Monday, September 19, 2016

Bloggers Quilt Festival: The Promises Of Spring

For the BLoggers Quilt Festival - 2016 Fall Edition, I'm submitting The Promises Of Spring - a quilt with a relatively long tale in my quilting history.

The original block was developed by Madame Parfait (whose site has since lapsed) in 2011, and was brought to my attention by a friend who wanted a pattern for it. So I developed one using strip-piecing, and called it 'The Snowflake Block'.


I did them in the rainbow colouring as per the original, and then didn't know what to do with them. So I made cushion covers, as you do.

SeaBreezeMQAL

The pattern was pretty popular, but I also found it bloody inconvenient and didn't think it was a particularly fantastic way to do it, as I discovered while trying to piece together another six of them!

DSC_1358

And now it's time for layouts! And working out how to sew the thing together. Y-seams, eek! #snowflakeblock

Don't look too closely at those seams...

Snowflakes

So what do you do with a handful of blocks that you don't want to make more of, but which you don't otherwise have any purpose for? Why, make a quilt with a lot of whitespace in it!

WIP Wednesday: sprint for the show

Um, yeah, that's a lot of whitespace. A LOT OF WHITESPACE. But I did quilt it all! ALL OF IT.

It just turned out to be a year late for the quilt show I'd intended it to be entered in, largely because I did my calf muscle in a week before I planned to book the longarm at the local quilt shop. So it got delayed a year - Sydney Quilt Show 2016! I called it 'The Promises Of Spring' and entered it with the blurb: "Every winter's flake carries the promise of summer within it."

Promises of Spring

The 'regions' of the quilting are ocean deeps, rippling beaches, forest and fern, winter winds, and the sun/flower, and it took me two days to complete.

Quilt Show 2016

In the aftermath of the show, though, a friend expressed an interest in purchasing the quilt for what it was worth, but when I named the price, she wasn't able to pay that much. Note: I valued the quilt at somewhat less what it had cost me in time and materials to make, plus 10% profit. Frankly, the hours I put in were probably two or three times that, given that I was piecing the snowflakes diamond by diamond. But that was the cost I named, although I admitted I was willing to accept a lower price.

While the friend was thinking it over, another friend was browsing through my feed and decided she liked it and would pay the price in question - and actually asked if it wasn't a bit low. She does costumes herself, so she knows both the cost of crafting something like this, and tendency of makers to undervalue themselves. I was more than happy to sell at the named price, and she received it a couple of weeks ago and is delighted.

Promises of Spring
Quilt Measurements: 180cm x 200cm
Special Techniques used: Y-seams, negative space quilting.
Quilted By: Sel @ Mad Quilter's Disease (a.k.a. me!)

Have you gone to check out the link-up at Amy's Creative Side?

10 comments:

  1. Wow! Soooo pretty♥

    summerdaisycottage.blogspot.com

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  2. Absolutely love this quilt. I'm sure your friend is delighted with her purchase.

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  3. This is so gorgeous! Simple and elegant.

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  4. Very cool quilt. The quilting is terrific, and I love those rainbow snowflakes!

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  5. it's fantastic, I love the block. The quilting looks great too. Well done at selling it for (approaching) what it's worth!

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  6. Such a fantastic use of those blocks you just didn't want to make more of! And great use of the white space, your quilting looks great! :)

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  7. It's gorgeous! Congratulations on selling it for what you feel is a fair price - that's tough to do!

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  8. It is very beautiful, and I don't know if I could have parted with it.

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  9. This is gorgeous, and what a great story! I'm so happy you were able to sell it for a fair price!

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I try to answer every comment made, but if I forget to respond to you, I sincerely apologise! Thanks so much for coming by and commenting!