Blogger's Quilt Festival

Greetings Quilters!

First off, thanks for stopping by my humble blog. There are tons of fantastic quilts being showcased on the Blogger's Quilt Festival, hosted so wonderfully by Amy at http://www.parkcitygirl.blogspot.com/. This is a fun event and I am excited to be a part of it yet again. I have a great post to share with you, and at the end of some fun pictures, there is a giveaway, so don't miss it. So without further adu, let the show begin!


Over the last year or so, I have made a lot of quilts. I have been active in many swaps, both those that make mini quilts and those that make just blocks. I usually make quilts for baby gifts or Christmas presents. Most of the quilts I have made are linked on the sidebar to the right. The quilts, however, that I am most proud of are the ones I am showing you here today.


Over the course of the last 3 years, I have made over 100 lap-sized ~45"x65" quilts to donate to the local chapter of Project Linus. In January of 2007, this started as an effort to trim my scrap stash, which at that time was really not very large. It gave me something to sew without needing to buy fabric too! That quickly became addictive. I told my friends and family what I was doing, and within a few weeks I had a dining room full of more donated scraps! And that is how the cycle began. Last Fall, at a Linus function entitled the Book-Blanket Challenge I showed this quilt (which incidentally was my entry for the Blogger's Festival in April too!). Our local chapter was closing because the rep was stepping down and a replacement had not been found. She had been trying hard to get me to take over the position, but my life was too busy for that then. She had two large boxes of fabric which had to contain 60+ yards of top quality material which she gave me. I told her I would use that to make quilts to give back to Project Linus. And I did.
Last month, I broght 53 quilts to donate. These were made between January and September of 2009. The day before I brought them, I layed them all out on my yard for a little "quilt show". One blogger commented that it looked like a "Sea of Love". I think she was right.

Many are scrap quilts. Many are quilts I designed. Some were done to let me "test" a pattern or an idea. Some let me practice certain machine quilting techniques. Some were made from blocks acquired in various swaps.

All will be loved and cherished by the children that receive them.

They say it takes a village to raise a child. If what was done here for the children is of any similarity to that, I'd be remiss for not mentioning a few of the wonderful people that helped make this 53 quilt donation become possible. The quilt above had the indiginous Australian fabrics donated to me by Bernadette in a swap. The one below was made from swap blocks from the Broken Heart pattern by ladies of Kate's Birthday Block swap. I hosted the Spring Fling Round Robin earlier this year and received blocks to make 5 quilts from these talented ladies. The aforementioned Kate sent me 24 Jacob's Ladder blocks and another 24 Bento blocks to make another 4 quilts. Such overwhelming generousity. And I have never even met any of these people either.
It's true, I did spend a ton of time assembling, sewing, quilting and binding these. It's a labor of love, and if this is the only time in my life that I am able to make such a grand donation, I am still satisfied.

And so would you.

And yet another quilt below made from more donated fabrics from Anna Y.
The quilts here represent on the order of 275 yards of fabric & batting!
I spent much of my quilting time this last year on the quilts I showed you here, but the time has come for change -- a change in my quilting focus and a change in my personal/professional life. I am a trained and experienced mechanical engineer. Since having three kids, however, I have realized that going back to work full time is unpractical and just daunting. I want to be here at 3:30pm when they arrive home. So after much soul-searching and planning, I have opted to take a plunge off the deep end so to speak. For those of you that read this blog, you know this. But for the sake of the newcomers, I will mention that I just purchased a long arm quilting machine. And I am in the process of trying to establish a business making and machine quilting quilts (that is after my husband helps put the frame together this weekend!). I encourage you to bookmark my new business website http://www.mainelyquiltsoflove.com/. Visit often! At present, all I have shown there are a few small items and a number of quilt tops that I will quilt in the coming weeks. I will, however, be adding to this soon. Once I am taking orders, I will very likely do an internet quilting special for a while, with an extraordinary price!

As a giveaway in support of the Online Blogger's Festival, I will offer to machine quilt one person's quilt. It may be up to a large lap-size. You'll have to provide the batting and the postage, but I will quilt an all-over pattern which compliments the top. I will offer to do this anytime after January 1, 2010. I will randomly select someone at the end of the Blogger's festival. To be included, please do the following...(1) leave a comment here, and (2) blog something to your personal blog that promotes my blog and new Mainely Quilts of Love Quilting business. Thanks and have a great time spying all of the fantastic quilts.

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One last thing...I am hosting a block swap on flickr. If you are interested in a swap that will yield enough high quality blocks to make a queen sized quilt, with a monthly committment of only 2 blocks, check it out!