Blogger's Quilt Festival - Rosie's BOMb

Excited to share with you my 'Rosie' quilt. Remember Rosie the Riveter? If you're not familiar with this poster, 'Rosie' was an iconic image for the women who went to work during World War II to help with the war effort, many were riveters.

When I saw people participating in the Sewn by Leila We Can Do It! Skill Builder Sampler, I didn't immediately jump on board. Six months in, I realized she had used the poster as her 'button' for the quilt-a-long (QAL).
Perhaps being an engineer by education, I've always appreciated the poster for what the women did in the war effort and had an interest in it. I now HAD to get involved with the QAL, but mostly because I wanted to take the poster and put it in the middle of the quilt. The beauty of the QAL is that it is really a skill builder and everyone was doing their own thing with the blocks. Photos of blocks were being posted in a flickr group and no one had primary colors. This was a fun process to participate in and I was excited about how I would surprise everyone at the end with the addition of the poster being incorporated into the quilt itself.

Using my EQ7, I started drawing each block in the software and placing it into the quilt. I also chose to color the blocks in a way that would complement the poster. Emphasizing white/blue in the top blocks, yellow in the middle blocks, and the dark red in the lower blocks to help anchor the whole quilt. Each corner block has angled elements, placed to help frame the whole piece. The sashing and borders bring in the rivet theme, and complement her head scarf.

I had all the blocks made and still needed to create the center piece. I tried to print it myself on a large format inkjet plotter (left before rinsing). Treating the fabric before and 'rinsing' it as instructed. Well, it became an 'antique' after rinsing, and all the quilt blocks were bold and bright, so I opted to submit the original poster image to spoonflower.com. Now anyone can have it!

"Rosie's BOMb" - Photo Credit: Bruce Andre Photography

Detail of the 'rivet'.

 This design is trying to make it looked like brushed steel between the rivets.


Using the sampler as a way to quilt each block uniquely. My long-arm machine quilting clients would then be able to see easily within one piece how different styles of quilting look all within one quilt. Open vs. closed/formal feathers or background fills vs. not, traditional vs. modern, etc.

 

 Quilting Rosie was the hardest. Here is where I was at when I needed to tackle the smooth face and arms. Consulting with Virginia Greaves helped significantly.

And this is where I ended up.

Some of the back side.

Thank you for stopping by during the Blogger's Quilt Festival. Your nomination is much appreciated. Before clicking through --copy the URL you are at, then use it to paste into the nomination linky.  I am a professional quilter (KISSed Quilts), and quilted this myself.