Love Birds and Lady Bugs - Bloggers Festival

LOVE BIRDS AND LADY BUGS -- DOTTED WITH JOY

2013    18" x 30"

I love quilts and wordplay and my favorite way to tackle a quilt challenge is by spelling out the challenge title or subject in paper pieced letters.  For this quilt, I started with JOY (literally and figuratively) and love birds soon flew into the picture.  One flying thing led to another (ladybugs).  Brainstorming, I realized that JOY and LOVE would work together seamlessly like in a crossword puzzle.  And of course, hearts naturally followed LOVE. 

I drafted my own foundation patterns and had a delightful time picking out the ideal fabrics from my black/white and pink fabric stash (especially dots and novelty prints).  One can’t help but smile when looking at polka dots so they are the perfect fabric to spell out JOY.

With the due date approaching, I was trying to figure out the quilting when I got a serendipitous call to do an antique quilt trunkshow at the national machine quilting company:  Handi Quilter.  I agreed to share my quilts, if they could take care of the quilting.  HQ Educator Vicki Hoth found the perfect cheerful swirly star pattern and helped me finish my journey of joy.  The quilt was made for the "Dare to Dance Challenge - An Artist's Interpretation of Joy and it was chosen and will be published in the Dare to Dance BOOK!!!  Thanks to challenge director, Mary Kerr.

****To vote for my quilt, click on its photo in the Art Quilt category****

Thanks again to Amy Ellis for her Blogger's Quilt Festival