Bloggers Quilt Festival

Over the last few days several of the blogs I read have been posting about the Blogger's Quilt Festival taking place over at Amy's Creative Side. I went over to see what was going on and found lots of lovely quilts on display. 

Although I only restarted quilting last year after a 20 plus year break I decided I wanted to enter one of my quilts. My choice is the Dresden plate quilt I finished earlier this year. It was this quilt that led to me restarting quilting and starting my blog.

In the autumn of 2011 I went to the Stitching and Knitting exhibition at Alexander Palace in London. This exhibition is held each year and it's one of my favourite outings of the year. It has exhibitions of quilts, knitting and other needlecraft as well as a lot of stalls selling anything and everything to do with sewing, knitting, felting, lace-making and lots of other crafts. Whilst browsing I came across a stall that offered quilt patterns, kits and fabrics. One quilt on display caught my eye and over the day I returned several times. In the end my husband bought me the kit and I went home excited to get started. The quilt is designed by Maggie Wise and is made in Liberty Tana Lawn.

I didn't start the quilt immediately because I found the cutting instructions a little confusing.  So I put the kit away for a few months. When I fished it out again in April 2012 I couldn't understand what I had found difficult about the pattern. Very soon I had cut the blades for the plates and I had sewn the first plate together.

Progress wasn't always fast on the quilt but by October I had finished the nine plates and had sewn it together with the sashing.The sashing is made from one and a half inch squares. The top was finished before Christmas but at this point there were still two borders to add.

I didn't take a picture of the whole quilt with the borders but this shows one of the corners as I was preparing the quilt sandwich.

At the end of February I was able to post the photos of the completed quilt. The finished quilt is 48 inches square and machine quilted. I am really pleased with the way this quilt looks and I am also very pleased my husband bought me the kit as a present. If he hadn't I might never have got back into quilting and I would then have missed out on the fun of making lots of quilting friends out there in blogland.

Now you need to visit Amy's Creative Side to see the rest of the quilts in this years Blogger's Quilt Festival. You can either click here or click the button on the top of the side bar to go and visit. 

I hope you have some time for quilting today

Lyndsey