Blogger's Quilt Festival :: Tinker Toys

I love when this festival comes around every year!  Blogger's Quilt Festival is in full swing and we get to soak up all the beautiful quilts gaining friends and inspiration!  There is a huge online community of quilters and this is our chance to see who they are, what they do and fill our minds with creative ideas!

It's difficult deciding which quilts to share!  I choose to share 'Tinker Toys' just because I love it!  It's rainbow, it's English Paper Piecing, its different!

TINKER TOYS
47" x 62"

It all started with English Paper Piecing and a pattern called 'Striped Octagon' from Tierney Barden.  I love having a hand project to work on in the evenings...idle hands are not good for me...and settled on this one.

When I had what I thought was a good amount of pieces, I wondered what to do with in.  It could have simply been a mini quilt and be done, but I wanted to take it further.  Push myself.  Let it morph into something different!  And it certainly did morph!

Letting the top stew for a week or two, finally an idea came to me on how I wanted to quilt it.  I started with the center panel by making circles in each white square and in the center of each octagon stripe.

Each stripe is quilted in a matching thread using 1/4" straight lines, with some extend through the background. 

One of the hardest parts of making this quilt was matching the lines that extended from the center panel!  Some worked perfectly, some not so much!  I extended the lines in varying lengths, some went to the edge, some started from the edge.  The final touch was matching the binding to the strips that went to the edge!

I love this quilt because it's just plain happy!  Happy and weird and different!

I hope you get a chance to check out some of the other entries in the Bloggers Quilt Festival!  There are some beautiful and inspiring quilts entered!