Bloggers Quilt Festival – Splendid Sampler Entry

September 19, 2017 - Ann Petersen 34 Comments

Time again for the Bloggers Quilt Festival! I did just post about my finished Splendid Sampler but I’m so happy with it, here it is again as an entry for the Festival:

I recently did a longer post with more detail photos of the quilting here…so head on over to that post if you want to see more!

This guy was really a labor…and eventually a labor of love! I kept up with all of the blocks during 2016 when they were released, and now it is a great album of a year where I personally experience a lot of change. I also had a ton of fun quilting it, and I’m so proud of how it came out.

Linking up with the Bloggers Quilt Festival as my first entry. Thanks to Amy for hosting the Festival again.

The Finished Splendid Sampler

September 12, 2017September 26, 2017 - Ann Petersen 9 Comments

It is a big quilt, and it is finished!

I started the Splendid Sampler in February 2016 when it first came out and they were releasing 2 blocks a week. I did reasonably well keeping up, and the quilt is now a nice memory of 2016. I designed the sashing, which I love, and then just had the quilting left to do. It is the largest quilt I’ve done yet on my longarm.

Here is the finished quilt:

I did a ribbon candy motif in the sashing, and quilted all of the blocks differently. I mostly echoed the appliqué, did all-over patterns in the embroidery, and then designed a pattern for each of the patchwork blocks.

Here are some close ups. I also really over-grammed the blocks as I made progress, so if you would like to see more, head on over to my Instagram account (@brownpawsquilting).

This is the back. I used all fabrics from my stash to do the blocks and I still had a bunch left over. I used the leftover fabric for the sashing and for the back.

Final details:

Quilt is 77″ wide and 92″ long.

I used Aurifil 2021 (Natural White) on the top and Bottom Line 623 in the bobbin.

There are 475,669 quilting stitches, and took almost 33 hours.

This was a fun quilt – it was great to do, and now it is fun to look at each of the blocks and remember what I was doing during the year when I made each of them. I think I’ll try to hang it in my sewing room so I can see it often.

This was on my Q3’17 Finish list, so I’ll be linking up with the Q3’17 FAL page

Bee Queen for August

September 3, 2017September 2, 2017 - Ann Petersen 1 Comment

I’ve had great time with my Bee Inspired bee group this year. I’ve never been in a Bee, and I really had no idea what this whole Bee thing entailed. I chose to be Queen later in the year so I could figure it all out before having to choose a block for the group. August was mine!

Finding a block was harder than I thought it would be. I thought over the course of a half of a year I’d run across several options, but I really didn’t. Given that, I started cramming to find something to do in mid-July! I really like the Elizabeth Hartman critter patterns and am looking forward to trying them out, but in the meantime I found this quilt-a-long from a few years ago that has a similar feel. These pups remind me of my boys, Bucky and Leo…and after all, my blog is named after Leo’s brown paws.

The quilt-a-long, which happened in 2015, is from Lorna at Sew Fresh Quilts. The original “Dog Gone Cute” blog page is here.

I made a few blocks to try it out:

My Bee-mates have made some super cute blocks so far, using their own furry kids as inspiration.

This is Romeo and Juliet, from Velda Roy at Granny Can Quilt:

This is Ivy, from Emily at The Darling Dogwood. Real Ivy was not happy about having her photo taken:

Marius, from Jen at A Dream and a Stitch:

I just got two pieces of international mail late last week! This is Leo and Indi, from Kate at Smiles From Kate (Leo, like Ivy, really hates having his picture taken):

And finally Bucky with Doug, all the way from Australia, from Sue at Sevenoaks Street Quilts:

Bucky likes Doug. Or Bucky was just really happy that lunch was coming after his photo!

It has been so fun getting these great blocks in the mail. I look forward to getting them all and seeing how the quilt comes together.

Thanks to the Bee Inspired group for a great year of fun blocks.