Blogger’s Quilt Festival – Home Quilted

My Instagram @charlamacphee

Growing up, I had no idea there was such a thing as quilting by machine. My grandmothers and mother were the ones I saw quilting, and never was a machine involved. So, when I started, in my 30’s and much later than they had all started, I already had two kids and knew a machine would most definitely be involved.

I started with a simple Brother machine that I had picked up at a local London Drugs, and several months later, when both my husband and I realized I had found a solid creative outlet, he upgraded me to my Bernina. Big B came with the BSR which enabled me to easily free motion quilt at home. Super handy for a super busy now mother of four, and precious little funds to pay a long armer.

My favorite quilt I’ve done so far has got to be My ABC’s. This was made using free patterns from a Moda blog hop. With little ones at home learning the alphabet,  was a perfect opportunity. Here is the link to the Blogger’s Quilt Festival where I’m entering for this quilt.  http://www.amyscreativeside.com/2016/09/19/bqfhome-machine-quilted-quilt-category/

I picked up a beautiful rainbow coloured jelly roll, collected all my patterns, scored some super cute newsprint background fabric, and I was off. I especially loved the background newsprint because the kids can learn their letters, and then search for them in the background.  Using the free motion quilting, I was able to imitate my oldest daughter’s cursive handwriting into the solid colour of each letter. Since cursive is being eliminated from the schools, I’m teaching them at home.

This was also my first ever entry into a local festival, the Heritage Park Festival of Quilts. My 10 year old also entered her first quilt in the same, and my mother came out to visit and we surprised her with the entry. It was a great bonding experience, and my newborn’s first outing at 5 days old.