For my first blog post I am sharing some quilted wall hangings based off of the first quilt block pattern I designed for sale, the hot air balloon.
The hot air balloon quilt block is a rather simple pattern to begin with that can be made in a variety of sizes to create a sky full of balloons. This quilted wall hanging is inspired by the world’s largest hot air balloon festival in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where I temporarily lived for ten years.
There is nothing quite like the experience of walking amongst a field of hot air balloons being inflated and rising into the sky above you.
Hot air balloons are just big quilts in the sky, large pieces of colorful fabric creating a variety of patterns. This photo is from this year’s Canton Hall of Fame Balloon Glow. I have had the fortune of living in two cities with balloon festivals.
My Hot Air Balloon Quilt Block Pattern can be made in five sizes and a variety of patterns such as the pinwheel and the striped chevron.
The pattern includes several quilt layouts including this one with the pinwheel balloons.
For both of these quilts, I made some tiny balloons to make them appear as though they are far away in the distance.
The grayscale balloon quilt on the left has a border of background fabric and then a white binding to frame the quilt. This contains the balloons to the quilt.
The colorful balloon quilt on the right is bound with the background fabric to make the balloons seem as though they are expanding beyond the quilt.
Both quilts are topstitched with wavy horizontal lines to represent the airflow. Each balloon is outlined with topstitching as well.