Spellbound Quilt Top (aka a punch in the face!)

A few months ago I was approached by the Fat Quarter Shop and asked if I'd be interested in participating in an upcoming quilt along, using a soon be released It's Sew Emma pattern called Spellbound. I was instantly drawn to the design (it's such an interesting and graphic quilt) and very quickly said yes. The version featured in the pattern was made using Maven by Basic Grey, a really gorgeous neutral collection, and it was very tempting to make my version using a similar neutral palette. But I thought it would be fun to choose a completely different palette to show how versatile this pattern is - so I went with a bunch of solids in colours inspired by sunset.

The Spellbound pattern actually uses a couple of jelly rolls (a background solid jelly roll and a print jelly roll) in addition to a few half yards of prints. But because I really wanted to use the fabrics pictured above, I decided I'd just make the jelly rolls myself. For the 'background' I used two different blue fabrics - Kona Solid in Midnight and Bella Solid in Night Sky (the two fabrics on the far left). And for the print jelly roll, I cut two strips each from the pile of warm coloured solids on the right (all of these are Cotton Couture). As this pattern involves sewing a lot of bias edges, I starched each of my fabrics well before I cut them (and I would recommend doing this - even if you use a jelly roll to make it!!) 

This quilt came together really quickly - it took around 15 hours to piece the whole thing, and it's not a small quilt (it finishes at 64.5" x 80.5"). The pattern recommends using the Creative Grids 90  degree double strip ruler. I really love Creative Grids rulers - I have several and they really do make cutting so easy. But for this quilt I actually used my 6.5" Bloc Loc Half Square Triangle ruler for the cutting, and it worked perfectly. Regardless of what ruler you choose to use, the blocks are big (16.5") so it really does come together fast!

This quilt is SO far out of my comfort zone colour-wise, and I have to admit I wasn't sure if I liked it while I was making it - there were many moments when I thought perhaps I should have used a more subtle palette. But since finishing it a few weeks ago, it has really grown on me and I've decided I actually really love it! I've decided to call a Punch in the Face - sort of in jest, but also kind of seriously, as it really does pack a punch with all the saturated colour in there. I think what saves it from being TOO much is the lighter yellows and pinks in there - they help balance out the deeper, more saturated colours. 

My 6 year old daughter is completely in love with it, so it is destined to be a new quilt for her bed once I decide how to quilt it. Although it would be a super fun quilt to do some straight line free motion quilting on (maybe with some ribbon candy in some of the strips), I think a simple diagonal cross hatch might be the way to go. There is so much going on in terms of colour, I think simple might be best ;o). I'll be sure to share the finished product once I get a chance to quilt it - hopefully in the next month or two, as I'm being pestered by the small one about when she'll get to snuggle under it!!

I'll be back in the near future with a few works in progress I'd like to share. I'm working on four different projects at the moment, three of which are English Paper Pieced and I plan on sharing a few of my tips for EPP. And since they will be super long term projects (I'm totally embracing slow sewing this year!) I thought it might keep me motivated to share updates once a month or so :o) 

I hope you are all having a great week!

xx Jess

Super Mario Quilt {Finish}

Thanks so much for all your words of encouragement yesterday. It must have worked, because I'm happy to say that today's marathon quilting effort (complete with extremely sore arms) paid off. Mario is done - a day early! Which means I can make some attempt to get the house sorted tomorrow before the chaos of ten small children arriving on Sunday :o)

I am so relieved he's finished - I had visions of finishing up the binding in the early hours of Saturday morning (thanks Susan!). But it went fairly smoothly today, so it's all good.

For the design of the quilt, I used the block Angela designed for her Mario QAL - but scaled it up to 3.5" squares. I actually strip pieced it in the end rather than using squares, so it came together pretty quickly, without too many seams to match. With the borders added, he's finished up at about 65" square - perfect snuggling size for my soon to be 6 year old little boy!

Please excuse the black seeds I accidentally knocked onto the quilt - didn't notice until I was looking through the photos tonight!

I'm really pleased with how Mario has turned out. He's fairly extensively quilted (aside from the borders) with various FMQ designs. Straight lines and pebbles for the most part, although I decided to try a maze-ish kind of design in the background, which I think looks pretty cool. It's not perfect (and I nearly stopped a short way into it) but overall I think it's effective if you don't look too closely at some bits. Normally I quilt myself into corners and have to stop and start - but surprisingly with this design I only did it once. My little boy has been asking for a maze quilt for a while, so I think he'll enjoy tracing his way through this one :o)

I worked entirely from stash on this one (aside from the backing). The solids are all Kona cotton, apart from the brown for the shoes, which is a shot cotton (I think?). I ran out of the background fabric part way through (I thought the yard I had would be enough - whoops!), so I've used two different kona aqua fabrics (Ice Frappe and another - not completely sure which one!) If I'd had more time I probably would have ordered a bit more of the Ice Frappe, but I think it looks okay anyway :o)

The quilting is all Aurifil 50wt, matched as closely as possible to the fabric. My recent win came very much in handy for the red, dark blue (Kona Ocean) and yellow buttons. I'm beginning to acquire a stash of Aurifil that challenges my fabric. Ok, maybe not quite, but I have thread in just about every colour I'll ever need ;o)

I think my favorite part is his ear :o)

And the back is perfection - confirmed by master 8 (who incidentally thinks it is a very cool quilt, and has asked for Luigi for his bed. So I think I've done well!) I would have liked to use the same red as the border for the binding, but I ran out. I ended up using a print from Tufted Tweets by Laurie Wisbrun, which works quite well and is in keeping with the white/red spotty mushroom theme on the back.

Needs to be washed still, but I can't wait to pop this on the birthday boy's bed while he's asleep tomorrow night - I really hope it's all he dreamed it would be.

xx Jess

Linking up to Le Challenge

A Lovely Year of Finishes

and the Finish Along 2013

Panic sewing

**Architextures Giveaway post here**

I've made a fair bit of headway on the quilting of Mario over the last couple of days (thanks to Mum looking after the smallest one yesterday).

I'm keeping it fairly simple - mostly FMQ'd straight lines, with some wavy lines on the skin part, and pebbles for his hair. I'm definitely a FMQ straight line convert - I love not having to turn the quilt. Oh, and you can see a peek of the backing at the bottom of the photo - perfect or what? There might have been a small squeal in the shop when I found it - and there was just enough left on the bolt. It was meant to be!!

Slightly panicky about getting it finished by Saturday - and the little man has requested that I go down and put it on his bed while he's asleep on Friday night, so he can wake up snuggled under it on his birthday :o). So really, not much time to finish it up - and there's a lot of quilting left to do. Just as well Thursday is my child-free day - hoping my arms are up to an all-day quilting marathon.

Wish me luck?

xx Jess

Linking up to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.

You can call me crazy...

Given my really fantastic track record with QALs, anyone would think I'd steer clear of them. But I'm a sucker for a QAL. And I had already bought the pattern for this, and worked out what fabric I wanted to use before the QAL was announced. So I'm (probably stupidly) joining in the Groovy QAL organised by Alyssa.

As soon as I saw this pattern I fell in love. I'm a bit of a hippy and major fan of the 60s/70s so it was a no-brainer to make it someday. To top it off, I've had a few yards of this print sitting in my stash (originally bought to make a skirt before I started quilting) and I decided it would make the PERFECT back for Groove.

I loooove the colours in it, so I grabbed my Kona colour card and decided on (from top) Azure, Willow, White, Chartreuse and Black. And my lovely parcel arrived today from the Fat Quarter Shop!

And you know, because I've got nothing else to do, I will be attempting to get it done before the end of the QAL. Yes. I definitely have a few screws loose :o)

Oh, and because I always have to fill my flat rate satchel to the brim, these half yards of Madrona Road text prints somehow jumped in too...

Wish me luck! No, really, I mean it (and Jen, you can stop laughing now!)

xx Jess

For The Love of Solids Round 2

I finally got around to getting the thread I needed and finished off my For the Love of Solids swap big item. I'm pretty happy with how its come together, and I really hope my swap partner likes it!

My partner had requested stars in her swap info, and around the time this swap started Elizabeth Hartman had started her sparkle punch QAL, so I exhibited a total lack of imagination and went with a sparkle punch made from solids ;) I did make a small change, and used 2.5" squares instead of 3.5". The colours are based loosely on my partner's mosaic - I can't remember all of them but they include Kona wine, mulberry, lupine, lilac, berry, jade green and cyan (all from Sew Fresh Fabric on etsy) and the background is Kona coal.

I guess it could be hung as a mini-quilt (it measures about 19" x 30"), but I've sewn on some ties for it to be a sewing machine cover. My machine dimensions are bigger (so its a tight fit, and a bit short modelled on my machine) but I'm hoping it will be a perfect fit for my partner's machine :)

I've quilted it using a combination of machine and hand quilting - only because I am so insanely slow at hand quilting, it would have taken me weeks to get it finished!

All that remains is whether I make a small item or send something purchased (still not sure about this - but I am toying with making a matching thread catcher...)

Jess