Bloggers Quilt Festival, Bring on the Inspiration!

May is such a fun month! Mother's Day, my Birthday, and this year tons of awesome Quilting events. I have been super busy here at Pile O' Fabric gearing up for these events, and today I am really excited to be participating for my first time in The Bloggers Quilt Festival hosted by Amy's Creative Side. Have you ever been to a Quilt Festival?

If not now is your chance! You can join in and peruse 100's of amazing quilts by talented bloggers across the world, without even stepping out of your house! That is so amazing! You will have the opportunity to be inspired and meet amazing people. The fun starts today and lasts till June 1st.

For those of you who are new to The Pile, I'd like to introduce myself. My name is Alyssa, I am 24 years old, I got married to my high school sweetheart when I was 18 years old, and we have two beautiful children. Gwenyth will be 3 years old in July and Everett just turned 2 months old. I have been blessed to stay at home with my kiddos, by doing freelance web and graphic design work. I love making the web beautiful one site at a time.

For many years I searched for a skill or hobby that I would love. In the past I had sewn a few clothing patterns, even made my own wedding vail to save money. Even though I thought it was a lot of fun my sewing machine still ended up in my closet for 4 years. Last December I was shopping for a Christmas gift for my daughter at the Pottery Barn Kids, and fell in love with their Quilts, it was that moment I decided I would make my Daughter and soon to be Son, their very own Quilts. I pulled my machine back out and created my very first quilt and I haven't looked back since! Since then I have been busting out quilts left and right. After months of non-stop Quilt Talk, I decided to spare my family and in April I started Pile O' Fabric. That way I could continue to share my projects, without talking their ears off and with others who love it too. I have been so blessed by the amazing people I have met and I am so excited for what Quilting and Blogging will bring in the years to come!

For this Quilt Festival I would like to share with you a quilt I introduced at the launch of my blog last month.

The Black and White Memories Quilt. My husband and I discussed the idea for this quilt many months back. When I first started quilting I started posting photos of my quilts on facebook, and my number one supporter was always my mother-in-law. So I knew I wanted to eventually make a special quilt for her. I have never been a huge fan of photo quilts, but I knew incorporating family photos into the quilt would be perfect, because she loves photos. My husband and I came up with idea to do all solids and make it a completely Black and White Quilt. At the time the Quilt was still in the planning phase, and I thought I'd like to have it done in time for this Christmas.

Then on April, 2nd we got horrible news that my sister-in-law had tragically passed away, at only 20 years old, leaving behind a precious little 1 1/2 year old daughter and fiancé. As a mother, my first thought was of my mother-in-law, I cannot even begin to imagine the pain that comes with losing your child. Because, of her passing my husband decided to fly out to be with his family for a week. So I decided that it would be fantastic to make her quilt in time for my husband to take back and give to her in person. It was my hopes that she would find this quilt to be a comfort and remind her of how much we love her.

I had 5 days to complete it, before my husband would leave for the trip. This was the largest quilt I had made at the time, my first time using photos, and the fastest I would ever complete a quilt. And let me tell you it was such a fun learning experience. I was still working on the quilt an hour before I was supposed to take my husband to the airport, and then my sewing machine broke putting the binding on! I was so bummed! Sadly my husband left with no quilt in tow. But, I did come home and was able to finish it in time to ship to them while my husband was still visiting. You can read more about the project and adventure here. 

Thank you so much for stopping by, I hope that I have inspired you in some way. I am so excited to peruse the festival, and be inspired myself! I encourage you to join along go to Amy's Creative Side, for links to hundreds of beautiful quilts! Hope you will stop by again soon, there are lots of fun things coming up!

Alyssa