Bloggers’ Quilt Festival

There is an amazing event going on in the Blogosphere right now – the Bloggers’ Quilt Festival hosted by Amy’s Creative Side!  Seriously, you need to go over there and check out all the amazing quilts being entered!!!  I’m just stunned at them all =^..^=

Now, you know me, and you know I have to join in, right?  So here’s my entry….

Easter Sonrise is a Judy Niemeyer design called Hawaiian Star that I first saw in a magazine back in 2007.  Let me just say I was stunned the first time I saw it and thought to myself, “If I could ever make a quilt like that, I will be a *real* quilter!”  I was a fairly new quilter, still in my first year and not quite yet dry behind the ears :*D  But I had taken a paper-piecing class and loved it, so I jumped at the chance to take this 3-day class with Judy herself at Quilter’s Attic when she came to town. 

I got my first clue about what I had gotten myself into when I went to pick up my kit at the shop and saw that it required 22 yards of fabric and the pattern was in a BOX!!!  A THICK box!!!  Uh-oh!!!  Then I got my second clue when I began to cut out the pieces to prepare for class.  It took me THREE DAYS to cut out the pieces!!!  By this time, I was pretty concerned that I was in way over my head, but I packed up my stuff and headed into class, hoping that somehow I would be able to keep up.

Well, Judy was a perfect teacher!  First thing, she amazed us with a magic trick.  One of the girls had not had time to cut her fabrics before class.  Well, Super Judy took her fabrics and layered about 20 of them on top of each other and sliced and diced until she had cut out that entire quilt in about 15 minutes!!!  Yes, the same quilt that had taken me 3 days!!!  Yep, we were totally enthralled with her!  We knew we were in the presence of a *real* quilter =^..^=

Judy 'n me!

She explained everything so simply that before I knew it I was cranking out these marvelous lone star points and curved flying geese, just like everyone else :*)  She kept saying, “Now, just have fun.  Remember, there’s no mistake you can make that I can’t fix, so go for it!”  Dummy me, I believed her LOL!!! 

When we got to the part where we were making the curved flying geese, I got my first one done and took it to her to make sure I was doing it right.  She took it, looked at it for a minute, and said, “Oh no, you’ve ruined it!”  At first, I thought she was kidding, because hadn’t she said she could fix anything?  But no, she was totally serious.  I had cut off the seam allowance from the inner curve!!!  Yikes!!!  

After a minute though, she smiled and said, “Listen, don’t worry about it for now.  Go work on the others and we’ll come back to this one.”  So I did, making VERY sure that I didn’t cut off any more seam allowances :*)

The next morning I came in to class, and what did I find?  Judy presented me with a new curved flying geese unit that she had sewn up for me herself the evening before!  Was that sweet or what???  Yep, I loved her! =^..^=

It took me several months to complete the quilt top.  I held my breath with every Y seam.   But it came together beautifully .... and then it sat on a shelf in my quilting closet for another year while I practiced my quilting skills.  I didn’t want to ruin all that hard work with slipshod quilting!  And I really didn’t want to send it off for someone else to quilt it.  I wanted to say I had done this quilt – all of it!

This was the first large quilt I ever quilted on my domestic machine, a Janome 6600P.  Here are some of the pictures of the quilting.  

I’ve learned a lot since 2009 when I quilted it, but I’m still happy with how it turned out and wouldn’t change a thing.  The quilt has earned the Overall Color & Design Award and 1^st Place Blue Ribbon in it’s class at the Tennessee State Fair, as well as 2 other Blue ribbons in other quilt shows.

I have such happy memories associated with this quilt!  We became a little group of Judy fans at Quilters Attic and for a while we met there to work together on our quilts.  Fun times! 

The original quilt kit called for alternating star points of green and orange.  But I really didn’t like the green.  I thought the orange points looked like a radiant burst of light, much like what must have burst forth when Jesus rose from the dead (hence the name!).  When I said that I would have preferred all my points to be orange, Pat (the first lady on the left in the front on this picture) said she rather liked the green ones and would trade with me if I liked.  I liked!!!  Pat has since passed away.  She was a wonderful quilter and a really lovely person, and I wouldn’t take anything for having gotten to know her and all of these other amazing ladies through this class.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this walk down memory lane with me.  It was a bit longer walk than I had anticipated when I sat down to write it, but sometimes the memories just come up and make us smile, and we just have to share, right?

Have a lovely Sunday & enjoy all the blessings our sweet Lord has given us!!!

Hugs & Blessings,

Teresa

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