Tuesday, September 20, 2016

Bloggers' Quilt Festival: Swarm by Sel

Welcome, most of you presumably from the Bloggers' Quilt Festival hosted by Amy's Creative Side.

This is the story of a bunch of buzzy bees bumbling around in my brain, and how sometimes ideas come together in unexpected id-tugging ways...

Swarm (by Sel) took me two full years to actually complete from piecing to binding, but I think it was kind of worth it.

"Swarm" - photographed square! Such a labour of love and inspiration. And yes, @2bees, I'm filling out the competition forms now! #swarmbysel

Name: Swarm
Size: 75" x 88"
Design: original by Sel

The fault lies entirely in hexagons. I rather love hexagons, but they're kind of a pain in quilting - all those y-seams! However, I have designed multiple quilts based off hexagons (including a rather fun and complicated 'colourwash' kind of quilt) and am always on the lookout for cool hexy patterns. But I really liked Elizabeth Hartman's "Honey" quilt, featured on the cover of her book 'Modern Patchwork'. A friend of mine, Penny Poppleton made a spectacular version of it back in 2012, and while I liked the design, I didn't want just the honeycomb, but also the bees...

There were designs. Triangular grid paper, pencils, and design after design after...hey, I like that idea...

And then RJR fabrics announced the Cotton + Steel collection, with the 'blenders' and the 'low-vols' and I went "OOOOOH!" Bought most of the basics range and started cutting and sewing.

Most of the long story is at this post I made in December last year, however the addendum is...that it got accepted into QuiltCon!! I blame my friend, Bec, from SydModSQuad for encouraging me to submit it.

And it got photographed by the C+S official Instaccount! *boggles* *wibbles* *squees*

Then I sent it to Houston.

Uh. But not the Quilt Show. If I'd thought about it, I'd have submitted it to the 2016 Houston Quilt Show first, but instead, I opted to gift it to some friends in Houston who've let me stay in their spare 'oom nearly every time I've visited the US. Ah well. I did get to see it in use when I went to visit them in July, though!

Hey that quilt looks familiar... Glad to see #swarmbysel in its new home! #Houston #SelAndTheWorld2016

It's one of my favourite quilts, to be honest, and I do regret giving it away just a little. Guess I'll just have to make another one... Streamline the process... Write that pattern...

Swarm #swarmbysel

Submitted in the Original Design section of the Blogger's Quilt Festival!


13 comments:

  1. Fantastic, If you love hexes, have a look at my take of hexes in the same section as this. I use a Creative Grids Hexie Trim tool. They are great. I have made so many quilts with it and they are all different. hope you enjoy the blog festival as much as I do,

    Wendy

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  2. What a lovely, colorful quilt! I love the triangles scattered over it.

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  3. I love this quilt! It's a hexagon party!

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  4. It's gorgeous! Love those larger triangles hidden amongst the small ones.

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  5. It's a gorgeous quilt. It would have taken me a lot longer than 2 years to piece it!

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  6. Hello fellow hexie-tragic, your quilt is extremely beautiful, and I'm so happy to see another submission from Australia, even if you seem to be south of the border... I love your colour choices and the idea behind this quilt, and it's beautifully executed too.

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  7. Love it, you should definitely do a pattern!!

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  8. That's so fun! Reminds me of umbrellas as viewed from above, when the sun shines through the rain and there are rainbows all around)))

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  9. Gorgeous and I especially love the little triangles in between.

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  10. What a wonderfully original quilt. I love it as it is, but can see how 'that pattern' (hint, hint) could also really have room for interpretation with other color palettes. I think a midnight blue background and you'd have fireworks, etc. Off to vote for you now.

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  11. Love this quilt! It really is so original and beautiful too. I voted for it.

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