it is lovely, and your photos, against the tree bark, are stunning.

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  9. This is gorgeous! Thank you for sharing your inspiration ~ I can not imagine a quilt that could represent the bark and those trees better than this one. Wow.

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  10. I love the story behind this and you did an amazing job with the photos. It's beautiful!

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  11. Your quilt and photos are really beautiful.

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  12. Your quilt is beautiful in its simplicity; I love the inspiration and the setting for the photos! I'll have to take my quilts into the nearby National Park for a photoshoot sometime. It's nice to see an Australian quilt that's a not so cliche.

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  13. And on reading through your blog (which I've just added to my reader), I see you're in Adelaide, too! I'm only a few minutes from Belair NP, and it seems my family goes bike riding in the same place as yours sometimes!

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  14. Beautiful photography and the quilt is lovely! I especially like those bits of red in the backing!

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  15. beautiful colour and design,
    and so evocative.... it's truely gorgeous!

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  16. Beautiful and wonderful photos to see where your quilting muse comes from Ann

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  17. Absolutely stunning quilt - love the colours of the gum trees, even the quilting reminds me of the patterns in scribbly gums. Gorgeous!!

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  18. Its lovely - beautiful colours. Thanks for sharing. #263

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  19. I love your quilt. The colors are really beautiful.

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  20. Love it! Colors and everything.

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  21. This is great! Love all the different colors and the free motion quilting design you used.

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  22. I think you captured the colours of the Aussie bush perfectly. Your quilt is absolutely beautiful and that quilting reminds me of a running stream.

    You did good!

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  23. great quilt and great inspiration. that shot of pomegranate was inspired too

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  24. This is lovely! The focus on color is awesome!

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  25. I really love this quilt -- I think that the photos are awesome as well. The colors are perfect! =)

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  26. I love these colors!! Love the inspiration, too, and the great way it photographed next to the trees. Beautiful all the way around.

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  27. I love you quilt! Everything about it is great!! the front, back the quilting. great job!

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  28. Such a great idea and a beautiful quilt. I love the touch of pomegranate on the back. And you've had a great idea to take photos of it against the tree that inspired you.

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  29. Beautiful quilt, good luck in the competition.

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  30. Oh, this is a beautiful quilt. I think you're really captured the colors in the Eucalyptus trees. We had lots of them in California, and they're full of wonderful, subtle colors. I love the way your design echoes trees in the woods as well. The quilt back is super too. Great job!

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  31. I normally go for brighter colors but this quilt is stunning. And your photography is fantastic.

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  32. You nailed it! This is so lovely it gets my vote!

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  33. Gorgeous! I keep going through the quilts and finding so many I love! So glad I am just now getting to my nominating and voting!

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  34. Beautiful quilt and pictures. Good luck!

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  35. gorgeous quilt! It gets my vote :)

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  36. 'Tis gorgeous. I voted for it too.

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  37. Another Californian must have said it: We have so many eucs here and you managed to capture a beautiful feeling. You're getting my vote!
    Tina in San Diego
    (Hippo quilt in Favorite Art Quilts finalists)

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  38. good luck in the competition,i voted for you ,too,so wonderful colours and photos,happy stitching,susi

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