Bohemian Friendship - Accepted for IQF Chicago!

I'm excited to announce that my Bohemian Friendship quilt has been accepted to the Modern Friendship Star Challenge for the International Quilt Festival - Chicago show! 

I'm really excited about this because this quilt is an important part of my quilting journey. While this quilt was finished nearly three years ago,, it holds a special place in my heart. First of all, this quilt has been kept - for some reason I think it should be a baby quilt for the baby that I haven't yet been able to have. That alone makes it emotionally important. But even more, this quilt came to be because of the extreme generosity of the modern quilting community. You can read more about that here and here. In short, the fabrics were sent to me from around the world - scraps - tiny, (almost) unusable scraps, but they were sent to me from friends who knew of my love for Anna Maria Horner fabrics. These were scraps from her very first fabric line (very very out of print/very hard to find). More so, I backed this quilt in silky smooth sari fabric that Shruti sent me. It's like one sweet hug from around the world!

Also - I'm demo-ing again in the Open Studios at IQF-Chicago! Come see me at the Quilt Studio Thursday, March 26th, 10am-12 for, and Friday, March 27th, 12-2pm for Foundation Paper Piecing. I'm really excited to be doing this for the third year in a row! It's always such a rush to teach and share with so many at this show! 

Bohemian Friendship - My Precious QAL Finished!

It's finished!! 

I'm so in love with this quilt! It's been hanging on my design board for months... waiting for me to be sure about what size I wanted it. I had decided on this size (about 37" x 37") but was frustrated since it's not quite  small enough to hang on the wall (I have no room for it!), and it's not quite big enough to use.

Last night I bit the bullet and left it this size. This is the size my drawings worked out to be - the size the quilt wanted to be. Emily came over last night to sew and talk about QuiltCon. We decided that it's a "Knee Quilt" it will lay over your knees as you're sitting in a chair. Perfect for admiring, not so perfect for warming. :)

I love it either way! It is backed in some lovely super-soft light weight fabric that I received in a swap from Shruti (DQS10? or 11? I can't remember now). And it's bound with some beloved Dobby Dots Pastry Line. Yum it's so soft and lightweight! 

Oh and I quilted it without my walking foot (which I had previously broken by going full Juki speed - apparently that's a no-no for walking feet!). I didn't have very much shifting at all. 

If you're wondering about the quilt's name? The prints in this quilt are all from Anna Maria Horner's first line of fabric "Bohemian" There's at least a partial star of each and every fabric from that line. How'd I manage that? By the generosity of sweet friends on flickr who shared the love! :) Thus "Bohemian Friendship." You can read more about the story here and here. Oh or you could read about the same generousity that Anna Maria herself witnessed - from one of the same sweet flickr friends! Thanks ladies for making this quilt possible!!

Bohemian Love

I love Anna Maria Horner. That's nothing new to my longtime readers; it's pretty obvious. I adore her style and her fabrics are very "me." When I started quilting 3 years ago I was immediately drawn to Anna's then current line, Chocolate Lollipop - that was my entrance into the modern designer fabric love. Before that I had no idea that fabric of that quality was available (and the colors!).

For those of you who don't know, on the timeline of my entrance into quilting, Anna's Bohemian fabrics came about four years earlier. I'd never even had the thought that I would be able to sew with them, but thanks to some really lovely and generous ladies over on flickr, I get to play with them too! 

Aren't they lovely? I think I have at least a partial star of each fabric in the entire line! Whoa. Look at all the color! I'm so excited about this, and it's all for me! I'm keeping it! 

I think it'll be a doll quilt for my sewing room wall. It may end up being a series of Doll quilts, since I have so many ideas floating around in my head! 

Here are the stats on this one. I used Thangles to piece all those half square triangles. Each square finishes at 1.75" and the whole section here measures about 20" square!