Friday, April 17, 2009

Favorite Quilt for Online Quilt Show


Perhaps you have heard about this online quilt festival being hosted by ParkCityGirl...go have a look!

As my readers and fellow swappers know, I am both a rabid quilter and a huge advocate for the children's charity Project Linus. I make generally over 20 quilts per year for this organization. These mostly utilise whatever scraps I have accumulated from my other quilting, swapping or sewing projects. Each year, however, the chapter in my area hosts a quilt show entitled the "Book-Blanket Challenge". Participants must select a children's book, and design a quilt around the story or a character in the story. The books & the quilts are given to children that stay in Barbara Bush Children's Hospital between Thanksgiving & New Years. It is a tremendous gesture, and I warm inside to think how the child who receives one of these must feel afterwards.

Generally, the non-Project Linus quilts I make are more design intensive, more intricately quilted, bettern coordinated colorwise, and more pleasing to me. But, this quilt's colors and simplicity make it a personal favorite. I had under a quarter of a yard of my polar bear feature fabric leftover from making a quilt for one of my sons. In a thrift store, I saw the book, "Big Bear, Little Bear", and I knew this was destined for my donation (the book was in pristine condition!).
The book is in the most gorgeous shades of turquoises & blues, and white. I tried to match these colors carefully since they evoked the essence of the Arctic ideally. My design is simple: framed fussy-cut bear blocks, alternated with nine-patches, some straight set and some on point.
The crispness of this quilt is next to impossible to capture on photograph, especially after it was quilted, but it is both sweet & frosty at the same time. The fussy-cut bears are so totally adorable with a momma bear and a baby bear together. The blues selected remind me of ice, and ocean and sky.
The quilting is done in white and aqua rayon threads which add a light shimmer. The white rayon makes the white Kona resemble ice. Done on my home Singer machine, the quilting was terribly cumbersome for a quilt this size (never again I say!). Plus I figured I used three-quarters of a MILE of thread in the quilting alone.

My quilt did win this Book-Blanket challenge (2nd year in a row for me), and the kind ladies at the local quilt shop still remind me how much they loved it. I hope I am as in love with my craft in 25 years as they are!
I wish I knew which child received this, if only so that they could know how very much I loved making it for them. It has a part of my heart sewn into it.

12 comments:

Emma said...

Good choice! You already know I love this one too.

Zonnah said...

It is so cute. I love the little bears.

Anonymous said...

Very cool quilt and very kind of you to share your gift with others!

Scrappy quilter said...

What a great quilt.

Mary L. said...

Adorable quilt and fantastic work on it!

Rhonda said...

What a wonderful quilt and beautiful story. I love quilts that have stories to go along with them. Great job!

Jocelyn said...

Love the cool blue colors. Great quilt!

Minka said...

That border is magic! I love the subtle echo of the on-point 9-patch blocks! Great job with the colors and getting the Arctic feel of the book, too!

Minka said...

Do you have a picture of the label?

Quilt Rat said...

lovely quilt......and the quilting is wonderful

Unknown said...

Such a sweet quilt! I love the colors and fussy cut bears - thank you for sharing and giving of yourself through your quilts.

Granny Lyn said...

When you give something you love, you give your heart,,,this one is beautiful!! The girls at the quilt shop are right!!!