Bloggers' quilt Festival

I just received a reminder that today is the final day for entering the Blogger's Quilt Festival so that is why I have finally organised myself to upload my entry. 

A couple of years ago I used to dye my own fabrics, but after a relatively short time period I worked out that I could either dye fabrics or make quilts there was not enough time to do both and so I gave up dyeing.  

About the same time I decided I really should learn to applique and so enrolled in a class to learn how to do it properly.  After a relatively short time period I worked out I could either applique and have no enjoyment in my quilting or return to hand piecing and enjoy quilt making and so I gave up applique.

When I started to make the quilt that I hoped would use up all of my hand dyed fabrics I looked for a fabric that would add some strength and colour to the  quilt and although I hated black muslin it was the perfect colour for the quilt. After a relatively short period of time I worked out that I hated the black, hated the applique and was also definitely onto the path of hating the quilt..... noticing a pattern here?

In an attempt to get rid of my hand dyed fabric, my appliqued quilt with the black muslin background I knuckled down and finally finished the quilt, only took about five years.. it could have languished in the UFO pile for an eternity.  

I ended up entering it into a competition and won a prize for Best Use of Hand Dyed Fabrics.  It is quite a dramatic quilt but one must remember why I used so many fabrics in this quilt.... to get rid of my hand dyed fabrics so that I could give away all of my hand dyeing materials and simply get back to enjoying quilting.

So what did I win?  You guessed it $250 of dyeing products:(  I figured dyeing silk scarves had to be less messy than dyeing cotton and so purchased some silk scarves with my winnings.

 Several years down the line I remembered the scarves and last weekend a friend loaned me her silk dyeing dyes.  Voila!  Silk scarves dyed, dried (with the hair dryer) and blowing in the wind.  

Perfect finish to my dyeing and appliqueing attempts.

Details for my Blog Festival entry are

The finished quilt is huge, a big queen size, of about 100in x 100in.  If you want the pattern it is available on my website I would love to see what it would look like in other fabrics. 

What category am I entering in?  

      Well I would say it is definitely a ROYGBIV (colour wheel quilt), that was one thing I wanted to achieve and I think I was successful with. 

        Plus although I don't like the black I do have to admit that it does look good on the wall,so wall hanging is my second category.  Lucky we have 13 foot high wall:)

Go and check out the other entries in the Bloggers' Quilt Festival.... and vote for mine too if you like it.