WIP Wednesday - Planning and Pattern Testing

While my machine has been out of action, I've been trying to get stuff done that doesn't rely on accurate piecing.  So, I've been making teacher presents for the amazing women who have taught my sons this year. Earlier this year, my fabulous friend Jen pattern tested for Michelle of City House Studio and made her fab 'Read Library Bag'. I instantly knew it was perfect for teacher presents. I've done the back and front panels, made the lining and am just waiting on my machine to quilt the outer panels and put them together. The boys asked their teachers what their favourite colours were, and I was under strict instructions not to deviate from it (hence all the pink and purple!!)

I've also agreed to pattern test for a couple of my quilty friends - these don't need to be done until mid-late January, so I'll have plenty of time to get them done, once I've finished up my HFWYG QAL quilt (I SO want my machine back so I can finish it off!!!) The plan is to start cutting for these while I wait for Friday and the return of my baby ;o)

First up, I'm pattern testing for the uber talented Jess - making her Lucky Square quilt in the twin size. This will be for my little girl - and I'm using my Sherbet Pips stash (plus a few other Aneela Hoey fabrics). Jess's used a much wider range of colours, so I'll be interested to see how it looks in a more restricted palette.

And then my gorgeous and talented friend Alyce asked if I'd test her first full size pattern (which is seriously fab!). Cue my FMF stash, plus a few other Denyse Schmidt prints. I'm deciding on background still (probably ash or white), but I'm really excited about this one too!

I also have bee blocks a plenty to catch up on, so I'm going to be busy, busy, busy for the next couple of months!

Oh, and please check out my Massive Aurifil Giveaway happening right now - it's open until next Monday.

Linking up to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced (button in sidebar) - and looking forward to seeing what everyone is up to!

xx Jess

Baby quilt fabric selection

Ok so I said I'd hopefully be back in a few days with some finished quilts. I'm still working on those (really, I am!) but I got little distracted looking at fabric. I find every couple of days I start pulling out a bundle of fabrics, not necessarily with a project in mind, but just for the sheer joy of it :o)

I did actually have a reason for it today - my best friend is currently pregnant with baby number 5. And I really want to make her a quilt. They aren't finding out whether it's a boy or girl so it needs to be something fairly gender neutral (although she's not really a pink person anyway, so even if I knew it was a girl quilt, I would probably go for non-pink fabrics...) I've been admiring my small bundle of Meet the Gang for ages, and I thought I'd have a play with putting some other fabrics with it and see what I could come up with.

I'm really not sure which of these I'll actually use (probably not all the greens - I'll probably whittle them down to 2 or 3) I love how well the Lizzy House jewels coordinate with Meet the Gang (honestly, the could be from the same collection, don't you think?) I will probably add in some more grey/neutrals too. I'm thinking an improv square in a square style quilt - I haven't done improv for ages, and I'm itching to make something relatively quick and simple...

Baby is due at the end of May, so I'm thinking I'll probably make this one next, before I start on the Retro Flowers... sorry just thinking aloud here ;o)

xx Jess

Stained QAL - a start

Ok so I'm a month and a half late to the party (middle of March already? Yikes!) but I've been so inspired by some of the Stained QAL tops popping up I pulled a bundle of fabrics out the other day and have spent this weekend stealing some cutting time. 

I should back track a little. Last weekend, I mananged to convince Mr Elven Garden that I really needed some shelves in our bedroom to stash my fabric. Surprisingly he agreed (:oD) and so this week I spent a LOT of time this week folding all my fabric (sort of using Jeni's tutorial) and putting it on my new shelves. It's been a bit of an eye opener for me (in a good way) to see exactly how much fabric I have. It's a bit ridiculous, and now the other half is commenting on our 'bedroom fabric shop'... hence I am actually on a fabric diet. For a while at least ;o)

It's mostly sorted by colour, but I couldn't bring myself to split up some of my collections - so Lizzy House has her own shelf and I've kept things like my Japanese linen, AMH, Heather Bailey, Saffron Craig etc together. It was also a great way to pick out some bits to list in Lucy's Stale Stash Swap this Tuesday :o). 

Anyhoo, back to the QAL (since this post was meant to be about that!!) When I was folding and sorting,  I kept coming back to an idea of using Saffron Craig's Magical Lands for the Stained quilt. I pulled a few other prints as well and came up with this little stack:

I've cut all the pieces (Sarah's instructions are amazing! It could have been a nightmare, but it totally wasn't.) and now I'm trying to decide on sashing colour. Some help here would be awesome ;o) I'm trying to decide between this one (Kona PFD):

And this one (Kona Hibiscus):

Or I do have enough black which might work... I'm really, really stuck on it. I love the purple, but I think the whitey one my help the colours pop more. Which would you choose? I need to make Just Wing It #2 first before I start cutting sashing anyway (so lots of time to try and decide...) but I'd really appreciate some input :o) 

xx Jess

Choosing fabrics for (another) project

I spent tonight pulling out fabrics for a couple of commissioned quilts I'm starting. My lovely customer has been really great with the decision process and has sent me a few photos of her daughters' bedroom in which the quilts will live. This is a photo of the blind in their room, with the colours she'd like in the quilts.

I actually had a bunch of fabrics pulled together which matched these colours pretty well, so I have used most of them and added  a more as well.

I think I need to add a few more greens to it (possibly some Freebird by Momo?) but I think they'll work pretty well together. My client has requested a lot of white in it as well, so that should balance out the busy-ness of some of these prints. There are lots of my favorite designers there (Kate Spain, Heather Bailey, Momo, Jenean Morrison, Amy Butler) - and its nice working with a different palette from what I have been recently. The basic layout will be something like this quilt, but with thicker white sashing in the central panel. I'm planning on photographing lots and writing it up as a tutorial once I'm done.

xx Jess

Decision, decisions...

I spend the last couple of hours sorting out my fabric stash (into colour groups) and trying to pick out some fabric to make my Summer Sampler  quilt from - and I just can't narrow it down enough - so I'm left with:

Goldenrod/yellow/orange group (yes I am finally going to use some of my Echo!) - Echo, some Oliver & S, Silent Cinema and a few Kona solids

Greys - lots of Echo, Saffron Craig, Kona greys, Metro Living

Blues - DSQ, metro living and tea garden print (I think?) - plus some tufted tweets in blue and possibly some Saffron Craig bird tree

Greens - DSQ, tufted tweets, metro living, pearl bracelet and african leaves

Not sure if I'll use some or all of these yet - I will just make each block and see how it goes! I'm going to use medium grey as my background I think...

I think at the same time as I'm doing the Summer Sampler I am going to start my Japanese sampler quilt (I will be posting tutorials as I go for these - starting easy and working my way up to some more tricky blocks). I'll be using some of the same fabrics, but only in grey and goldenrod with a few bursts of aqua.

Can't wait to start! Just want to finish off my Charmed prints QAL quilt first and then I'll be into it :)

happy stitching, 

Jess

Wonky Log Cabin Quilt - Fabric Selection

My first Block Party quilt is going to be for me. So I've chosen a range of fabrics that are some of my favourite colours - I definitely lean toward an earthy palette of olive greens, rusty oranges and browns so my fabric choices for this quilt reflect that somewhat... I did take a pic of all of these together but it was terrible, so I'm left with the individual ones after I'd cut strips.

Blockprint in orange (Heirloom by Joel Dewberry), orange spot print

Trailing cherries in brown (Amy Butler Midwest Modern), Park Fountains brown (Midwest Modern), Optic Blossom in gold (Midwest Modern)

Full moon polka dot in green (Amy Butler Lotus),  Eggs in grass (Freebird by Momo), Wallflower in olive (Amy Butler Lotus), Trees in Leaf (Just Wing It by Momo)

Kona Ivory, Kona Spring, Amy Butler quilting solid in celery, Kona Cactus, Amy Butler solid in gold, Amy Butler solid in orange.

Some of these were scraps left over from other projects, others were FQs or half-yards. I have cut strips of various widths from each (ranging from 1 1/2" to 3") and have started piecing block - I'm having a ball with it!

Hope you're having as much fun as I am!
Jess