Twiggy and Opal: free motion fantasy

I was asked to participate in a Blog Hop featuring a new line of Benartex fabric, 'Free Motion Fantasy' by Amanda Murphy. Once I saw the fabric designs and colors...I promptly threw my hat in the ring!

SEW IN LOVE BLOG HOP

The fabric is a mix of all things we love in free motion quilting. Swirls, pebbles, paisley and bricks! From large scale floral and geometric designs it hits all the high notes for me. One of the best parts of the fabric are the colors. The fabric comes in four colors: Autumn, Summer, Winter and Spring. Which basically means there is a favorite color for everyone!

STARLIGHT
36" x 49"

My normal inclination has always been to get one of every color and design, but this time I restrained myself! I wanted to show that I can control myself, so I choose wisely!

1. Paisley Blue, 2. Paisley Lime, 3. Pebbles Teal, 4. Swirl Feather Aqua and 5. Flying Geese White

Teal, lime and blue...what's not to love?!

This quilt wasn't at all what I had first designed. At the very last minute I came up with something completely different and I couldn't be happier!

I started by picking a block, which turned out to be the 'Ohio Star' block. For a star block, this is a good one to have in your back pocket! It can easily be sized and in this case I needed three different sizes. I went with 12", 8" and a 6" blocks.

With plenty of stars and color, the bright white back ground lets each one sparkle!

I'm excited to have a design I can make over and over again, but the best part is I can pick any block as the sizes are the same as the original.

Quilting ideas don't come easy for me, and even though the fabric is called Free Motion Fantasy I still had to go with my favorite geometric/straight line quilting.

I kept the star theme with the quilting by drawing a partial star starting on one side and having it radiate across the quilt using 1" lines. The inset portion of the star is quilted with 1/4" lines to create a diamond pattern.

The White Flying Geese fabric is placed around the center square and in the hour glass blocks. I know it's hard to see!

The binding is the Blue Paisley fabric which was so nice to hand stitch to the quilt! My needle went through the fabric like butter!

I enjoy these challenges! It let's me explore prints even though they are not my comfort zone!

For more 'Free Motion Fantasy' inspiration be sure to visit the other Sew In Love Blog Hop participants! I'm pretty sure Laura, Sandra and Lisa will knock your socks off!

Wednesday:

Jayne from Twiggy and Opal; @twiggyandopal

Laura from Slice of Pi Quilts; @sliceofpiquilts

Thursday:

Sandra from MMM Quilts @mmmquilts

Lisa from Color My World @lisaerin1121

Friday:

Amanda's Virtual Trunk Show

If you made it this far, you most likely would like to know about the fabric giveaway?!

GIVEAWAY CLOSED!!

~~FABRIC GIVEAWAY!!~~

Benartex has generously donated a fat quarter bundle of 8-10 Free Motion Fantasy prints to giveaway! To enter the giveaway leave a comment a comment below! Any comment is fine, but if you want to tell me your favorite quilting design...that would be awesome too!

I'll pick a winner Sunday August 26th using the Random Number Generator, and notify the winner via email. SO, be sure you include your email address if you are a no reply blog commenter...and please tell your friends too!

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