Are you guys getting excited about the
Around the Kitchen contest? We certainly are! As you may know, Clem Buzick (award winning quilter, teacher, and an amazing friend of ours) helped us write the
Around the Kitchen pattern last year. We are so excited to have her on the blog today to share a project she made for the Around the Kitchen contest. (Obviously, Clem and all of us at MT are not eligible for prizes, but we still want to join in the fun!)
Here's Clem!
Hello MT friends! When Connie and Roxanne asked me to participate in the
Around the kitchen contest my mind started racing with all sorts of crazy ideas! One spin through the shop to see all the novelty fabrics and I knew I was going to take this project outside the box. (That's kind of how I do things in general, so no big surprise!) I decided to sort of switch rooms and take the quilt out of the kitchen and into a kid's room.
First up - the bugs! It's the Ant Farm I always wanted as a kid and a jar full of moths. Modern Textiles had this ant fabric last summer. It was just meant to be, don't you think?! I made the sign by using a Sharpie on white fabric. I pieced the Ant farm sign into my black fabric and then framed out the ant fabric to finish it off. To keep the math simple, I made the farm the size of two jars so I knew it would fit on the shelf.
It was all about the jars on the middle shelf. The ship in a bottle is my favorite! And more bugs of course. Can you tell how much fun I had picking fabric?!
For the top shelf I got to dig into my selvages. We designed those books purely to make use of the amazing selvages people are designing these days. Isn't that a fun trend? The gorilla snow globe was just appliquéd on and stitched around - no crazy curved piecing - don't worry! My beloved monster fabric had to make an appearance in this quilt too...I love those crazy little guys. I topped the quilt off with an appliquéd Billy Bass because, well....if you can applique a Billy Bass why wouldn't you?
I quilted a meandering pattern inside each of the jars and did matchstick quilting on the shelves. The rest of the quilt I kept pretty basic with the quilting and even bound the quilt in the same fabric as the background (which reminds me of textured wallpaper) so as not to take away from the rest of the design.
I hope my wall hanging helped you think outside the box as you brainstorm your project for the Around the Kitchen contest! It's not often that I get to stretch myself in such a fun, silly, no rules kind of way and let me tell you - it was fun! I can't wait to see what crazy creations you all come up with.
Thanks Clem! We love your quilt!
