Amy at Park City Girl is hosting the Blogger’s Quilt Festival today through Oct 16th. She asked us to post a picture of our favorite quilt and tell it’s story. Well nearly every quilt is my favorite quilt, but I could only pick one, so here is my Blue Charm Applecore quilt.
Actually, it’s my husband’s. This quilt was finished New Year’s Eve 2005. It was only 2 to 6 days late — depending on whether it was supposed to be his Christmas present or his birthday present, and that was dependent on when I finished it. Regardless, with the exception of the quilt I gave my mother for Mother’s Day 2005, it’s the quilt closest to meeting the gift giving deadline.
I’ve previously blogged about this quilt here.
My best guess is I purchased the pattern, ruler and rotary cutter (love my Ergo 2000) in October 2004 at a quilt show. It might have been the previous year. The pattern sat for a while and then late spring 2005 I got a wild idea to make this quilt for my husband in all blue fabric — at this time, no deadline had been set.
Previously I had been collecting music fabric, so now I added blue fabric to my collection each time I entered a quilt shop. I gathered fabric from my friends’ stashes. When a fabric was both blue and music themed I scored.
Part of what makes this quilt special is the time I spent collecting the fabric with my friends. My friends T & S and I took a road trip to Iowa to hit quilt shops. We left Kansas City late afternoon on Friday and then hit 11 shops over the next 2 1/2 days. By Monday, we were so exhausted, we walked into one of the last quilt shops and said “Yep, this is a quilt shop” and then left without any of us buying anything. I picked up blue and/or music themed FQs at each shop.
Surprisingly, I ended up with only a couple of duplicates fabrics.
It helped that I put together a book of my fabric before I left home. This quilt is made with 6″ circles that overlap. So, before the trip, I started cutting circles of each of my fabrics. I then scanned them 18 – 20 of them at a time, and printed off the scan so I had a record of my fabrics.
I was still collecting fabric – I wanted all 400 pieces to be unique, but impatience won out in late summer and I started it when I only had about 225 different blue fabrics. The next decision I had to make was how to arrange the pieces. I finally decided on light to dark to light. So, I took the scans I made earlier and converted them to black and white to help with value placement — then I went back and cut additional circles where I had more fabric.
The final quilt has 400 pieces in it. Not including the 400 pieces of the backing. For the backing I purchased 10 different pieces of blue flannel.
So when it came time to putting the quilt together, I had to know where in the quilt to top fabric belonged, and which piece of the back went with it and keep all 20 rows in order or the pattern (front and/or back) would be disturbed.
I ended up stringing each row together, and as I finished each step of the process, it went back on the table in the correct position.
My husband likes the quilt — It’s too warm for me with the flannel backing, not to mention it’s heavy. It think it finished about 70″ square, more or less.
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All I can say is WOW. This is a beauty.
I am with Kay, WOW and WOW. That is a beautiful quilt and it is nice that you have made good memories with your friends in the process of it all.
That quilt is beautiful both front and back! What a labor of love!
What determination to accomplish such a beautiful quilt, on both sides! Great job.
Wow! I LOVE this quilt.
My goodness what a labor of love. Turned out fabulous.
Wow that is an amazing quilt, great color work and design, thanks for sharing! And thanks for visiting now I don't feel so bad about my wedding ring….
It's amazing!margaretwww.quiltsoflove.blogspot.com
Very interesting and nice quilt…Thanks for sharing…
This is great! I absolutely love this. It is much work. The blues are wonderful. Thanks for sharing this artwork.
that is awesome. Thanks for sharing the process!
Wow!! I love it. It's gorgeous!!!! Thanks for sharing.
Amazing!!!!! A stunning quilt, your husband is a lucky man. 🙂
I agree with the others! WOW!
Your quilt is beautiful. Blue is my favorite color. You sure collected a lot of blues!
Wow! What a work of art! It has the calming effect of water.
what a blue beauty! I just love blue quilts, but this one would be too hot for me, too! but I'll bet it is stunning on the bed!
I love your quilt. Thanks for sharing and for participating in the Blogger's Fall Quilt Festival.SewCalGalwww.sewcalgal.blogspot.com
Wow, I love the blue colors and the way the colors blend together. Beautiful job.
This quilt is incredible! You did a fantastic job!
Wow!!! A lot of time and thought went into this quilt. I like that you shopped and collected the fabrics over time. Simply stunning!!! Thanks for sharing.
I really like your use of color in this and so many different fabrics – I have done this before with a different design and they are neat to work with.Karenhttp://karensquilting.com/blog/
Did you just layer all the circles to get the 'apple core' look? I like the placement of the shades of blue colors too. This time of year you need a heavy quilt on the bed… I have one that just keeps slipping off.
That is such a beautiful charm quilt. And the value placement is great.
Oh my gosh, what a process. I like that you have good photos that show how you kept order to the pieces while the quilt was in progress. I've always wanted to make an apple core quilt. Your husband's looks so nice in all those blues!
This is a wonderful quilt! I'm a Kansas City quilter, too. 😀
Love this Quilt! I'm a bit of a sucker for blues and especially scrap quilts. This looks like a lot of work especially since the back is so beautifully pieced as well! Awsome job!
wow..your piles of circles are stunning…you did such a awesome job.
It is a very striking quilt Knitnoid- and quite complicated to make. Is it all hand quilted or did you machine quilt it? It is hard to tell how you bound the quilt- It is wonderful piece and I am sure that your husband loves it.Thanks for sharing- I hope you are enjoying the show,Regards,Anna
I love your quilt and your patience to find all the perfect fabrics for your quilt. It looks like the ocean. Great quilt!
mmm, I love quilts with flannel backings, I also like to use corduroy! nice job!
wow.. i love your blues.. it's so nice!
absolutely gorgeous! The sea of blues is stunning!
wow! That is amazing! I never meet quilt gift deadlines either!
Oh wow, truly amazing! Jocelynhttp://happycottagequilter.blogspot.com/
Beautiful!!! and I must concur with everyone else WOW
That's incredible, front and back! I made my ex-husband a flannel quilt for our "cotton" anniversary (which was, of course, not finished anywhere near the anniversary). It was a triple Irish chain in scrappy earth tones on a cream-colored background and backed with a flannel sheet. Not only did he take it in the divorce (whereas most other stuff he was shoving right back at me) but he has it prominently displayed in the house he now shares with his fiancée. I consider that quite a compliment to my quilt. 🙂
Wow, it's beautiful! I like a heavy quilt, but only on the very coldest of nights.
Both front and back are gorgeous! Love the blues!
I love this pattern! I have always wanted to try it but I am a big chicken…
WOW, I'm so impressed!
A deep sea of blue!So amazing!Thankyou for sharingCheers
love bluees, love the apple core pattern! I did a mini in red. I like the blue much better! (mauh) Liz
This is a stunning quilt. I don't think I've ever seen a monochromatic apple core quilt before, and it is just lovely. Well done!
I love your quilt! and all that it means to you – so special!! Thanks for sharing 🙂
Love this quilt and the colors are fabulous.
The mystery of quilting… we take a full cut of cloth. Snip into a hundred pieces… just to put it back together again as a beautiful work of the soul. Luv it.Keep quiltin….. from a b-quiltin girl…
I like it the quilt very nice.Marika