WIP - AMH Love Quilt

I have an obsession, and it's nothing new. I am in LOVE with Anna Maria Horner's fabric designs. 

Way back when I started quilting the first designer fabric I ever purchased was from her Chocolate Lollipop line. I was hooked immediately, and I've been hoarding bits of her fabrics ever since.

For the past few months I've been (intermittently) working on a quilt I call AMH Love. It's all my tiny bits of AMH fabric, and I'm hoping it comes together just as I envision it. 

To ensure that I don't screw it up - I made a maquette - a practice mini. (I learned this term from Jacquie Gering, what an inspiration!) So while I'm not sharing my full project just yet, here are some snaps of the Maquette.

I'm loving the dense quilting (what? I haven't taken pics of the quilting yet). I'm loving the paper pieced letters ("my first alphabet" pattern by Diane Bohn)

Pillows and Fancy Free Motion Quilting

Recently I've been working on honing my skills at free motion quilting. I've been working mostly on smaller projects which lend themselves well to being densely / intricately quilted. I'm still not where I want to be with this, but I'm working on getting the movement and flow down so that it will translate easily into all my quilts.

On a whim this week I decided to make a pair of pillow covers for my cousin and his fiance. They are getting married this weekend, and as of last weekend I still hadn't decided on a gift - so handmade seemed to be the best option!

You might notice that these are made with the scraps from my "Modern in the City" challenge. The strips and strip sets were already partially pieced so why not? Jason and Andrea have not yet solidified their decor style - but both their living room and bedroom have grey and blue so these can go either place. I sure hope they love them as much as I do!

Chicago: A City Of Hope.

I can't believe it! I finished my challenge quilt on time!!

I finished on Wednesday, and it was so gloomy out that my pictures were not that great. This challenge was to be entered online, and the judges will only have our pictures and artist statement to go off of when deciding which quilts are used for the show... so I wanted my pictures to be great. I waited until Thursday (the last day for submission!), so I could get some better pictures.

I did indeed get better pics. I'm quite impressed. My friend Judy suggested taking my quilt to the public library to photograph - since the architecture at libraries typically allow for lots of natural light. She was right! My library has huge windows all along the sides, and they're the frosted glass kind, so it's not direct sunlight. Perfect! I walked back to the young adult stacks and laid my quilt on the floor (dark brown carpet - pretty neutral background!) - and I started snapping away. No one even noticed me, and if they would have I'm sure they wouldn't be bothered. 

So there you have it. Take your quilt pics at the library. Pick up a good book while you're at it!

My challenge quilt is titled "Chicago: A City of Hope." It's a really abstracted version of the Chicago map. The quilting is done in the layout of the Chicago El map, and it's bound in (pieced) Chicago flag stripes! 

I'm really happy with how it turned out. I don't specifically have a need for this quilt (other than to enter into the show), so I have listed it for sale (should it be accepted for the quilt show, it will be for sale there). That would be a nice addition to my Quiltcon fund. :) 

For now I'm just glad I got it done. Here's hoping it will hang with the rest of the "Modern in the City Challenge" quilts at the IQF in Chicago!