Online Blogger's Quilt Festival 2010

Amy is once again running her Online blogger's quilt festival. If you have never seen this, you ought to block out several hours over the next few days and sit down and check out all the great work. At the above link you will already find over 200 people's URL's with a posting of their favorite quilts.

I have many favorites, but don't want to duplicate what I have posted previously. Similarly, I really wanted to post this quilt, but the darn thing is just not quite finished. So, I present to you my newest finish..."Vintage Summer". I quilted this in the early spring (actually pieced it last fall and never got around to finishing it). Then on Tuesday morning, I realized I had no hand stitching so I quickly attached the binding.

It is a nice lap or beach size, 54"x60". I fell in love with the Elizabeth Studios beach fabrics last year. They were just so sweet and nostalgic, and reminded me of watching my 3 kids play in the surf with their 2 cousins. The five children in one of the images were those 5 exactly. Besides, the summer beach season in Maine is very short, so finishing this was of the essence.

The piecing and quilting are very simple, given what I usually do. I wanted the fabrics to be the focal point for a change. I quilted it with a meandering wave pattern.

...sweet vintage dressed children playing in the surf...

...and a nice beach scene with lighthouses and boats.

Because I know that this posting will receive a good bit of traffic during this quilt show, I have to put in my two cents worth of advertising for my quilting business! I am a longarm quilter, and receive about 90% of my business from internet viewers - ones that find me via this blog and ones that find my pure business website. I hope that you find time to peruse other recent quilts I have quilted, some my own, and some for clients. And if you have a quilt you'd like professionally quilted, please contact me.

Have a great time looking at all of the fantastic blogger's quilts!

A Giveaway Winner!

Before I announce the winner, I want to solicit the readers and ask a favor. I am in need of a 3"x3" piece of Sandy Gervais's Crazy Eight Circles & Dots in Berry (aka red). If anybody has this and could spare the 3" piece, I'd be ever so grateful!! Please email me if so...I have a square I have to remove from a quilt because my very stupid cat ripped it with her claw!

I realized today it was time to use the old random number generator and select a winner of my drawing from the Online Quilt Festival. If I was just a little more clever, I could show you the results...(oh well!)

And the winner of a quilting of any quilt up to a lap quilt size (approx 60"x60") is...#7 (Shawn). If you happen to see this, please email me at msolomo1@maine.rr.com. I will also try to contact you. As I said before, I will quilt any top within that size for you, but not until January 1, 2010. So sorry about that, but I have many tops right now in need of doing as well as the need to get onto some Christmas presents!

For those of you that did not win, I will be hosting a quilting extravaganza probably starting next month where I will hold a grand opening of my long arm quilting business. I will be taking quilts of all sizes for quilting at a steal of a deal (for a limitted time only). So, stay tuned for more information! And you can see my quilts as they are being quilted on either my new website or at my etsy shoppe.

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!

Arrival of Autumn

With Fall officially here, I am actually on season for completing this runner. The background is from charm squares of Moda's Miss Jump's Scrapbag, which I was given during the 4SQS summer block swap. Normally I am not much of a brown person. In fact, I initially thought that these squares were just the thing that my mother-in-law would like, and was anticipating making a Christmas present from them. But the once I added the leaves in batiks, I really liked the runner. Thanks, Virginia - I even have enough of the squares left to make a smaller runner for my buffet (I just love to have 2 pieces that match or coordinate!!).

I almost did a fused applique, but in the end decided to needle turn the leaves. The oak and maples were a touch challenging with all of their points, but I think it produces a more finished look.

This was my first attempt at a pseudo-peacock quilting. The first attemp got ripped out because I did not like the thread color (about 4 hours of picking!). This color is good on the front, but not my favorite on the back. I'll get over that because the back won't show!

The 1" border is another fabric that I was given in the summer swap - I really don't like CW's at all, but again, this I do really like. And, it brings out the red in the runner too...almost appearing like little red berries.

And in case you had not noticed yet, Amy at http://www.parkcitygirl.blogspot.com/ is once again hosting the bloggers quilt festival. Go check out her site. Last Spring there were lots of wonderful sponsors, prizes and quilts to peruse. I am also planning a giveaway for this event, so stay tuned!

Last set of Favorite Quilts for the Online Quilt Festival

Rather than post pictures, I am posting links to back postings I have made. These are mostly mini's that I have either made or were made for me in a swap. Either way, they are spectacular little quilts with a great attention to detail, and are worth your second look! I'd love to have these quilts back again!!

This quilt was made as a part of the Spring Fling Round Robin 2. It lives in my daughter's bedroom. It's fantastic!! Lil's applique is just gorgeous, as are the bright, girly colors.

Maine in the summer is a wonderful place. Nothing evokes the feelings of the Maine summer to me like these mini's. I made one of them as a part of a Four Seasons Quilt Swap for someone, but then when I was not sure I could part with it, I made a companion piece. These were my first experiences with raw-edge applique, and the details it allows. Here are some details of the one that was given away...

Made for Emma, this is one of my favorite artys quilts. It combines paper piecing, applique, detailed machine quilting, beading and a sweet Christmassy theme that all people should "Believe".

This piece is now in Marlene's house. Made as a part of the Miniature Booty quilt swap, it was hand appliqued and hand quilted. I'd love to have kept this one!

Go visit all the sites!!

More Favorites...for the Festival

Like some others of you, I had a very hard time selecting just one favorite quilt to post about. I made this 2-3 years ago as a part of my Legacy quilt series. I am making wall quilts for each of my three children so that one day they may have a piece of my passion for quilting. Two of the three are completed and hang in our house.
I like to think that my style is traditional with a twist. I love the deep jewel tones, but also appreciate the bolder spotted batiks and less orthadox or conventional designs. Quilts with intrensic movement intrigue me. Though I do not own Luisa Smith's Strips-n-Curves book, I did see a segment on a quilt show prior to making this quilt. I had actually made another quilt in this same style the previous year which I totally loved (and gave away), so it was an easy design choice.

The first step of making this quilt is to assemble about 45 1.5" strips into one large fabric, sewing them side by side. Then, the quarter circles and their mating arcs are cut from this, but at a 45 degree angle. It is a glorious design day to arrange and rearrange these until the desired look is achieved. I did a few additional blocks to put in the waving purple stripe, or to add curves that extend into the border.

I have no idea which of my children will receive this. I have not afixed labels to the quilts yet. I figured that I'd either let them decide who liked which best as they grow, or I'll select quilts based on personalities.

The quilt is completely hand quilted, mostly along the ditches of each strip. It also has border quilting. (disregard that the picture below still shows marking chalk!! - it was taken before that was removed & I'm too lazy to go snap another shot).

If you have not visited this online quilt festival, be sure to do so. There's tons to see at http://parkcitygirl.blogspot.com/

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.