Each year I like to enter a quilt in The National Quilt Museum’s New Quilts From an Old Favorite contest.
This year the traditional block that our quilt was to represent was the “Carolina Lily.”
I was stunned when I received a call recently that my quilt “Only a Lily” had won 1st place. And then I got all giddy and had to call some family and friends and share my good news.
When my sister, Emily, started making some quilts using Gloria Loughman’s technique from her book “Radiant Landscapes,” I loved the effect.
So, I bought a book too and studied it and decided to make a ‘lily’ quilt to practice for my entry.
I was pleased with how “Lily” turned out and decided to use the technique for my entry.
So, I found a piece of fabric that I thought would work good for the background …
… and I cut red and green squares of 2 other pieces of fabric. I traced off a motif of the traditional Carolina Lily pattern onto the squares …
… and cut them out.
When Emily saw my little bits of scraps left over she decided to make another small art quilt using them in the sky of her “Setting Sage” quilt.
I thought it marvelous and decided to change my background to the same yellow that she had chosen. But alas, it didn’t have the same effect that hers did.
So I went back to my original choice of background fabric and I loved what I saw.
Here, I have added a black border with slight curves.
Then I cut out ‘lily’ parts and laid them on the background. Deciding which lily I liked best was a hard choice.
When all the fusing was finished I was ready to quilt.
And after the quilting was finished the quilt wanted to wobble, ripple, and pucker up.
But that didn’t cause me too much worry as it all flattened out when I blocked it with lots of water.
And then I added the piping and binding and blocked it again.
Only a Lily
56 1/2” X 56 1/2”
“I am only … a [humble] lily of the valleys [that grows in deep and difficult places]. … Like the lily among thorns, so are you …” –Song of Solomon 2:1, 2 (Amplified)
Detail
25 comments:
Congratulations!! I am so glad that you won! It is a stunning quilt, and I love that you described the process you went through to make it!
It is beautiful! Definitely deserving of a 1st place. Congrats!
You just make me smile. Wow!
Congratulations! It's gorgeous!
That is so cool! Congrats, Aunt Julia! - Claire B.
You deserve to win with such a beautifula nd unique quilt. Thanks for sharing how you went about designing and creating the quilt.
Congratulations Julia! How wonderful and you did a great job! Love seeing your creativity!
Loved that you described how you made the quilt and it is lovely. Thanks for sharing.
Words cannot express how happy I am for you! Congratulations. Judy
Your quilt is just stunning! I fell in love with it the moment I laid eyes on it. The scripture verse goes so well and really touched my heart. Thank you for sharing this with your readers. I for one have been blessed by this quilt and the verse.
I remember seeing your blog posts about this quilt. I love the little pieces cut out like little lily leaves to make the pattern background. Congrats on winning!!
Congratulations. I remember this quilt earlier and though it was fabulous and was waiting to see it completed. The colors, and the traditional block which was used, the layout it is wonderful.
Congratulations! This is wonderful news for you and this awesome quilt! Beautiful work.
Have a great day.
Always, Queenie
Wow, Julia, it's a stunner! Congratulations! So well deserved!
I absolutely LOVE the look of this quilt. What a neat technique. I can see how it won 1st place!
Thank you so much for sharing this at Needle and Thread Thursday!
:) Kelly @ My Quilt Infatuation
In two words, beautiful and congratulations.
Your hard work and talent certainly are apparent......thanks for sharing your insights!!!
This is wonderful Julia. I saw this on the critique group while it was in progress. You should make the SAQA rep aware of this well deserved honor for the regional blog.
What an incredible amount of work! It's a stunner!
Congrats on your win, if you had not described the techniques, I would have had no idea the amount of work that went into the Lilies. Wonderful! I also love Blue bell, so cute! Amy
Congratulations! What an amazing amount of work.
Wow! I had a hard time visualizing what you were doing. Now that I see it all together, I'm stunned - wonderful job.
Julia, I enjoy reading your blog and about your faith and family. Congratulations on your first place win!!!! My daughter, Rachel and I entered a quilt in the NQOF contest and we got fourth place. I hope you will be at Paducah this spring because I would like to meet you. Wonderful technique for this quilt! Marilyn
This is really beautiful and creative! I have that book also and now I really feel the push to work with it. Lots of cutting and Emily's work is so neat also! Thanks so much for the inspiration!
Congratulations on your well deserved win. It's hard to believe how much work went into the quilt's making. Diann
kyquiltymama@hotmail.com
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