Block Flower Pattern Release (and Giveaway!)

Since showing you my Block Flower quilt a few months ago, I've had a wonderful group of quilters testing the pattern for me - and I'm delighted to say it is now available to buy in my Craftsy shop! It will be available at a special introductory price (50% off) for the first two weeks :o)

The 10 page pattern includes full instructions and diagrams to make a 78" x 78" square quilt. It is a fat quarter friendly pattern, and is perfect for using large scale prints. It is a beginner friendly pattern, but would also be a fun and quick quilt for more experienced quilters to put together. 

I absolutely love seeing what other people do with my patterns, so it has been really exciting seeing how each of my testers have interpreted the pattern and made it their own. I think the range of quilts they have produced really shows how versatile this pattern is. 

Leslie (aka @iheartdl on Instagram) made her version using these fabulous Charley Harper fabrics. I love how she has used colored background for the blocks, it gives the quilt a completely different look! 

Karen (aka @peaceloveandquilts on Instagram) made her version using loads of Denyse Schmidt prints. I love the colours she has chosen, and the fact that she has used a variety of colours for the low volume backgrounds. 

I had to include this little mosaic of Karen's daughter playing around during the photo shoot, too. It's refreshing to know I'm not alone in chasing children away from carefully posed quilts ;o)

My gorgeous friend Ella (who blogs at Throw a Wench in the Works) made her quilt using solids in cool colours, paired with white background and beige sashing. I love how calm and soothing this quilt is, and the fact that Ella made this as a charity quilt :o)

My friend Serena (who blogs at Sew Giving) did an incredible job with her version. Serena chose to use dark sashing within the blocks as well as the between them, and use the same dark grey for the accent HSTs - and it has given the whole quilt a completely different and really striking look. I really love this version. 

And finally the lovely Leanne (who blogs at Daisy and Jack) made her version using Nouvelle by Art Gallery Fabrics. I love how feminine and pretty Leanne's version is :o) 

A huge, huge thanks to all my testers for doing such a brilliant job. Each of these ladies will be offering a pattern giveaway in the near future, so be sure to hop on over to their blog or IG account if you'd like to win a copy!

I'm also offering up a copy of my pattern as a giveaway today. If you'd like to enter, please just leave a comment and I'll draw a winner at the beginning of next week. If you buy a copy of the pattern and end up winning, I will refund you :o)

If you are a no-reply blogger, please make sure you leave your email address - if I can't contact you, I will have to redraw. I have been recieving a LOT of no-reply comments lately - if you haven't heard a reply from me, it is probably because I can't. My friend Adrianne has a great tutorial for how to fix this :o)

I will have another pattern release later this week (my ROundabout pattern), so stay tuned for that one too!!

xx Jess

Block Flower Quilt {Finished and Featured!}

I got a bit of a surprise yesterday when I was reading the latest issue of Quilters Companion magazine - my Block Flower quilt is in this month's issue #67 (obviously I realised it would be in the magazine at some stage, I just didn't realise it was in this issue.) So I can finally show you the quilt I was working on last November/December.

I took her off to our Botanical Gardens this morning for a photo shoot. When Hobart does autumn well, it does it in spectacular style. It has been a crisp, cold morning, but gloriously sunny - a beautiful morning to walk around the Gardens with quilt in tow. I did get a few strange looks while I was taking these photos ;o)

I used some of my favorite fabrics in this quilt (Good Folks and Garden Party by Anna Maria Horner, Echo by Lotta Jansdotter, Briar Rose by Heather Ross, and lots of Madrona Road by Violet Craft). It is a very spring-time palette of deep pinks, oranges, and reds with a few pops of charcoal grey.

The blocks are simple in design, but a perfect choice to use for larger scale prints.

I am really proud of what I did with the quilting on this quilt. I wanted to create an interesting secondary design with the quilting, and I think I achieved that. I used Aurifil 50wt in Dove grey - someone described this recently as a chameleon thread and it is such a good description. It has become my go-to thread for quilting low volume (light value) fabric, as it seems to blend beautifully into these fabrics, regardless of whether they are cream, white or grey based.

I did use my regular quilting ruler and a Hera marker to mark the long straight lines on the quilt top, but other than that it is all done by eye. I've used a combination of my favorite go-to swirls and pebbles, very dense matchstick quilting (these lines are less than 1/8" apart) and some other straight-line designs in and around the blocks. I loved quilting this one - although it did take a very long time (around 30-40 hours I think.) Cue close up shots of the quilting ;o)

Quilt Stats:
* Size - 80" square
* Fabric - I used a range of prints (Anna Maria Horner, Violet Craft, Lotta Jansdotter) for the flowers, low volume (light value) prints for the block backgrounds, and Kona medium grey for the sashing and border.
* Quilted - by me on my Bernina 440QE, with Aurifil 50wt light grey (Dove) thread

I will be looking for some pattern testers for this quilt pattern, so if anyone is interested please let me know. I have enough testers this time around (thankyou!) but if you'd be interested in testing patterns for me later in the year, please let me know. Several of you were no-reply bloggers, so if you don't hear back from me, it's because I can't reply. I've also decided to start thinking about making some short videos of how I quilt and putting them on You Tube. My question is, what would you guys like to see?

Linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts!

xx Jess