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Blogger's Quilt Festival [The Burrow]

I nearly didn't enter a second quilt in this Autumn's Blogger's Quilt Festival, but then I remembered this one. This is my entry in the applique category.

At the start of the summer I signed up for the Harry Potter Mini Quilt Swap and spent a long time thinking about what to make... there are so many fantastic quilts and inspirational artwork on Pinterest, that I didn't really know where to start (these are just some of the pins I collected). I was re-reading the books at the time, and at the start of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Harry visits Ron's house, the Burrow: "It's not much, but it's home". Well, that was the inspiration I needed. Originally I had planed to foundation piece my vision, but that was a stupid idea.


Instead, I sketched out my idea, and then layer at a time, created the background hills, the trees and hedges, and finally the Burrow, nestled in the little valley. I used free motion applique for this quilt: everything was reversed, copied onto iron on sticky-ness, stuck to the previous layer, and then outlined using my free motion foot, in a somewhat sketchy manner. I added on widow frames, and beams as I went.

My original sketch

To finish off the quilt, I did some additional thread sketching for some greenery and a drive, to really bed the house into the landscape I had created. Finally I added the original quote using stamps (and praying I didn't spell anything wrong).

The finished quilt is only about 20"x20", but in some places up to 6 or 7 layers of fabric thick, before I even added batting and a backing. All of the fabrics came from my stash, and the threads are all Aurifil 40 or 50w. The downside of this swap is that my partner appears of have been hit with Obliviate (a memory modification spell) and has completely forgotten to send me anything.... and the swap mama appears to be hiding under an invisibility cloak... I'll just have to make myself something.

AmysCreativeSide.com

Comments

Alison V. said…
I LOVE this! Beautiful work and a great tribute to the Weasleys.
It's a really darling quilt! I'm so sorry to hear about your receiving troubles, i really hope the owl was just diverted by an unseasonable storm and that it will show up soon. That is the risk with swaps, for all the amazing things that we see, there are ones which are just average or never arrive at all.
CityHouseStudio said…
Such a gorgeous quilt! My kiddos are reading Harry Potter right now and would just LOVE this!
What a lovely quilt you made for your partner, and what a pity your quilt never arrived. I've seen a fair bit of discussion about this swap on Instagram, and it's made me very wary of joining any swaps. It must be hard to do all this work for someone else, and then never receive anything yourself. I know other members of the swap who were left very disappointed too. You're right that the swap mama should be sorting things out, but she seems to have merrily moved on to new things and left many people unhappy. Maybe you should make another one for yourself!
Lovely quilt, and so much work! I am participating in a Greek house quilt swap. Also here we have problems with people not sending the blocks they're supposed to. It spoils the fun of swapping!
Anthea said…
Jennie, wow your quilt is just amazing, well done, its wonderful... such a great use of imagination & fabrics! I showed my mr15, he's a Potter fan & said straight away it was The Burrow!

I too am sorry to read about your disappointment - I presume you've already posted it? - well shame on your recipient, & the organiser too, that's a terrible situation. I'm not a gossip, but somehow it needs to be made known who these people are, so that no one else signs up with them or gets assigned to be their partner.
Kat said…
You quilt is sooo lovely! I adore Harry Potter and this just makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Like home :) I am sorry to hear about your swap partner. I have been burned in swaps before, too. I like the think of quilts as little love bombs that I'm send out into the world. I sent them out in love; I can't have an effect on whether they were well received, or if that person "deserved" it. It was given in love and the rest is up to them. Love is like karma, anyway, it has a way of coming back to you later :)

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