Jo Avery – the Blog

Blogger’s Quilt Festival Autumn 2011

Welcome! Today I am taking part in the Blogger’s Quilt Festival. This is the 5th BQF I have taken part in and it is a real highlight of my bloggy year.

Usually I have a lovely new, full-sized quilt to share with you all, but I have had quite a challenging 6 months and so have nothing major to show. Instead I thought I would shamelessly steal Lynne’s great idea from last BQF and curate a gallery of mini quilts I’ve managed to finish instead.

First up is this all-solids affair which I made for Ethne in the Doll Quilt Swap round 10.

Ethne likes quite contemporary, arty quilts and her inspiration mosaic had quite an organic flavour. She also liked maroons and purples. For something that looks pretty bold and simple, it certainly took a lot of sewing! I foundation pieced the blocks and was really going for a wonky look (honest!). You can read more about how I made it here.
I love a bit of hand quilting and really went for it on this one. The thicker quilting is done with sashiko thread and they are meant to be stamens.

 
I know this is all about the quilts, but I thought you might like to see the pincushion I made from my abandoned trial block. I have to say that Ethne has been my most enthusiastic and grateful quilt recipient yet!
This next one was made for our inaugural Brit Quilt Swap (and I was a very proud Swap Mama!). Seeing as I like to make life hard for myself I decided to make a mini kaleidoscope quilt for my partner Teresa.


For some reason I prefer the photo of the finished top over the one of the finished quilt, the colours just look sharper.
I was really trying to get that wonderful, optical illusion effect on this quilt, where the circles really pop out at you.

But I just didn’t plan my values well enough and, though it’s a really pretty quilt, it doesn’t make the most of the kaleidoscope design. Still, a good practice piece for when I make a full sized one (!), and Teresa really liked it.
 
More hand quilting, this time with perle 8 cotton, and lots of buttons as Teresa loves them!

I really didn’t have enough time for another round of DQS, but they lured me in with their ‘back to basics, quilts for a doll’s bed’ round.
And just to make everything a little bit more challenging (I know, I know…), I decided to make a really teeny, tiny English Paper Pieced star quilt.
 
The little 60 degree diamonds are just over an inch in length. This was, again, a good practice piece for the full sized one which I have now started here.
 
Here is the top finished, again I like the look of this better than the quilted version – maybe I should stop quilting these!

Here is a close-up, with quite restrained hand quilting, for me! I really enjoyed fussy cutting the different diamonds and the effect that created.
Unfortunately my partner, Littleloops,  has gone totally AWOL. Nobody has heard from her since July and she hasn’t acknowledged receipt of this quilt or made her partner one, and has completely ignored the Swap Mama’s communications. I just wish I knew what had happened to her and this little quilt, it is quite worrying.

Well I hope you enjoyed this little tour of my mini quilts. Thanks for stopping by, and now off you go back to the Blogger’s Quilt Festival for more gorgeous quilting inspiration!
myBearpaw 77 comments

77 comments

  2. Goodness me! How adorable are those mini diamonds?! Everything looks great, my eyes went all boggly looking at the circles coming out of the kaleidoscope quilt.

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  3. This is great to have a mini quilt tour. They all look wonderful and I love the pincushion, too. I enjoyed the fabrics and colours you have used in your quilts. Lovely work!

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  9. What a beautiful collection of quilts! Sorry your swap partner dissappeared. I know it's easy to get cross, but having flaked on swaps myself before, due t life being awry, I can tell you the shame is quite horrid, maybe she is just really embarassed?

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  14. Such beautiful quilts!! I absolutely love English Paper Piecing and have a few projects of my own on the go. Your color choices are beautiful – very cheerful! Well done!

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  20. Really enjoyed your tour Jo, good to see these again – so sorry about your partner, you lose a wee bit of yourself when you feel your quilt is not loved somewhere.OMG that sounded a bit slushy but you know where I am coming from.

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  26. Love your blog and all your wee quilts!
    I remember some of them from past blogs and it's lovely to see them again!
    Your color choices, patterns and details are incredible!

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  27. your quilts and pincushion are just wonderful. so vibrant and fun, fun, fun! sorry your last one is missing–so very frustrating. i'm always paranoid when i send something out, so know it is sad to experience this. hopefully it'll turn up one of these days and you'll know what happened to it. thanks for sharing your great work–love the handquilting you do. have a great day

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  37. So wonderful Jo…all of it!

    I feel your frustration with your DQ not being acknowledged….that's what happened to me the first time I did DQS….she received my quilt and never said a word…at least I do know she got it…I even sent her a baby quilt for her new one. Oh well, thems are the risks we take swapping!:)
    BTW….love those little fishies in your last post!! You ROCK!:)

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  48. These are all so nice and you make them to trade? I hope you get something nice in return.
    I feel it might be a bit hard to say good bye to those after putting in so much work.

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  54. All are pretty and equally intriguing in their own right. The first, the hand quilting sets off the quilt beautifully. The second, I agree with you a little, I think a deep dark green binding would make you feel like it was less washed out but the colors are still so pretty. And the third, oh wown, so freaking tiny and so pretty.

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  57. These are wonderful! I love mini quilts, and you have done some real challenges. You should be proud of yourself! I especially like the 60 degree diamonds. It looks like you had fun fussy cutting for that one! LOL

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  59. What a pretty kaleidoscope- they are such a great design and you chose wonderful fabrics. Thanks for sharing your wonderfully colorful quilts. Enjoy the festival.
    Warmest regards,
    Anna

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  60. Love your idea of showcasing the smaller quilts – it has totally inspired me to try my hand at making some. My favorite one is the solid quilt – I love solids! =)

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  61. You must be SO vexed at your beautiful little quilt has disappeared off the face of the earth. All that work! I would imagine it has put you off doing anything similar in the future. Love the new pink and red quilt. Feel inspired to try one, but it will have to join the queue of other ideas in my head!

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  63. Your quilts are very beautiful! I loved everything, but that Kaleidoscope one really hypnotized me!! The photo of the finished quilt is very stunning. Must make one…must make one.. 🙂

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  64. I am soooo inspired to go small! These quilts are over the top fabulous! I too am trying to remember to play with the value. I get so excited to put all the blocks together!!! GREAT colors in all quilts!!! Thanks for sharing!

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  65. love your mini's and all the handwork. The pin cushion is beautiful. Lots of inspiring work. you have an amazing eye for color combo;s that are intensely striking.

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  71. What a fun visit! Your tiny quilts are fabulous. I'm so sorry you don't know the fate of your hexagon quilt… it is so sad your lovely work wasn't appropriately appreciated by the recipient…I loved seeing it.

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  72. Seeing your beautiful little quilts all here has been lovely. Knowing one of them is hanging in my house is even better. So sorry one little one went missing. It's happened to me and is quite upsetting. Thanks for a great visit

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  73. I love, love, love your little quilties…(is that a word)…oh well…but my favorite is your pincushion…I love pincushions. Great colors and work…thank you for sharing.

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