Sew Together Madness

Last weekend, I stayed up WAY too late sewing together a couple of Sew Together bags. I'd cut all the pieces and quilted the exterior panels the weekend before, and then Friday night I stayed up till 2am sewing them together. Probably not the wisest decision, but loads of fun nevertheless - and it was worth the total lack of brain function the next day. I absolutely adore these bags, and am so pleased with how they turned out. 

I've seen many, many versions of the Sew Together bag on the interwebs since the pattern (by Sew Demented) was released and I've always admired how great they look. And now that I've got a few hand piecing projects  on the go, I thought it was the perfect time to try the pattern out. 

I fully intended on making just one of these bags, but once I started raiding my stash to choose fabrics for them, I had difficulty choosing what to use. So I bit the bullet and just made two. They're both made using Anna Maria Horner fabrics - I find bags are a great way to use large scale prints I adore, but that might be difficult to use in quilts. It might seem slightly ridiculous making two, but I have two English Paper Piecing (EPP) projects on the go, and these bags will make it so much easier to stay organised and avoid losing papers, basted shapes and cut fabrics. 

I'm pretty positive you would have seen many versions of these bags by now - but I can't emphasise enough how awesome they are. When zipped up they are a nice sized little bag, and the outer zip doubles as a handle. 

When unzipped they are just fantastic. They fit SO MUCH STUFF inside them. So much. And when they're open, everything inside is totally visible - so when I'm sitting on the couch hand-piecing, they work awesomely well. I'm a super untidy person, and I used to find it a bit frustrating to pack up all my stuff at the end of an evening of hand piecing. Happily, this is no longer a problem!! All my essential EPP supplies (needles, 80wt Aurifil, clover clips, basted shapes, partly pieced blocks, and even my envelopes of paper pieces) fit easily. 

My daughter has requested one of these for all her sewing bits and pieces (as has my sister), so I'll probably have a few more to share when I get time to make a couple more. I have a few deadlines to meet over the next few months, but once they're taken care of I fully intend to use this most excellent pattern again! 

xx Jess

Slowly, slowly

The first fabric designer I fell head over heels in love with when I started quilting was (like many, many other people) Anna Maria Horner. So I've been gradually building a pretty healthy AMH stash over the last four years or so. I have made a few quilts using Anna Maria's fabrics, but they generally just get gazed at. A lot. Ahem. 

So when Frangipani Fabrics decided to start stocking the paper pieces for Katja Marek's Millefiore quilt along quilt (based on blocks from her wonderful book, The New Hexagon) I decided it was time to take a few deep breaths and make this quilt with my favorite fabrics. Best decision I have ever made - I have never, ever enjoyed putting fabrics together as much as I am in this quilt.

I think one of the things that appealed about AMH fabrics for this quilt (aside from her genius ability with colour) was their fussy cutting perfection. So I've gone a little bit nuts with the fussy cutting; there is a real satisfaction in getting prints to create kaleidoscope effects and I find it is much easier to do it with English paper piecing than machine piecing.

It is such a joy to see these rosettes grow, and see what's going to happen next. No planning ahead, just choosing each round of fabrics as I get to it.

So although it's absorbing most of my nights and it's really not going anywhere fast, it is my happy place at the moment. I kind of wish I could just curate the fabrics and magically have it sewn together - but at the same time I'm genuinely loving the slow pace at which this quilt is coming together.

Have a great week!

xx Jess

A Mother's Day Knitting Bag

Over the last week, I've been watching the series of Quiltcon lectures on Craftsy. The one that has really resonated with me is the lecture by Jacquie Gehring of Tall Grass Prarie studio - I literally had goosebumps while watching her amazing presentation. I think the thing that resonated with me the most was being from a family of makers. My dad did Fine Arts at uni, majoring in ceramics and is now an art teacher. My mum has always done some sort of crafty stuff - she dabbled in patchwork for a short time when I was very little, and she made a lot of our clothes as kids. Most of all though she has always been a knitter. So although I don't come from a quilting background, I definitely come from a family of makers.

So when it came to thinking of a good Mother's Day present to make for her, I decided to go for Amanda's Knitting Bag designed by The Sometimes Crafter. The external fabric is the most beautiful fabric ever created (IMO) - Parenthetical linen from Anna Maria Horner's Field Study linens. The lining is a red Kona (not sure exactly which sorry!)

I have only made a couple of bags before, but I found this pattern really easy to understand and put together. It makes a really roomy bag with lots of useful pockets for knitting needles and other bits and pieces knitters like to have handy.

The only modification I made was to put the small zip pocket on the back rather than the front - simply for aesthetic reasons. I'm really pleased with how this pocket finished - it was way easier than I thought! Not perfect, but it turned out much better than I'd anticipated :o)

Mum goes to a Spinners and Weavers Guild meeting once a week, so how she has a very pretty bag to carry all her supplies in. Happily, she loves it!

Happy Mother's Day!

xx Jess

Retro Flowers {A quilty finish}

I'm so excited to be writing this post! I spent the last three evenings hand stitching the binding down (yes, I'm that slow) and managed to get a few photos taken today. So you get to see her in all her glory :o) A warning too - this is a veeeery long post!

This is probably going to sound incredibly smug, but I am so, so happy with how this quilt finished up. I've learnt a huge amount while making it too, which is always a huge bonus. I started this quilt back in April last year as part of the Retro Flowers QAL, so it's spent a lot of time languishing in a plastic tub while I worked on other projects, only being pulled out occasionally for a bit of piecing or trimming. But then a few weeks ago I pulled it out determined to finish it, and I'm so glad I did! I love it! It probably helps that Good Folks is the prettiest fabric line ever ;o)

It was my first foray into curved piecing and my first time trying some pretty epic custom quilting on a project - free-form feathers around the borders and triple stitched lines around all the flowers and feathers (inspired by the amazingly talented Lisa, one of my quilty heros). One big thing I found when piecing it was my seams matched much, much better when I didn't pin - I have no idea why, but there you go!

This quilt is entirely pieced and quilted with Aurifil 50wt in colour 2021 (my go-to thread). When I was quilting it there was a LOT of travel stitching over where I'd already stitched - in some cases four or five times - and the thread didn't break once. I used a lot of thread on this one - it's a 60" square quilt and I think I went through about 12 bobbins. And the quilting took around 25 hours. It was worth every minute.

When I stitched the feathers around the border I left a gap on two of the sides - I think these spots are probably my favorite of the whole quilt.

The back is also mostly Good Folks. The main piece (Small Gathering) is such a large scale print, it works really well as a quilt back. I actually like the back as much as the front, even if I didn't centre it very well ;o)

The quilting has shown up beautifully on the back. I have to say I'm a bit in love with the hand stitched binding too - I think I might be a convert.

Thanks for all your lovely words of encouragement along the way with this one (and for putting up with my many posts while making it). I appreciate every single comment I get.

Quilt Stats:

Design - Retro Flowers pattern by the Sometimes Crafter
Fabric - Good Folks by Anna Maria Horner, and Kona PFD
Quilting - by myself on my domestic Bernina
Thread - Aurifil 50wt 2021

This quilt is on my FAL quarter two list, my second finish this quarter!

It's also my May goal for ALYOF. 

xx Jess

Linking up to Let's Get Acquainted, Fabric Tuesday at Quilt Story, TGIFF and Free Motion Friday :o)

Therapeutic sewing

We're coming to the end of two weeks of school holidays. Two weeks in which my boys have been fighting (with each other and myself) a lot of the time. I hate admitting this, but I'm actually looking forward to them going back to school (and I feel like a really bad mum for saying it). I love my kids beyond compare, but their behavior can be a pain in the butt sometimes. On a less whingey note, I had an unexpected child free day yesterday thanks to Grandparents, and spent a good five hours quilting my Retro Flowers. Not surprisingly I felt a LOT better by the time they came home ;o)

                                   

I'm pretty sure my kids think it's a dance floor ;o)

And it's done! I couldn't be happier with how it's turned out. I've cut my binding (same colour as the background) and I'm hoping to get it sewn on tonight. I don't think I can wait another two weeks (till the Blogger's Quilt Festival starts) for the reveal, so I'm hoping to get the photos done over the weekend and do my ta-dah post next week :o) 

I had a wee bit of gorgeous post arrive today as well - my first month's fabric and pattern for the Amitie BOM. Even better than I was expecting - I will definitely be visiting Amitie in person next time I'm in Melbourne (which might be a while, considering it involves a plane trip...)

Lastly, Catilin at I Don't Do Dishes is having a sale for the entire month of May to celebrate her first year anniversary of opening her shop. Enter coupon code ONEYEAR at checkout and receive 15% off your order. 

She has lots of new goodies in stock - Simple Marks Summer by Malka Dubrawsky

She also has Angela Walter's Right Angle Panel in stock - just in case you wanted to take part in the Make It Right challenge Art Gallery Fabrics is running at the moment (there are some amazing prizes on offer!)

Hoping to be back in a few days with the big reveal :o)

xx Jess

Linking up with Leah at the Free Motion Project.

Temptation

There are a couple of QALs that have caught my eye in the last couple of weeks - both of which are slow paced (which means I can hopefully do them as well as work on my FAL list), and a bit of a challenge.

Firstly is the Steam Punk QAL, being organised by Amy and Jeannette. Steam Punk is an amazing pattern designed by Jen Kingwell of Amitie Textiles - and it is just stunning. My pattern arrived today - and I've ordered templates as well from Sunset Seams. I have absolutely no idea what fabric I'll use for it, and I have a feeling I will do a block here and there when I have time. There is a really great Flickr group set up for this pattern if you're interested in joining, lots of helpful hints and some seriously beautiful blocks popping up.

The other one I'm super excited about is the Tula Pink 'City Sampler' Sew Along being hosted by Sara of Sew Sweetness. I pre-ordered the book a while ago, and I'm eagerly awaiting it's arrival. I spent a bit of time yesterday picking through my *cough* sizeable Tula stash - I'm thinking something along the lines of the cover quilt (rainbow goodness). I'll probably add in a few others as needed, I'm a bit short on purples and oranges. I do have a few spare FQs of Nest fabrics (I've double up in a few cases) so there might be a Tula giveaway in the near future ;o)

And I bit the bullet and pieced my Retro Flowers together last night. Thanks so much for all your feedback, and ideas on how to balance the values and colours. There were some really interesting tips on techniques for looking at value distribution - I might collate them all into a post if anyone is interested? I ended up going with layout 3, with a few swap-arounds.

I think I could have played around with the layout for weeks and never really been completely happy with it. It's interesting how different it looks taken in decent light - the darker ones no longer look too dark relative to the others. I think it's reasonably balanced, and I'm fairly happy with it. I'm hoping to get the borders on, and the back pieced over the next few nights and get moving with the quilting. We've just started school holidays for a couple of weeks, so I won't be getting a whole lot of sewing time - but I'm busting to get this baby done :o)

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

xx Jess

Playing with flowers

Since I finished off Mario last week, I've been on a bit of a finishing things high, so I pulled out my Retro Flowers plastic tub and got working on them again. There wasn't quite as much work involved as I'd thought - no trimming or curves left to do, just piecing the petals for the last seven flowers. And now they're done!

They're on the design wall right now, and I'm playing with layouts. I'm going with the standard 4x4 layout with a border - I just need to decide how to arrange the flowers. I'm thinking the lower layout at this stage - but I think I'll keep playing with it over the next few days until I'm completely happy. 

My design wall isn't well lit, so these photos really don't do the fabric justice - this is my absolute all time favourite collection ever. Anna Maria Horner is a genius with colour. I'm not convinced this quilt was the best way to use some of the prints (they'd be better used less cut up) but I do have more of each print, so there will be another Good Folks quilt on the horizon when I decide what to do with it. Regardless, I'm completely besotted now I've pieced all the flowers. 

I've given myself a deadline for this one - I'd like to get it finished for the Blogger's Quilt Festival in May (so roughly four weeks). It's not going to be huge (60" x 60") so I think I should manage it!

xx Jess

Linking up with Lee