Blogger's Quilt Festival - Fall 2013 Edition

The crisp fall days have arrived in this part of the country, which means fall is here and so is the fall version of the Blogger's Quilt festival over at Amy's Creative Side.  

It's so hard to pick just one favorite quilt to show for the festival. After quite a bit of dithering, I finally decided to post my version of Judy Laquidara's Sweet Treats pattern. Judy posted the first picture of the pattern on May 2nd 2012.  I just fell in love with it, but I already had so much going in the sewing room, I told myself starting a new project was just not an option.   (Yeah right, you probably already see where this is going).  I'd been working on getting the stash closet organized.  Every time I pressed and folded a new bit of yardage, I'd put it in the closet and have to move one of the two stacks of the 1930 reproduction fat quarters in the process.  

Contrary to what you might think based on the size of those two stacks, I'm not a big fan of that style of fabric.  These fat quarters are left over from a quilt shop BOM that required everyone to use 1930 reproductions to participate.  Every time I had to move those left overs, I'd think they needed to be moved out of the stash completely.  Hmm, a new project I was dying to start and fabric that needed to be used. What better reason to start a brand new project? 

Sweet Treats
Pattern by Judy Laquidara

Definitely not a traditional quilt using 1930 reproductions, but somehow it works. Trudy quilted lazy daisies across the whole quilt.

When I made the 1930's BOM, I ended up buying yardage of a couple of different blues for the borders, but only used one of the prints.  I had enough of of the border reject to use on the back.  Even better in terms of stash reduction.  

The red binding echoes the middle red border and adds a nice bright frame for the quilt. 

It was a fun quilt to make.  And it did make a significant dent in my 1930 reproduction stash.  There is still probably enough left to make at least one more quilt.  I'm thinking about making a quilt of valor from what's left over.  That will have to wait till next year though.  I really do have to much going on to start anything new now.  

Elements (aka Sweet Treats)
Pattern by Judy Laquidara

This quilt became a retirement gift for Drama Teen's middle school science teacher.  DT spent three years in Mrs. B's class and made two trips to state science fair with her, as well as, a week long school trip to Colorado one summer.   DT just adored her.  DT decided that the boxes looked a bit like a periodic table, so the name was changed from "Sweet Treats" to  "Elements".  Mrs. B. loved the quilt.  

I've never blogged about that original BOM that was the reason for the scraps and left over fat quarters.  If you want to see what that quilt looked like, there is a picture of it posted on my Flickr account (click here).  

That's my scrappy entry for the Fall Blogger's Quilt Festival. Thanks for stopping by Life in Pieces.  Go check out all the entries, though you'll have to pace yourself, there's a bunch.