Hazel Goes Punk

Over the last few months I've been making a cushion as a shop sample for Frangipani Fabrics, using Elizabeth Hartman's Hazel Hedgehog pattern. Because the blocks are relatively small (8" x 9" finished), I decided to make a few Hazels rather than making one and having a really wide border around it to make it big enough for a cushion insert.

But it in the end it grew, and grew until it was actually about the size of a pillow that you use on your bed. Which brings me to a question that's been bugging me. Here in Australia we call cushions cushions - but for those of you in parts of the world where cushions are called pillows, how do you distinguish the sleeping kind of pillows from the kind you put on the sofa? 

Anyway, I digress. I ended up making three Hazel blocks, all using the fabulous purple/pink stripe from Carrie Bloomston's Collage collection for the spines. My Hazels have a distinctly punk look about them. The faces are all a very light pink, and I used a few different tone-on-tone prints for the bodies. 

The rest of the cushion front was made up as I went. I ended up doing a pieced border to use up some of the fat quarters I'd been working with, and I like how it has finished up. The quilting is not-quite-matchstick quilting, and I channeled Leanne here and used coloured Aurifil thread (matching the bodies and borders surrounding each Hazel). The lines are FMQed so they are quite organic, but I love the texture this kind of quilting gives. 

My pre-Christmas sewing involves panic sewing five Christmas stockings, so I'll hopefully be back with some more finishes before Wednesday. Good luck to everyone who is joining me in last-minute holiday sewing ;o) This year is disappearing scarily fast...

xx Jess

Pillow Talk Swap 10 {Finished}

My partner's cushion for the Pillow Talk Swap round 10 is done! It will be winging off to it's new home (along with a few yummy scraps) later in the week. 

The cushion/pillow top is made using four Schoenrock Cross blocks, following Leila's fab tutorial. I used a lot of Flea Market Fancy by Denyse Schmidt, a bit of Simply Colour and a lot of Architextures (the greens and background fabrics). 

I decided to quilt it fairly simply (since there is so much going on in the patchwork). I've densely free motion quilted straight lines in the background areas, radiating out from the points, and echo quilted just inside the edges of the green areas. This has made the 'flowers' pop really nicely.

The back is more FMF, with a covered zip closure (using the great tutorial on Sew Mama Sew - it works brilliantly every time).

 I'm really happy with how this turned out - I'm now just hoping my partner love it as much as I do :o)

The rest of the week is bee blocks and some secret sewing ;o)

xx Jess

Reflected Textures Cushion {finish}

Back in March (I think?) I showed you a sneak peek of what was to become my Reflected Textures cushion. Well it was finished and you can now find it and the full pattern in Issue 13 of Fat Quarterly :o)

Issue 13 is all about using traditional blocks in modern quilts - perfect for me, as I think that's definitely becoming my 'thing'. As much as I love, love looking at improv and minimalist quilts I enjoy working with traditional blocks more than anything. There are some amazing projects in this issue - 8 quilts, six pillow/cushions and more!

I think it's my favorite cushion so far.

xx Jess

Sashiko Cushion {Finish}

This one finally made it's way across the sea to the UK today, so I can show you the cushion I made for Nat in our little swap. After a few stumbles (and abandoning my original idea completely), I decided to use the sashiko panel I made for my tutorial in the Something New blog hop and make it into a cushion.

I cut a piece of batting the same size as the cushion insert (14" x 21") and used simple QAYG to add off-centered borders around the panel. The teal fabric is an Art Gallery solid - I've never used these solids before, but I definitely will again. They are just gorgeous - they have a really soft hand and remind me more of a voile than a quilting cotton. The texture once it's quilted is just to die for.

For the back, I used some Melody Miller typewriter fabric - which coordinates so perfectly with the solid on the front (and works really nicely with the thread colours I used in the sashiko).

Thankfully Nat likes it - but still, I'm pretty sure I got the sweet end of the deal with this swap :o)

The kids are on Easter break until next Wednesday, so I doubt much sewing will get done in the next week or so. I hope all of you who celebrate Easter have a great holiday!

xx Jess