Thursday, September 20, 2018

2018 Bloggers Quilt Festival: Echinacea Dream Quilt

This is the week of the Bloggers Quilt Festival hosted by Amy Ellis of Amy's Creative Side.  I have a new quilt, Echinacea Dream freshly finished just last night at 1 a.m. in the morning.  This is the second year I am participating and may not have remembered that you don't need a a new quilt for the festival.  Oh well, at least this was a very good impetus for me to finally finish this quilt which has been laying around my studio for the past month.
If this quilt has an air of familiarity, it's because this is the fourth quilt I've finished using my Staggered Squares and Strips pattern and also this is the second quilt made with my favorite colors of the year, steel teals and grays with a hint of coral, which were used for my Spa Spurts quilt finished earlier this year and many of the fabrics used for this quilt can be seen on the Echinacea Dream Quilt.
I just love the fabrics in this quilt, especially the Anna Marie Horner's Echinacea print in the Pretty Potent color way which I've seen my fellow blogger and mentor Susan Snooks of PatchworknPlay used for her beautiful Delilah quilt.  One of the reasons why I love making Staggered Squares and Strip Quilts is that it's a great pattern to use a mix of fabrics from all different fabric lines and also because I can die-cut these strips.  The Echinacea Dream Quilt follows the pattern I just used for my Smiling Sloths Quilt.
I had a hard time coming up with a name for my quilt, which is part of the fun of making a quilt, and was just calling it plain old Echinacea and added Dream after it was finished last night.  Usually when  I have a deadline it usually attracts quilting disasters but thankfully the stars and strips were aligned yesterday.  Choosing the backing and binding were an easy decision and not the usual one or two hours going through the backing vault and stash, picking the thread, I used Silver, Juki June Bug was on her best behavior and no binding strips were lost--this quilt was a dream to finish. This does not happen too often; really it doesn't, because Quiltastropes are always waiting to happen in my studio.
Here's a close-up so you can see the wavey line quilting, charcoal gray polka dot backing and the Spa Green binding; have I mentioned how much I love these colors.  This quilt measures 56" x 70"--I am amazed how much my length loses, 2",  after the quilting.
I woke up this morning to an overcast sky and thought, "Great", after a perfect finish last night, I wouldn't be able to take photos outside, but to my surprise and joy, the sun came out.  The Master Quilt Holder and I braved the mosquitoes to take some outside photos but decided to include an inside photo with Susannah the goat who, thankfully is metal, because it looks like she's ready to take a chomp on some Echinaceas.  Now that this quilt is a finally finished and part of the festival, I can visit and enjoy the other great quilts on the Bloggers Quilt Festival.  Next year, I hope I remember that I don't need to make a new quilt just for the Festival or will I?  I got out of a few things yesterday because I needed to focus on finishing this quilt--I don't need to tell Hubby that there was no Quilt Emergency after all.  Sealed lips would be appreciated.

Hope everyone is enjoying this year's Quilt Festival and thanks again to Amy for hosting.  This is a great way to visit other Quilters' blogs, get inspired by wonderful quilts and make new blog buddies.

19 comments :

  1. It's a beautiful quilt, and I love those fabrics too!

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  2. Love, love, love it! My lips are sealed!

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  3. I remember your past finishes using this pattern and this one equally as beautiful. Congrats getting it finished for the festival!

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  4. Love that echinacea fabric! Of course, I love this pattern and seeing all of your quilts you've made with it. I'll keep my lips sealed on your little secret!

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  5. Great choice and finish and quilt! Good luck in the drawings....Missed the secret in Wendy’s comment, now I need to reread!

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  6. What a great pattern for those fabrics!

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  7. Hi Rose! What a beautiful quilt emergency finish!! I love these colors, too, and your goat does look it's about to take a big chomp out of this beauty. Is this one you are keeping? It sure goes together quickly - I think I will need to remember this pattern! ~smile~ Roseanne

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  8. Gorgeous finish, Rose! The colors remind me of a beautiful spa where a lady can be totally pampered. Clearly, Echinacea Dream was destined to be made and celebrated at the festival :)

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  9. A pretty quilt! I love your colour combo with the pops of coral.

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  10. I, too, love that print from AMH. I'm glad you built this quilt around it. : )

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  11. "Quiltastropes"--love this word!!! Almost as much as I love your quilt. More than Susannah loves your quilt!?! Glad she's not taking a chomp out of it for real!!! You make me smile and laugh, Rose!!!

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  12. Lovely finish Rose! You have reminded me of how much I love that echinacea print. Did you know I based my Delilah quilt on that very print when a friend in California sent me a generous scrap! It’s getting closer to the top of my quilting list too!

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  13. Congratulations Rose on the finish. I am a teal and grey girl too.

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  14. Rose, do you breathe? Seriously, I read your blog as though every word slams into the next. It has to be me. I imagine you running around frantically getting things done, experiencing disaster, recovering and wrapping it all up in a neat little blog package that leaves me breathless. Please take all of my silliness for what it is--just silly. And breathless.
    Oh, and I love, love, love the colors!

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  15. Ooh, I love this colour scheme - this quilt would not look out of place in my house! Super lovely quilt, well done!

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  16. Perfect choice for the festival. I love the names you come up with for these special quilts. And, 1:00 in the morning? wow!

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  17. I love the colour scheme, it's just so pretty. I think we all need the odd deadline to get things finished, and illusionary ones work just fine too!

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I appreciate your comments but due to traveling and my ineptitude with typing on either my iPhone or iPad, my response may be somewhat delayed. Thank You for your understanding.