A wee bit of FMQ {Suzy Q Panel for BERNINA Australia}

Back in March, BERNINA Australia contacted me to ask if I'd be interested in quilting a small panel to be part of a display in their booth at the Australasian Quilt Convention (AQC) this year. Of course I said yes (I mean, what an honour!), and had a LOT of fun quilting it. A group of textile artists and quilters from around Australia have been busy working their magic on these panels, and I really wish I could make it to AQC this year to see them all hanging together - it will be a fabulous display, and it will be so interesting to see how people approach it. If any of my readers are going to AQC this year, I would be forever in your debt if you could snap a few pictures of the display for me, so I can see what they all look like together!

It took me a few weeks to decide how I wanted to approach the quilting on this. The panel measures about 45cm x 75cm, and features a girl's face with flowers in her hair and a really cool geometric hexagon-type design. I knew I wanted to play around with geometric quilting in and around the hexagon, but I was a bit stumped as to what to do around the face. In the end, I decided to roughly outline quilt the flowers and leaves and facial features, and then surround the face with swirls. I haven't done any FMQ since November last year, so it was really lovely to spend a few hours quilting this up last week.

I used Aurifil 40wt (2021) for the swirls and outline quilting. It blends amazingly well into the background fabric, and even for the outline quilting. I probably could have used a darker thread for the facial features, but I love that the white thread has given her face definition without distracting from the printing on the panel. It also meant I could be a bit more 'sketchy' with my quilting (and it wouldn't be too obvious if I didn't quite quilt right on the printed lines), whereas using a darker (ie charcoal) thread would have required far more precision and would risk looking pretty dodgy if I missed those lines!

The geometric quilting is all free motion quilted using Aurifil 40wt in a variegated orange/yellow (4658). I love using variegated threads, and I particularly love how this one plays with the soft, warm colours in the panel. I love doing this kind of random geometric straight line FMQ - it's fast and so much fun to do! Plus it gives such a great texture, and looks pretty fabulous alongside curvy quilting such as swirls or pebbles. 

 If you're lucky enough to be going to AQC over the next four days, please go say hi to my little quilt - and check out what is sure to be a fabulous display from talented quilters all over Australia! If you are on Instagram and manage to get a photo, please tag me (@ElvenGardenQuilts) so I can check it out :o).

xx Jess

Improv quilt quilting progress

So, somehow it's been almost a month since I posted here (although I'm sure most of you are used to my erratic-blogging ways by now!) April was a bit of a blur, with 10 days in Melbourne for AQC - but since we got back I have been sewing up a storm. Over the last few weeks, I finished piecing my improv quilt top and started quilting it last week. I didn't manage to get a good photo of the quilt top before I basted it, so you'll have to wait for the big reveal when it's finished for that!

The entire time I have been piecing this quilt, I've been bustingly excited about quilting it. Not that I didn't enjoy the piecing part - it's been the most fun I've had making a quilt ever, quite seriously. I didn't have all that much of a plan when I started quilting - I just knew I wanted lots of organic straight lines (free motion quilted of course!) with a few pockets of curvy designs. I started out in the yellow/ochre block of colour, slowly getting a feel for what I wanted to do. I've used two different yellow variegated 40wt Aurifil threads in this section - a darker thread in this area (until I finished the spool),

and then a lighter (orangey yellow) variegated thread for the rest of the yellow block and out into the low volume. Once I got into the low volume area, I hit my stride with the quilting, very much inspired by the grey Carolyn Friedlander print in the photo below.

You can see here how much that fabric inspired this quilting - and the texture is just amazing. Because many of the low volume fabrics I've used have a grid-type design in them, I have actually done virtually zero marking on this quilt - I've used the fabrics as a guide instead.

 Earlier this week, I managed to start quilting the orange section. I'm using a variegated coral coloured Aurifil 40wt for the orange section - and I'm really surprised how well it blends into these fabrics. There is a big variation in tone and value through this section, and although I initially questioned this choice of thread, it works amazingly well.

You can definitely see it on the lighter fabrics, but it's proven to be a real chameleon thread across the others. I felt this thread was a bit dark to use on the low volume areas though, so I switched to a variegated grey 40wt for the low volume section near the oranges.

Considering I only got this quilt basted last Wednesday, and I haven't really spent all that much time quilting it (about 15 hours I think?), I can't really believe it's almost half quilted. This quilt has stolen my heart, completely and utterly. It's my absolute favorite, and I see many more improv adventures for me this year!

You can see a few areas I've left unquilted - some of these I will go back and free motion quilt, but others I will add a bit of hand-quilting too. And some of them will be left alone, happily puffy among all that textured, tactile quilty goodness.

 xx Jess

Aviatrix Medallion {Finished at last!!}

A few days ago, I finally finished sewing the binding down on my Aviatrix Medallion, so this epically epic quilt is finally (almost!) finished! Aviatrix has been roughly a year in the making, so I hope you're not sick of seeing it quite yet (I know I've been sharing it quite frequently over the course of piecing and quilting it!). I still have a lot of thread burying to do, but it is essentially finished - so this is the last time you'll have to see it ;o). 

I made this quilt as a class sample for the class I taught at Frangipani Fabrics last year (and will be teaching again this year), and all the fabrics in the quilt are from Frangipani. The Aviatrix Medallion pattern is designed by Elizabeth Hartman, and I stuck pretty closely to her original palette, but I've used print fabrics rather than solids as in the pattern. I really do prefer working with prints, especially prints that have a dominant colour, and I think they work perfectly in this quilt. It gives the blocks a bit more sparkle than with solids, I think.

This is a pretty time consuming quilt to piece - although the centre is the only really difficult part to put together. Having said that, the way I chose to quilt it made it a truly epic quilt to make. I haven't timed it at all, but I reckon I spent close to 150 hours quilting this one. And I am really proud of what I achieved with it. I tried really hard to be original in my quilting choices, and to add lots of texture without taking away from the piecing design too much. I think I've achieved my aims - I know this much detailed quilting isn't to everyone's taste, but I adore how it's finished up!

I used a wool/poly batting for the first time on this quilt - and I'm hooked. It gives the quilting a bit more puff than 100% wool batting, and it has a lovely drape despite all that quilting. I figure if I am going to spend all that time quilting, it might as well be noticeable ;o). 

Having looked through these photos, I've decided I will go back and add some more quilting to the log cabins that haven't been quilted in the coloured sections. In the photo below, you can see I've quilted a cross hatch pattern in the yellow log cabin - I'm going to go back and add bits of quilting like that at some stage soon.

 The back of this quilt is simply pieced, with a Cotton and Steel voile down the centre and a dark pink solid on either side. The voile held up amazingly well with all the quilting on this quilt - and having such a light weight fabric on the back means it drapes amazingly well. Not only that, it feels delightful!

As always, I matched my bobbin thread to the top thread, so the quilting on the solid pink is really visible, especially where I've quilted over the same place a few times. I somehow managed to keep the back straight relative to the front too - not something that always happens when I piece backs! The binding is partly pieced using the left overs from the top, and partly neutral fabric that blends in with the final border.

All the quilting was done with Aurifil threads - Dove grey 50wt for all the background and grey areas, and the four colours you can see below for the coloured sections. I love that you can see the quilting on some of the coloured sections, but blends into others. Changing thread colours wasn't something I originally planned for this quilt, but I'm glad I did. Although it means a lot of threads to bury, I think with this much quilting it needs to blend fairly well, or it would completely dominate the piecing.

This quilt was on my Finish Along Quarter One list, so I'm especially pleased to get one finish in this quarter. I've had so many lovely comments during the making of this quilt, thank you so much for your encouragement! I'm incredibly happy with how it's turned out, although I'm looking forward to making a couple of simple quilts before launching into my next epic quilt ;o)

xx Jess

Aviatrix Medallion - Log Cabin Quilting

Our kids started back at school today (new school for my youngest two, and they both had an awesome day which is a real relief!), and I didn't have to work. Naturally I grabbed the chance to have a day in the 'studio' aka garage. I made some pretty good progress on my Aviatrix quilting - the log cabin border is so close to being finished! 

At this stage, I've mostly quilted the white parts using Aurifil 50wt in Dove (the same thread I've used in all the white and neutral areas of the quilt). I'm debating whether to go back and do a bit more quilting with coloured thread in the coloured logs. I quite like how puffy they are, but considering how densely quilted the centre part of the quilt is, I'm a bit worried these blocks look too sparsely quilted in comparison.

I don't think I'll make a decision until I've quilted the butterflies. It might be good to have one less densely quilted border. I don't know! I must admit it's getting more challenging to keep this quilt square as I move out toward the last borders. I'm being super careful about ditch stitching each block as I move around each border, and I'm fairly confident I'll be able to quilt it into submission. I think there'll be some serious blocking going on once it's all done though!

 Now that I've got a bit of daytime, kid-free sewing time again, I'm hoping I'll knock over the rest of the quilting on this over the next week or so.

I hope you're all having a great week!

xx Jess

Elven Garden Teaches 2016

It's been a big organisational week for me this past week, planning and scheduling the classes I'll be teaching at Frangipani Fabrics this year. We added almost 20 new classes to our website last week (not all mine!) including patchwork, bag making, hand sewing and kids sewing classes. I'm working at Frangipani a bit more this year (in addition to teaching weekend classes), including helping with kids sewing classes

Over the last two years, teaching patchwork and quilting classes has become a huge part of my life. I don't think there's any better occupation than teaching other people about something that you love. Watching people learn new skills (and that 'aha' moment when a new technique makes perfect sense) and have fun in my classes brings me a ridiculous amount of joy. So I'm thrilled that I'll be teaching even more this year - it's going to be an awesome year!

I have a few classes starting in February and March, some new and some repeats from last year and 2014. We are kicking off 2016 with a repeat of the very first class I taught - the Necessary Clutch Wallet, which I'm really looking forward to. I still use my NCW almost three years on, and it's still in amazing condition.

Another class I'm teaching again is the Aviatrix Medallion by Elizabeth Hartman. I taught this quilt last year, and it was simply amazing watching 12 different versions of this quilt evolve. I'm hoping to share my students finishes with you pretty soon, they are all remarkable quilts! One of the nicest things about teaching a quilt like this is that I get to know my students really well over the 7 or 8 classes, and see friendships blossom between my students. I've started quilting mine again, and I'm really hoping I'll have the quilting done in the next week or two.

One of my new classes for this year is Gravity (designed by Julie Herman of Jaybird Quilts). While I was writing this post I realised I haven't actually photographed this one for a while - the diamond blocks have multiplied slightly since this ;o) Spaces in this class are filling up fast, it is going to be such a fun quilt to teach! I'm making mine using all Tula Pink prints, and I am so in love with it. It's been a great way to use some long hoarded fabrics and a few precious scraps - I'm really looking forward to getting stuck into finishing the top once I finish quilting my Aviatrix!

I have a bunch of other classes starting later this year, so I'll share those once my class samples are under way. In the meantime, I'll be sharing progress on these two quilts a bit more often - my kids start back at school this week, so I'll actually get a day or two a week to do some quilting ;o)

xx Jess

Molecular (a finished quilt)

Somehow it's been nearly two months since I blogged?!? Admittedly I haven't been sewing at my normal frenetic levels (work, life, kids etc), but I do have a few recent finishes I'd like to share. As many of you would be aware, entries were due last Monday for the QuiltCon 2016 show. The week leading up to the deadline saw me finishing my Michael Miller fabric challenge entry and starting and finishing my EZ Quilting Triangle challenge - nothing like a deadline to kick me into gear ;o)

So this is my Michael Miller Glitz fabric challenge quilt. I really, really struggled to come up with an idea of what do to with these fabrics (bling on fabric is not my usual thing. At all.) I knew I wanted to include circles and to make it entirely black and white but beyond that I didn't have a clue. Eventually I came up with the idea of creating a stylised molecule against a simple strip pieced background.

I have no idea if this is a modern quilt or not - but I had a LOT of fun making it. The design itself is quite simple, but I gave myself a ton of room to play with the quilting. In a way this quilt is a statement about the lack of complex FMQ I saw in the quilt show at QuiltCon this year. As much as I love the look of dense straight lines, I think modern quilting can be more than that - and I firmly believe that FMQ can be decidedly modern. So I've attempted that on this quilt.

I even tried a bit of trapunto on this quilt - the circles have an extra layer of batting behind them, and have been needle turn appliqued onto the quilt top. You can see in the photo below, they are quite puffy, and make it just a little bit three dimensional. I decided to use blending thread for all the quilting - Aurifil 50wt in black and soft white - and I'm glad I did. Although there is a LOT of quilting on this quilt, because it blends I think it complements the quilt rather than dominating it, and gives it interest.

It is really difficult to capture in photographs, but the designs in the white are all continued through on the black sections. I used two layers of wool batting, so the texture is pretty awesome - plus these fabrics have a gorgeous feel. Very much like sewing with Cotton Couture.

It's so nice to be back to blogging - I'm hoping to share some of my other recent work over the next week or two. I promise it won't be another two months between posts ;o)

xx Jess

Epic adventures in FMQ

A few weeks ago, I started quilting my Aviatrix Medallion and then everything came to a stand still when I got sick. I started feeling much better this week though, and I've gotten back into quilting with a vengeance - and I have progress to share!! It's nice to have energy again - this quilt weighs a tonne with all the seams and due to the sheer size of it (80" square), so the last thing I felt like doing last week was wrestling with this ;o)

I actually started quilting this a few weeks ago - I started out by ditch stitching around all the tiny diamonds in the centre block, and then matchstick quilted some of the white diamonds to make the birds pop. It's impossible to capture the texture in photographs, but this block feels amazing when you run your fingers across it. I didn't want to complicate the centre too much, so I free motion quilted straight lines radiating out, using the seams as a guide.

The half square triangle border is pretty simply quilted too - ditch stitched, and then straight lines through the lighter value HSTs. Up to this point, I thought I'd use Aurifil 50wt in Dove grey (my go-to quilting colour most of the time) for the whole thing. It blends beautifully into the soft grey Cotton and Steel crosses and contrasts just slightly with the white background.

Once I'd ditch stitched the next border however, I decided I wanted to start using coloured thread on the coloured sections. I'm being pretty careful about ditch stitching to keep this quilt square as I move out through the borders, not an easy feat on a quilt this size. Totally worth it though, as I'm removing most of the basting pins during the ditch stitching, which is freeing me up to go a little nuts with the more complex quilting. The other handy thing about having ditch stitched around each block is that I can quilt each of the colours (ie blue then pink then red etc) and only change threads between each colour, rather than between each block.

Once I'd finished quilting the strip border, I sat down and did a bit of sketching to figure out how to quilt the x plus blocks. One of my favorite parts of the border above are the quilted geese in the lowest border, so I decided to continue that theme by quilting geese into the 'x' parts of these blocks. I quilted out all of the 'background' first using dove grey thread, creating gems between the blocks. And now I'm going back to each block and quilting them with a coordinating colour. I've matched my thread colour to the middle value in each colour group - so it blends quite well into some of the colours, but contrasts with the lightest and darkest fabrics. A little bit scary (and requires a LOT of concentration), but totally worth it. I'm delighted with how this border is progressing. I'm not doing any marking for this either - I did for the first block and then realised I could do it by eye reasonably easily :o) 

I'm not going to lie - this quilting is taking a looong time (around 30 minutes for each block), but I put so much time and effort into the piecing, I figure it's worth time and effort with the quilting. Quite a few people have commented about how much patience I must have - I guess I do, but I enjoy this kind of quilting so much and the result is absolutely worth it, I think! I will go back and quilt the skinny border before the x plus blocks too - I just haven't decided what to do yet.

I did want to clear up a few things in this post too - I've had a few no-reply commenters recently who assume I quilt on a long arm. I don't. All of this is done on my domestic Bernina. Yes it is hard on the shoulders, but I stretch a lot and take regular breaks. I'm a firm believer that it is possible to do pretty much anything on a domestic that you can on a long arm (except perhaps really large scale quilting where you just can't manipulate the quilt effectively or see where you need to go next). I'd still love a long arm one day, but I'm content with what I've got and I'm happy to work within the limits of a domestic machine.

Apologies for the epic and slightly preachy post, I hope you're all having a fabulous week!

xx Jess

PS Linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday!!

Beneath the Waves (a finished quilt!)

Back in December last year, I hosted a giveaway for a roll up of blue Cotton Couture fabric from my wonderful sponsors Polka Dot Tea fabrics and Danielle and Jeanette generously sent me a roll up as well. It's no secret that I'm a massive fan of cotton couture - I first used it last year when I made Galaxy and it was love at first touch. Needless to say, I was pretty excited to work with the roll up! Around the same time, I bought Karlee Porter's self published Grafitti Quilting book (which is excellent), and instantly wanted to give grafitti quilting a try - and what better way to feature quilting than working on an all-solids quilt? This idea percolated away for a while, and then when I came back from QuiltCon I came up with a solid plan for how I wanted to approach it.

I started by sorting the strips by value (using the black and white function on my camera), attempting to have a smooth transition from dark to light across the quilt top. I nearly managed it, but I think I accidentally switched a few strips around while I was piecing it so there are a couple that don't quite transition smoothly - but it's close enough for the effect I wanted ;o)

Once it was pieced and basted I dived straight into the quilting. I was lucky enough to attend a class with Krista Withers (one of my quilty heroes) at QuiltCon, and I came home full of ideas I wanted to try. One of the best things I came away from Krista's class with was ideas for how to approach breaking up negative space with quilting, and I wanted to incorporate some of that into the quilting on this quilt. So I decided to use a combination of grafitti quilting and Krista's ideas and hope for the best. I decided to use this as a learning experience, and just go with it - no ripping stitches, no self-criticism but just have fun and play. As a result it was one of the most enjoyable quilts to quilt - and I'm delighted with how it turned out. It was a brilliant learning quilt - finding some new (to me) shapes and combinations of designs, and getting LOTS of ideas for future quilts.

I made this quilt for my baby nephew, who lives in a house with polished boards, so I used a double layer of wool batting on this quilt thinking it would be a lovely quilt for wriggle time (and to play on as he gets older). The resulting texture is pretty incredible - I think it will be a really great sensory quilt as he gets older and starts to explore things more. I'm using a double layer of batting more and more on smaller quilts - I just can't get enough of the texture it gives. I don't think I'd do it on anything much bigger than this (it's about 40" x 60") due to the added weight, but as I'm becoming more confident with my quilting, I'm really loving the added puff two layers gives.

The quilting is all Aurifil 50wt thread - a variegated blue in the darker area of the quilt, and then a light variegated grey in the lighter area. Overall the thread has blended beautifully and has just left all the glorious texture. The combination of cotton couture, double layer batting and all that quilting makes for a pretty luxurious quilt - it's silky soft to touch and it is very comfy to lie on (as this little cutie can attest!)

I can't promise I'll have two posts in such quick succession again by the way - but these wintery nights are much better suited to sitting on the couch with my laptop than braving my freezing cold sewing room, and I have lots of things I need to share, so I might actually become a regular blogger again ;o)

xx Jess

Modern Quilt Show Australia

Things have been a bit quiet around here of late (again!), mostly due to a month or so of continual ick in our house and zero sewing. But everyone seems to be healthy again now (touch wood!!) and I have tonnes of stuff to share with you all, so I am determined to get back to blogging again a bit more regularly. Famous last words I know, but I have some upcoming pattern releases and a few recent publications that I still haven't shared so I'll hopefully get back into the swing of it this month :o)

I have some pretty exciting news to share in the mean time. A few weeks ago, the Woolongong Modern Quilt Guild hosted the second Modern Quilt Show Australia, in Kiama, NSW. Unfortunately I wasn't able to travel over for the show, but the glimpses I got were pretty amazing. The massively talented Rachaeldaisy (who blogs at Blue Mountain Daisy) won Best in Show and First Place in the Modern Traditional category for her spectacular Clamshell Carousel, and I really hope I get to see it in person one day. I love everything Rachael makes, but this one takes the cake.

I entered two quilts into the show and they were both accepted. MisDirection was entered in the Use of Negative Space category, and Galaxy was entered in the Modern Traditional Category.

I found out on Saturday via my lovely friend Melissa (aka Ms Midge) that MisDirection won third place in her category! I'm (obviously) completely over the moon, I love this quilt so much so it was lovely to win a prize for her. But then Sunday afternoon I got some of the best news ever (again from Melissa!) - Galaxy won First Place in Viewers Choice. I'm still a bit shell shocked to be honest, it's a little overwhelming that people loved my quilt that much :o) A huge, huge thanks to the show organisers, you all did an amazing job!

I'll be back in the next few days with more to share,

xx Jess

A new toy!

A few weeks ago I received a message from the president of the TMQG, asking if I'd be interested in a quilting frame. I'm sure you can guess what my answer was (!?!), and then I found out I was being offered it for free. WHAT? A lovely local quilter sadly passed away recently, and she wanted all her quilting things to go to people who would use them. So I was offered the quilting frame, and our guild now has a pile of equipment on hand for running kids workshops and so forth. I'm constantly amazed and grateful at how generous and wonderful quilty people are :o)

We picked up the frame a few weeks ago, and then last weekend we set it up in my garage aka studio. This thing is HUGE - 3m long, and about 1m wide. It meant a quick rearrangement of the garage, but it is now installed along one wall - and there is no longer any doubt that the garage is my sole domain ;o)

I decided to jump straight in and quilt the biggest top I've ever put together - my Birds and Bees colourblock quilt. I've been putting quilting this one off for a couple of years, due to the sheer size of it, and had been thinking about sending it to someone to long arm it. It's nice to be quilting it myself without needing a year's worth of massage, though!

Once I got the quilt loaded, and my machine on the frame, I realised I'd be fairly limited with what I can do. I only have about 3-4" I can quilt at a time, so it won't be great for large designs, but for straight lines and smaller designs (pebbles and such) it will be fabulous. I've spent the last two days quilting on it, and I'm slowly getting used to it. Up until now, I've never had thread breakage or tension issues on my machine, but I'm finding that's something I'm contending with while using the frame. I spent more time swearing and unpicking stitches with dodgy tension than actually quilting yesterday, but things went more smoothly today and I am about 3/4 of the way through. Considering the size of this quilt, only spending 6 hours or so quilting that much is insane - normally I'd have easily spent ten times that long. Eventually I will look at getting something with a larger throat space, but for now I'm very content.

I've decided to do dense straight lines on this quilt, strongly influenced by Leanne's style of quilting. I had wanted to quilt each colour block individually with different designs and blending thread, but I think this will be really effective - plus the texture is amazing. I'll have to get used to not seeing how it's looking until I take it off the frame though, the suspense is killing me at the moment! I'm hoping to get the rest done over the next few evenings, I can't wait to see it!

xx Jess

Bernina Textile Artist!!!

I've been holding tight to a massive secret for the last couple of weeks, but I can stop biting my tongue and let you guys know - I have just been added as a Bernina Textile Artist on the Bernina Australia website. You have got no idea how amazingly exciting this is for me (well, maybe you do really) - there has been a lot of happy dancing around the house, and it has been pretty hard to wipe the smile off my face recently :o)

When Bernina called a few weeks ago to ask if I'd be interested in becoming a Bernina Textile Artist, I honestly had no idea what they were talking about to start with. I think I probably came across as a bit of a stuttering idiot to be honest. After that amazing phone call, I jumped onto the website to check out who they have on board as textile artists, and nearly fell off my chair (Tula? Amanda Murphy?) and instantly started wondering why the hell they wanted me there (and I'm secretly still wondering, but I guess I'll get over it!) As a few of my Instagram peeps have mentioned recently, I need to start believing in myself more - if this doesn't do that, I don't know what will :o)

I've always shared the love I have for my Bernina QE440 here on the blog, so I'm absolutely freaking thrilled to be officially in partnership with Bernina. Apart from my profile being up on the Bernina website (!?!?!), there is a possibility I will be teaching/demonstrating for Bernina at quilt shows around Australia next year. SO EXCITING!!!!

I'm off to do more leaping around the house in a decidedly ridiculous manner ;o)

xx Jess