Blogger's Quilt Festival

My entry into the Blogger's Quilt Festival is a baby quilt I made a couple months back for a friend, who wanted to gift it to her son and daughter-in-law on the birth of their first baby (and her first grandchild!). The story starts much earlier, back in April, when I donated some baby quilts to our Rotary club's silent auction. My friend, who is also in Rotary with me, bid like crazy on the quilt with the more "girl" colours because she knew she was expecting a granddaughter. She was so sure she had won until she went to pick up the auction sheet and found someone else had snuck in a last minute bid!

She came to me and asked if I would be willing to make another quilt and I was happy to say yes. I enjoy the process so much and it is nice to try out a colour scheme or theme that I normally wouldn't try and the added bonus? I get to add some fun scraps to my stash!  

My friend let me know the baby's parents were decorating the nursery in an owl theme and they like the colour yellow. I did some online browsing and found a great selection of owl-themed prints which I showed to my friend. She showed the parents-to-be and they selected a really fun print which I turned into the focus fabric.

I was stuck for quite awhile as to what I would actually make. The quilt at the auction was made of varying width strips sewn together. I thought about that but wondered if the owl theme might get lost; when I look at a strip quilt (a design I really like) I tend to see all the strips have pretty much the same prominence in the design. In this case. I wanted to stay focused on having the owls front and centre, so I decided against it. I was very intrigued and drawn to Ashley's Converging Corners quilt over at Film in the Fridge and the more I looked at it, the more I realized I could fussy cut motifs from my focus fabric to make the owl theme pop and still drawn in a bunch of colour AND try out a block I was keen to attempt.

This is the finished result; I call it Hootlet.

Although making the quilt was not difficult, it represented a challenge for me. Actually, the quilts I made for the silent auction brought the same challenge; I was nervous about putting my work out there. I have come to realize that even when people are not quilters or crafters, they enjoy creativity and can appreciate what you have made. My "coolest", "youngest", and "hippest" friends are the ones who gush the most over my projects! I don't know why I am so surprised but their appreciation has totally drawn me out and I love showing my projects now!

My friend let me in on the baby's name; so I was able to make a custom label for the back.

Thank you for visiting my blog and hearing the story about my quilt festival entry!

e.

PS. The stats for this quilt:

Name: Hootlet!

Finished quilt size: 30" x 40"

Special techniques used: Converging Corners block (tutorial here)

Quilted by: Me

Best category: Baby quilt, Scrap quilt
Linky number: 153

Linking up with Blogger's Quilt Festival