Monday, October 28, 2013

Swirling Medallion Baby Quilt for the Blogger's Quilt Festival

Swirling Medallion - done

Let me introduce you to my Swirling Medallion Quilt, my entry into the baby quilt category of the Blogger's Quilt Festival.

AmysCreativeSide

If you are a new visitor to my blog from the festival, welcome and I hope you will take a minute to look around. Thank you to Amy from Amy's Creative Side for hosting the festival.

Swirling Medallion is about 42" square. She was made following the Swirling Medallion Quilt pattern in Quilting Modern, which is a book by Jacquie Gehring and Katie Pederson, although I adapted the patter by adding some extra rounds . I first introduced this quilt in this blog post where you can read more about her construction.

Swirling Medallion - quilting detail

For this Blogger's Quilt Festival post, I though I would share a bit about the inspiration to make this fun little quilt. I had bought a bundle of Heather Ross's Briar Rose line of fabrics with no plan at all for them.

Swirling Medallion - quilting detail

I carried them off to the coast for my summer vacation. While I was walking the beach with my dog, I kept looking at the ripples in the ocean caused by tossing in stones and by bigger rocks sticking out of the water.

Swirling Medallion - quilting detail

I had brought my copy of Quilting Modern with me on vacation as I wanted to work on some improv projects. So the swirling medallion pattern, the bright Briar Rose prints and the ocean ripples all came together and I made this quilt. The quilting is also a diamond swirl out from the centre, slightly off kilter and not perfectly evenly spaced, in the modern industrial style I like.

Swirling Medallion Quilt

This picture above is before washing. As always, for me the texture added from washing completes the design. And it adds even more beachy references for me: waves, sand, driftwood, eroded rocks and cliffs, and the original swirls that form when you toss a rock into the ocean.

Swirling Medallion - back

For the back I used a Kona yellow - I am not sure which one - and some more Briar Rose. I machine stitched the binding using the method my friend Marianne from The Quilting Edge patiently explained to me over a couple of lunches - she also has a tutorial here.

Swirling Medallion - back detail

There are not really strawberries at my beach but the blackberries grow in abundance. So this quilt is yet another of my quilts inspired by the ocean and the beach, despite its lack of beach colours and the wrong kind of berries. Hakuna matata, it was made on my island, it is full of fun and movement, summer sun and smiles, swirls and texture - clearly it is about the beach.

Swirling Medallion - done

I hope you enjoy this quilt and all the others at the Blogger's Quilt Festival.

Quilt Stats:

Name: Swirling Medallion
Pattern: Swirling Medallion from Quilting Modern
Size: 42" x 42"
Fabrics: Kona Snow and Briar Rose, with a Kona yellow (not sure which one) on the back
Festival Category: Baby Quilts

You have time to enter up to two quilts in the festival if you have not yet done so - go here to see all the categories - and there are some quality hours to be spent pursuing the entries, they are fantastic.

Best,

Leanne

ps, The Amazon links in this post are affiliated Amazon links.

21 comments:

Sarah Lou said...

Lovely to see this again and to hear about your inspiration

Debbie said...

Adore it all washed up and crinkly and enjoy having you tell its story...

RobotMomSews said...

I love this!!! It is such a great quilt with a great story behind it! And that machine quilting is awesome. I could never get such straight lines!

Kelly said...

Love how you made this quilt yours, another fab entry!

Alli said...

That's so fabulous! Ooog, I keep seeing people make adorable things out of Briar Rose, and I haven't gotten around to buying any...

CitricSugar said...

Great use of the stitch and flip technique - lovely quilting!

Brenda said...

it's really great, front and back!

Katy Cameron said...

This is so fabulously crinkly, I love how it turned out!

CapitolaQuilter said...

Hakuna Matata indeed - Clearly I agree that Briar Rose is the perfect line for a baby quilt. Yours is beautiful

Marjorie's Busy Corner said...

Very pretty Leanne...great quilting

Jacqueline said...

This is so pretty! Love the design.

Camilla said...

Lovely to see how all that inspiration came so beautifully together,

Benta AtSLIKstitches said...

Gorgeous! And I've seen it on flickr too, so lovely to know its past as well as it's future!!!!!!!

Karens Quilts, Crows and Cardinals said...

Leanne this is stunning ! I love everything about it and want to make one myself (using my French General fabrics... ) Woohoo! Good luck !

Canadian Abroad said...

Such beautiful use of the Briar's Rose. Love the quilt, Leanne.

Tina said...

Beautiful quilt! That strip of Briar Rose on the back is fantastic!

Mary Menzer said...

Bright and cheery - maybe not beachy, but very happy and summery. I love this pattern!

Habibti at Home said...

Very, VERY pretty!!!

SarahZ said...

So So Sooo pretty!

Carla said...

I have some Briar Rose and love it so much....your quilt is so so cute! Your photos really show it off well.

FlourishingPalms said...

This is a really pretty quilt, Leanne. The colors are so fresh. And your quilting really makes it a lovely finish. Great job!