Oakshott and Liberty, oh my!

I'm working on a couple of projects at the moment, using some particularly delicious fabrics. A few weeks ago, a parcel arrived from Ali of Very Berry Fabrics (Ali stocks an amazing range of Liberty Tana Lawn in her shop). I'm in the process of sewing up this pile of gorgeous Liberty charms and writing a quilt tutorial for Ali.

This bundle of Oakshott awesomeness arrived this morning too - I'll be sewing these up for Lynne's Made with Oakshott challenge over the next few weeks. I can't wait to get started!

So, if you don't hear from me for a little while, I'm sure you'll understand :o)

xx Jess

Modern Mini Quilt Challenge

I've decided to enter Tesseract into the Modern Mini Quilt Challenge at Ellison Lane Quilts. It was a toss up between this one and my PTS10 pillow - but Tesseract won out, the main reason being this challenge was all about trying something new, which I did on several levels with this mini.

I designed this for the Emerald Challenge earlier this year, and used a new-to-me block (the Kaleidoscope block) for it. The greens are all Oakshott cottons, and the background is a mixture of low volume grey fabrics (Architextures, Simply Colour grey ombre and a Sweetwater text print). The inspiration for the layout comes from emerald gems, and also Lizzy House's Diamond Mountain quilt, which uses these blocks in a similar way.

I used two layers of bamboo batting for this mini quilt - I love the extra loft it's given without the puff that comes from polyester batting. I didn't want too much puff on this one, but did want the greens to pop a bit more than they would with a single layer. Having said that, I'm not sure that it was such a good plan to go down the no-binding path. Getting it to fold over at the back was a bit of a challenge. Also, my corners are quite rounded, and I'm not sure how flat it will sit when it's hanging. Which it still isn't. Ahem.

It is pieced and quilted entirely using Aurifil 50wt thread (2021 and 2865) - I love that the quilting blends into the background so well (although it blended so well while quilting I did have a bit of trouble seeing where I was going ;o) ) I really loved doing angular quilting too - a first for me, but definitely not the last. I really want to make a triangle quilt and quilt it like I did the green bits on this one.

Quilt Details:
Fabric - Oakshott greens, various low volume grey prints for background.
Size - 24" square.

xx Jess

Blogger's Quilt Festival Spring 2013 - Tesseract

If you're visiting from The Blogger's Quilt Festival, welcome to my little corner of quilt-blog land. I started quilting nearly two years ago, and have very quickly become completely obsessed with making quilts. I love participating in the Quilt Festival - it's such a great way to find new-to-me blogs.

This is my entry into the Mini Quilt category. It is called Tesseract, and was made as part of the Emerald Quilt Challenge earlier this year.

Quilt Stats:
Pattern - designed by myself, using Kaleidoscope blocks.
Fabric - Oakshott green shot cottons, and various low volume grey prints
Size - 24" square
Quilted - by me on my Bernina, using Aurifil 50wt in colours 2021 and 2865.

The inspiration for this quilt came from Emerald gemstones, and their multifaceted nature.

I love the depth of colour the Oakshotts give it - the photographs do it no justice at all. It literally shimmers.

I used two layers of bamboo batting when I sandwiched this quilt - I love the extra loft it's given without the puff that comes from polyester batting. I didn't want too much puff on this one, but did want the greens to pop a bit more than they would with a single layer.

Rather than binding it in the traditional fashion, I stitched facing strips to each side and then handstitched them down on the back. Because I used two layers of batting, it was a bit tricky getting it to fold over at the back. Also, my corners are quite rounded :o)

It is pieced and quilted entirely using Aurifil 50wt thread (2021 and 2865) - I love that the quilting blends into the background so well (although it blended so well while quilting I did have a bit of trouble seeing where I was going ;o) ) I really loved doing angular quilting too - a first for me, but definitely not the last. I really want to make a triangle quilt and quilt it like I did the green bits on this one.

I hope you enjoy the rest of the quilt festival!

xx Jess

Something new?

I know, I know I need another project like I need a hole in the head. But I've had an epiphany of sorts of late. I've decided that there is nothing wrong with having a million projects on the go at once - if I'm feeling bogged down by a project and losing momentum, why should I feel like I have to keep at it? Why not work on something else for a while and go back to it later? Or not go back to it at all? So I decided to start something new :o)

 I like to move from one project to another (I'm very easily bored) and I've had a massive urge to do something a bit improv. I blame my Retro Flowers for this - I'm finding it incredibly draining to concentrate on getting my seams to match when sewing the petals together (seriously, the curves were the easy part. Sewing them together just sucks!) I finished my May blocks for my bees a few days ago (at last!) and I faffed around looking at my WIPs trying to decide which to work on but none of them were making me excited.

Then the other night when I was doing some blog reading, I became aware of this pattern for the first time through Jeanette's blog (go check her blog out, she is crazy talented!). I tried pulling various stacks of fabric for it, but nothing seemed just right. So that pattern has been added to my 'to do someday' list, once I work out which fabric to use. But that little pattern was stuck in my mind. I love polygons, I've worked with hexies a fair bit this year, why not try octagons? I'm not sure when the inspiration struck me, but I started thinking octagons are getting pretty close to circles (kind of, anyway). And then I got thinking bubbles. 

I have a confession here. Over the last few months I've been building up a collection of Mendocino via swaps and a few purchased bits on etsy and eBay. Oh and the dots in the top row? They've been sitting in my stash forever without me realising they are actually HR Lightning bugs. So the ridiculous amount of time I waste spend drooling over fabric online paid off there ;o) Most of these are large scraps, a few are FQs and one or two are half yards.

The solids you see dotted around are all Oakshotts. And oh my goodness I think they were made for each other - I've never found such perfect matches using other solids!

Do you get where I'm heading now? Bubbles? Mermaids? I looked at these (and yes, patted them a lot and grinned like a loony), took a deep breath and did a bit of cutting and piecing. And ta-da, my first Mendocino 'bubble' block was born. The outer ring will also be octagonal once I decide on background fabric (at this stage I'm thinking various aquas pieced kind of randomly so it kind of looks like water...) I started with an 8" square for the centre of this one, and then built the octagonal rings around it.

I loved making it so much! I wish I could show you better how superb the Oakshott aqua is. Even better though, they're a similar weight to the Mendocino and were dreamy to sew.

 Here's my second attempt - a bit smaller for this one, I started with a 6" square. 

I'll be taking a small break from these (though it breaks my heart slightly to do it) so I can actually get my June bee blocks done before time, and make my zippy pouches and drawstring bags for Danny :o)

xx Jess

I'm linking up to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced (no full list of WIPs sorry - I have a page with pics of them if you're interested in how good I am at distracting myself with new projects ;o) )