"Kaleidoscopic Kites" Quilt in Blogger's Quilt Festival

I have finally completed a quilt for myself :). I started quilting in February of this year and so far I have completed a quilt for my boyfriend, my recently married friend, and my parents....and finally I'm keeping one for myself! :P I started this quilt after finishing the quilt for my boyfriend, but then other more pressing projects came up that needed finished first. But, my back burner quilt is finally complete and I am so excited! The feeling of putting a quilt on your bed that you have worked months to complete and getting to snuggle under it is a fantastic feeling. A lot of hard work goes into piecing and sewing a quilt, and the feeling of accomplishment is awesome. I've always been a crafter, making jewelry and scarves, but there's just something about completing a quilt that is different. I'm guessing it has to do with the months it takes to complete one ;).

When searching for a quilt pattern for myself, I was looking for something not too complicated (since it was only my second quilt at the time) and modern. What I found on this search was the Kaleidoscopic Kites quilt pattern from the blog Modern Quilts by Fresh Lemons designed by Faith Jones. I fell in love with this quilt instantly and also everything else on the Fresh Lemons blog!

Below is my finished quilt!

Instead of the white background that the pattern suggests, I decided to use black. White does not last long with me, and after putting the time into this quilt I didn't want to risk any mishaps. Another color I changed was instead of using brown blocks as one of the colors I used purple. Since I was using black as my background I didn't want to have the black and brown up against each other; I thought it would make the quilt too dark. I also decided to add two borders to the quilt to make it a bit larger for my full size bed (one of the borders is white, but I figured I'd test my luck since it looked nice and was a smaller area). When I went to do my backing, I realized that the gray fabric I picked out wasn't going to be wide enough. So I decided to use fabrics from the quilt top to add the stripe of black and colored blocks down the center. I think overall it makes the backing more interesting. My finished quilt size is 80" x 90", which is the largest quilt I have done so far. The quilt top and back were pieced together by machine. I also did the quilting myself by machine using the "stitch in the ditch" technique. For the binding I used left over scraps from the colored fabric throughout the quilt and pieced them together. I am absolutely in love with this quilt :)

I am entering this quilt into the Blogger's Quilt Festival held on the blog, Amy's Creative Side. This quilt will be entered into the "Favorite ROYGBIV (color wheel) quilt" category. Also, be sure to check out my second quilt in the "Favorite home machine quilted quilt" category once I get it posted! Voting will begin on November 1st and end on November 7th. I appreciate any of your votes and the opportunity to share my new love of quilting with fellow quilters :). Thank you for stopping by my blog!