Once Upon a Time–Art Quilt

The first quilt I’m entering in the Fall of 2014 Blogger’s Quilt Festival

is one of my very own personal favorites – Once Upon A Time. I’ve shown this quilt off on my blog before but never during a Festival.  I am so proud of this piece I felt it deserved some time in the online festival.

The story behind the quilt … In 2013, I worked on both the Aurifil Designer Block of the Month and the Bungalow Quilting and Yarn’s 2013 Paper Piecing Fairy Tale Block of the Month Quilt Along.  I decided right away that I would work in the same fabrics for the blocks of both.  This way – when I was done, I could combine them all into one big, unique, fun quilt!

photo taken by Karmen Lindner Photography 12 Aurifil blocks (including one completely hand stitched), 20 paper pieced fairy tale blocks (I decided to leave 2 out of the quilt), and a year and a half later – my quilt, “Once Upon a Time…” is finished!

I sent my quilt top to Marcia Wachuta of Marcia’s Crafty Sewing and Quilting to quilt it with the instructions that I wanted ‘fairytale whimsy’ mixed with tradition.  I also wanted the words “Once Upon a Time” stitched into the top and the words “and they lived Happily Ever After” stitched into the bottom.  Marcia did a fabulous job of fulfilling my request!

I always have a hard time deciding which category to put my quilts into.  I finally decided that I’m going to enter this one into art quilt. I feel this is not a traditional quilt in the sense of the mixture of traditional blocks with the fairy tale blocks.  I used three different fabrics from the same Laura Gunn Edges line interchangeably as my background fabrics to bring the 32 blocks together in a haphazard crazy way that makes you see something new every time you look at this one.  I do belie it’s truly a piece of art that will keep me warm and cozy at night! Quilt StatsName: Once Upon a Time Finished Size: 82" x 99" Machine Pieced: Me, Kim Lapacek Machine Quilted: Marcia Wachuta, Marcia’s Crafty Sewing & Quilting Category Entered: Scrappy Awards Won:  Viewer’s Choice at ‘For the Love of Quilts’ show in Belleville, WI 2014 Accepted and Shown at the Dubuque, Iowa AQS Show in the Bad Ass Quilter Society Exhibit

photo taken by Karmen Lindner Photography So here it is (next to my Tula Pink City Sampler)!  This was definitely a labor of love.  I enjoy things that are quick and easy but I adding in a crazy challenge here and there – like paper piecing 20 Fairy Tale blocks and mixing them in with traditional blocks – makes life a little more interesting! If you love it too…be sure to head over and Nominate it for ‘Viewer’s Choice’.