Autumn Whimsy - Bloggers Quilt Festival

Today I am posting about my entry into the Bloggers Quilt Festival. Are you familiar with this awesome event? It is hosted by Amy Ellis of Amy's Creative Side and occurs twice a year coinciding with Spring and Fall Quilt Market. Be sure and check out all of the wonderful creations in all different sizes and creations. And be sure and vote for your favorites in each category.

My Applique entry Autumn Whimsy was made for Handmade Autumn, a Flickr based swap full of talented sewists! My partner, loved color and requested a table runner for her buffet. Her mosaic was full of fun colorful autumn themed projects. I took three of the elements from the mosaic and put together a 3 block runner, building each block separately using lots of low volume and scrappy fabrics before joining them all together. 

This applique tree has been on my list of  "need to make" for a long time! I just love all the colors of  the fall trees. There are several patterns available, I was inspired by the free tree pattern at Honeybearlane.com In this block I used more rainbow colors to infuse more color and intensify the impression of leaves changing.

Next I made patchwork pumpkins. I was inspired by Amy Smart from Diary of a Quilter. You can find her free pattern here. My pumpkins are different sizes but aren't they so cute!

Finally, I put together a block with Mr Fox. He is not a wild or menacing fox but a sweet boy! This sweet fox is from by Cass Can Sew's free applique template "The Quiet Fox."   I fussy cut the flowers from a scrap and the sun was simple scrappy improv.

 After appliqueing all the pieces in place with SteamASeam2 (can be found here )and then straight stitching around each piece, I used a blue water removable marker to draw all my free motion quilting on the piece. This is the first time I have done this and was very happy with how it turned out. I used an echo pattern around many of the pieces - the tree and flowers. Then I used a long, wavy line trying to mimic the gentle breeze blowing the leaves from the trees.

The background is a majority of Low Volume charms, with fun fussy cutting of some of the text print to keep important words like "quilt", "creative", and "make life special."  I also strategically place a charm with bee's on it. Here in Indiana they are a common site during the fall as they try to gather all they can before winter.

I backed it in a fun print that has a bit of a retro vintage feel and all the beautiful colors of autumn. I then used a beautiful orange/red/yellow variegated thread Aurifil 4657 to machine bind it. I fell in love with this thread on this project.

So be sure and stop by the Bloggers Quilt Festival and check out all the inspiration and vote for your faves, and if one of those is mine I sincerely Thank you!

Bloggers Quilt Festival entry: Applique
Stats:  approx 15in x  40in
Style: patchwork and applique
Quilting: Free Motion quilted by me
Thread: Aurifill 2600 Dove and Aurifil 4657 varigated
Fabric: Low Volume charms and scraps

Happy Stitching!
Ginny


Also linking up with Finish It Up Friday with Crazy Mom Quilts