Saturday, October 26, 2013

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.

17 comments:

  1. I love the idea behind this, and how you quilted it all!

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  2. Great quilt! Wonderful piecing and the quilting is amazing. I got to see this quilt in the WSQ show in Spokane! It is even more amazing in person, but these are wonderful quilting detail pictures.

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  3. WOW!!!! What a quilt! Beautiful fabrics and quilting--so creative!

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  4. This is a spectacular quilt. I love the story behind it and how you add such variety if different quilting elements to be a sample to your customers. Thanks for sharing.

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  5. Fantastic - great quilting, especially on the Rosie panel!

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  6. ooh this is fab. I love the backing fabric too

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  7. Great quilt! I have been wanting to make a quilt to use as a quilting sample but just haven't made one yet. Yours is beautiful.

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  8. This is an amazing quilt. I love how you quilted it. I won the panel last year (I am still going to make a quilt with it) but I hung it in the library last year and I am going as Rosie for Halloween this week!
    Barb@Witsend

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  9. This is an all around outstanding quilt!
    Have a great day.
    Always, Queenie

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  10. I love Rosie the Riveter! This turned out so amazing ... and thank you for sharing the poster print with Spoonflower. I'd love to make a sampler quilt but so far haven't fallen in love with one yet. This is wonderful!

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  11. Amazing quilt and quilting work.

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  12. Glad Rosie is making the rounds. Congrats on getting classes going up there.

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  13. Beautiful quilt, I just love all the sampler blocks and the quilting is awesome!

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  14. Wow, striking design and awesome quilting. What a variety of designs in one quilt!!!

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  15. Wow! That is beautiful. Quilt and quilting. Wow again.
    She can come live at my house. LOL

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  16. Your quilt inspired me! I ordered the Rosie the Riveter panel and did a block of the month for 2013. I'm finally just getting around to putting the border on. Next I will be quilting it on my home sewing machine. What kind of batting do you recommend I use? I have quilted a few quilts before but with cotton batting. I don't know if I really want Rosie to look so crinkly. The last quilt I did I thought I would try a nylon batting. I found it much harder to push through the machine and quite puffy looking. I wound up just stitching in the ditch because I found it so hard to move around in the machine that I was scared to even try free motion quilting. Perhaps I bought the wrong type of batting for that. I know you work on a long arm but maybe you know what I should try. I love your quilting!

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