Friday, October 24, 2014

Blogger's Quilt Festival - Fly Away Home!!


Hi, all!

Quilt Market has rolled around again, and you know what that means for those of us who don't get to go to Market - it's time for the Bloggers' Quilt Festival!!

AmysCreativeSide.com

This year I want to share a very special quilt with you.  It has humble beginnings, being made with the scraps from this wonderful quilt made from a pattern designed by Karrie Lyne Winter of Freckled Whimsy.


Karrie was a guest blogger for this year's Hands2Help Charity Quilt Challenge, and came up with this fabulous design, which I just had to try out!


The polka dot fabric was originally purchased by my daughter when she was trying to adopt from Ethiopia several years ago.  She hoped to make a quilt for a little boy with them, but due to delays in the adoption process in Ethiopia, they had to drop their plans to adopt at that time.  When they had their second little girl, she gave me the fabrics to use for the quilt ministry, and they became the basis for my version of Karrie's quilt.  But see all those triangle blocks?  They created a lot of waste triangles, which I hated to throw away.  

So I turned them into a big pile of half-square triangles and threw them up on the design wall.  Because of the design of the first quilt, they were a variety of sizes.  This made for some interesting design problems!  


I finally came up with a layout that I liked, but couldn't decide on a background fabric.  I tried grays, creams, white, taupe - nothing was quite right.  Then my sister and her daughters came over and put in their two cents - red, definitely red!  Fortunately I had a big chunk of Chinese red that was perfect!  Lots of measuring, piecing, a little frog-stitching (rip-it, rip-it) and a big dose of perseverance, and the top was complete!


Acres of small random meander quilting - red thread on the red fabric, then cream on the half square triangles.


And a hand-quilted heart in the very center of the quilt.


Cream polka dots on red with a stripe of multi-colored polka dots on cream make up the back.  The same multi-colored polka dots make the binding!

 My daughter and her family are now in the process of adopting a little boy from China that they have named Nathanael.  Nathanael is almost three and is profoundly deaf, as is our youngest granddaughter, Emmy.  This quilt will be his first annual quilt when they finally bring him home. (I make each grandchild a quilt each year for Christmas.)  I've named it "Fly Away Home" because to me, the corners look like birds flying towards the center of the quilt, and the blue center represents the love radiating outwards towards our future grandson.  And of course, red represents his home country, China!  We hope to have Nathanael in his forever home early next year!!  You can read more about their adoption journey here if you want.

 Many people in our family had a part in this quilt - not just my "blood kin" but my quilting family also!  My daughter contributed the  fabric, originally intended for a child to be adopted from Ethiopia; a quilt designed by my blog friend Karrie for our annual charity quilt challenge yielded the basic building blocks for this second quilt; and my sister and nieces came up with the perfect background color!  So it really was a "family affair"!

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If this is your first time visiting my blog, I hope you've enjoyed yourself and that you'll come back and visit often!  We "whoop" it up on Fridays at my "Can I Get A Whoop Whoop" linky party, and each spring I host the Hands2Help Charity Quilt Challenge.  And there are always pictures of the beautiful quilts our church's quilt ministry creates on the blog.  Come join us!!!

Hugs!

Sarah

26 comments:

  1. Love the quilt. Hope you make a lot of quilts for Nathanael and your other grandchildren. I am sure he will have a warm home in your family.
    Love from Amsterdam

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  2. Beautiful quilt! Love the graphic look of it. Amazing!!

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  3. It's really beautiful, that red was the perfect decision.

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  4. Your quilt turned out great! He is going to love it!

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  5. The best quilts have wonderful stories to go with them and love in every stitch, like this one :)

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  6. Beautiful beautiful! Nathaniel is going to feel so loved.
    I am already following along. Love what you do here. Janita

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  7. Great quilt. What fun you had creating it!

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  8. Love the story that goes along with the making of this beautiful quilt. Tons of love will be poured on young Nathaniel.

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  9. What a beautiful story to go along with this beautiful quilt that you have created! Your daughter is an inspiration to us all!
    Susie

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  10. Lots of tradition and extra meanings in that quilt. Very appropriate and beautiful.
    Hugs

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  11. It's a beautiful quilt and I'm sure Nathaniel will feel loved when he sleeps under it. The red background was absolutely the best choice.

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  12. That quilt is gorgeously fabulous. I love that back almost as much as the front!!! It’s so visually interesting and you elevated the stakes by using dotty fabric. Perfect!

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  13. I know that Nathanael will love this quilt. I certainly do.

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  14. I adore the red; the contrast between the foreground and background is striking.

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  15. The red really makes this quilt special. It's exciting to realize that the time for Nathanael to come home is getting closer.

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  16. Amen to the comments above: The red was a great choice!

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  17. Utterly gorgeous! Well done! The red is perfect!

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  18. This is so pretty. Love all the thought that went into the planning of the quilt.

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  19. It really turned out fabulous and all those connections to the important people in your life and eventually in his life will make it even more special.

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  20. Beautiful use of scraps! It's graphic and dynamic, just perfect for a 3 year old.

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  21. This is a beautiful quilt! Very visually striking in the red. You should definitely write a pattern for this one!

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  22. Such a beautiful colourful quilt - it really stands out!

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Comments make me smile!! If you want a PDF of a pattern, PLEASE leave your email address in your comment, or email me directly at salliesue57 (at) gmail (dot) com!