Sunday 18 May 2014

Bloggers' Quilt Festival - My Tumbling Blocks quilt

Hello everyone, and welcome to my second entry in the Bloggers' Quilt Festival. I'm Wendy and I live in Wellington, New Zealand with my husband and two teenage sons. I love quilting and embroidery, hence the name of my blog - Wendy's quilts and more.

This post is about my second entry, my Tumbling Blocks quilt, which I have entered into the Hand Quilted category. My first entry into the Bloggers' Quilt Festival was in the large quilt cagetory- my Sashiko quilt.

Black and White Tumbling Blocks
I made this Tumbling Blocks quilt for my younger son who's now 13. I asked him what colours he'd like for a quilt, and he said 'black and white'.
I thought 'Oh! how am I going to do that?' but fortunately my personal library of Kaffe Fassett books came to the rescue, and I chose the Tumbling Blocks pattern from Kaffe's Quilt Romance book.

Black and White Tumbling Blocks
There are a lot of different fabrics in this quilt - about 30 if think. The tumbling block effect comes about by careful placement of the fabrics once they have been categorised into light, medium and dark.


This quilt has been hand quilted, using big stitches and coton-a-broder (DMC).  The stitching echoes the diamond shaped blocks.



I belong to a facebook group called Celebrate Hand Quilting. In the last year it's grown from about 1,500 members to more than 6,000 members. There's a lot of people out there interested in hand quilting, and they aren't all over 50 either!

Here's a photo of the back, which I pieced from all the left over pieces.


The facts:

The pattern is Tumbling Blocks by Kaffe Fassett from his book, Quilt Romance.

The fabrics are a wide range of black and white fabrics.

The finished quilt measures 74" x 84"


35 comments:

Jess Burns said...

Years ago my mom wanted to make a quilt for my brother and he picked Tumbling Blocks. My Gram ended up piecing it. :)

Karen - Quilts...etc. said...

love this quilt!! those colors and the quilting is perfect for it. I made one of these years ago before I knew what I was doing - this makes me want to go back and make one all over again!

Quilting Babcia said...

Fabulous quilt! It looks like you had a great time piecing this masterpiece. It's perfect for a teenage boy!

Deb @ Frugal Little Bungalow said...

What a great quilt....lucky son! :) Having it hand quilted makes it all the more special ! :)

Kathy ... aka Nana said...

Wow! This is fabulous! A tumbling blocks quilt is on my to-do list, and seeing yours has moved it higher up my list. Gorgeous quilt ... Gorgeous quilting!

Vera said...

Love those blocks and this combo. The back is pretty fun too.

Sandra White said...

Wendy, that is really stunning. I'm currently trying to get something out of tumblers I hand pieced on a whim. Your tumblers are a work of art.

HeathersSewingRoom said...

This is one of the most well put together tumbling block quilts I have seen. Amazing.

Di said...

Your quilt is stunning in its simplicity, and the hand quilting complements it so well!

CitricSugar said...

Great job - it's amazing how much colour there can be in black!

Cheryl said...

I love the hand quilting and the illusion of 3 dimensions!

Rosa said...

It`s just beautiful and hope you get many votes!!

Dolly said...

Great job. I have a tumbling blocks top that I made many years ago that I really should get out and hand-quilt for one of my grandkids.
I remember having to make a black and white quilt for my daughter when she was in her teens.

Judy@Quilt Paradigm said...

Oh Wendy, this is a beautiful tumbling blocks quilt! You nailed the placement perfectly! I have never seen one in black and white before - gorgeous!!

Wendy said...

another amazing quilt! I had to look really hard to see beyond the stack of blocks to see the actual shapes used in the quilt! Just amazing.

Anonymous said...

A beautiful example of a Tumbling Blocks quilt. I did one years and years ago and it is still in daily use. Boy quilts are always so challenging to me, this one is perfect!

Steffi´s Candy Quilts said...

Hi Wendy! Your two festival quilts are gorgeous, and I also LOVE the quilt from your blog header.
Greetings from Germany,
Steffi

Helen@Till We Quilt Again said...

Both quilts are amazing! We may have been separated at birth looking at the style of quilts you and I both seem to like. Your Sashiko is just stunning! Boy do I wish you lived closer!

Vicki said...

Here from Anything Goes. This is a fantastic quilt. Love the hand quilting.

Little Island Quilting said...

Fab. I'm in to hand quilting too and am not over 50...well almost not!

Jan said...

Stunning quilt ...superb placement of fabrics....love the quilting....

Mina said...

Wow, what a nice use of black and white

QuiltCandy said...

What a gorgeous quilt for your son! And I love the hand quilting too, the perfect finish.

Kymberly said...

What a stunning quilt. I love the graphic pop of all of those blacks and whites.

suemac said...

Lovely quilt. Love your use of black and white.

Oops-Lah said...

Somehow I missed this when you posted it first. What a gorgeous quilt. I'm going to vote right now ;)!

Ann X said...

Wonderful quilt! I love the idea of uzing old technology by creating something so modern!

Christine S said...

Great quilt!

Tiffany said...

This quilt is fantastic!

Anonymous said...

Your quilt is amazing! This is a great guy quilt. Your son is a lucky young man!

SewMisadventurous said...

That's a great quilt Wendy, I love the way the colours ebb and flow, I'm about 3/4 of the way through my very first quilt and it's in Black and White too, I wouldn't have a hope of hand quilting it though. I love the running stitch detail you stitched on the faces of the dark blocks. I've started collecting my fabrics for a tumbling blocks piece but I'm a bit scared of it, to tell the truth. It's those Y junctions that are so intimidating to a newbie.

Lisa Lisa said...

This quilt is stunning! Your son is one lucky dude!

Wendy @ Wendysquiltsandmore said...

Thank you very much.

Paula said...

Oh I just saw this over at Ms Midge and it is WONDERFUL!!! If your son should tire of it, you can send it my way!! :-)

Beth said...

Great quilt. Love the hand-quilting. I would like to see a closer view of the quilting in the border. Is it black thread there? Hard to tell from far away.