Spellbound Quilt Top (aka a punch in the face!)

A few months ago I was approached by the Fat Quarter Shop and asked if I'd be interested in participating in an upcoming quilt along, using a soon be released It's Sew Emma pattern called Spellbound. I was instantly drawn to the design (it's such an interesting and graphic quilt) and very quickly said yes. The version featured in the pattern was made using Maven by Basic Grey, a really gorgeous neutral collection, and it was very tempting to make my version using a similar neutral palette. But I thought it would be fun to choose a completely different palette to show how versatile this pattern is - so I went with a bunch of solids in colours inspired by sunset.

The Spellbound pattern actually uses a couple of jelly rolls (a background solid jelly roll and a print jelly roll) in addition to a few half yards of prints. But because I really wanted to use the fabrics pictured above, I decided I'd just make the jelly rolls myself. For the 'background' I used two different blue fabrics - Kona Solid in Midnight and Bella Solid in Night Sky (the two fabrics on the far left). And for the print jelly roll, I cut two strips each from the pile of warm coloured solids on the right (all of these are Cotton Couture). As this pattern involves sewing a lot of bias edges, I starched each of my fabrics well before I cut them (and I would recommend doing this - even if you use a jelly roll to make it!!) 

This quilt came together really quickly - it took around 15 hours to piece the whole thing, and it's not a small quilt (it finishes at 64.5" x 80.5"). The pattern recommends using the Creative Grids 90  degree double strip ruler. I really love Creative Grids rulers - I have several and they really do make cutting so easy. But for this quilt I actually used my 6.5" Bloc Loc Half Square Triangle ruler for the cutting, and it worked perfectly. Regardless of what ruler you choose to use, the blocks are big (16.5") so it really does come together fast!

This quilt is SO far out of my comfort zone colour-wise, and I have to admit I wasn't sure if I liked it while I was making it - there were many moments when I thought perhaps I should have used a more subtle palette. But since finishing it a few weeks ago, it has really grown on me and I've decided I actually really love it! I've decided to call a Punch in the Face - sort of in jest, but also kind of seriously, as it really does pack a punch with all the saturated colour in there. I think what saves it from being TOO much is the lighter yellows and pinks in there - they help balance out the deeper, more saturated colours. 

My 6 year old daughter is completely in love with it, so it is destined to be a new quilt for her bed once I decide how to quilt it. Although it would be a super fun quilt to do some straight line free motion quilting on (maybe with some ribbon candy in some of the strips), I think a simple diagonal cross hatch might be the way to go. There is so much going on in terms of colour, I think simple might be best ;o). I'll be sure to share the finished product once I get a chance to quilt it - hopefully in the next month or two, as I'm being pestered by the small one about when she'll get to snuggle under it!!

I'll be back in the near future with a few works in progress I'd like to share. I'm working on four different projects at the moment, three of which are English Paper Pieced and I plan on sharing a few of my tips for EPP. And since they will be super long term projects (I'm totally embracing slow sewing this year!) I thought it might keep me motivated to share updates once a month or so :o) 

I hope you are all having a great week!

xx Jess

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

A rainbow mini

So somehow it's over a month since I last blogged, and I'm not sure exactly where April went. I have been sewing quite a bit and have a few very near finishes, so I'll hopefully be blogging a little bit more frequently from now on. I think part of the slack blogger problem is the ease and speed of Instagram, but it's also finding the time to blog. Or having to choose whether to blog or sew, and sewing often wins out ;o)

One of my recent finishes was an angel mini quilt for the #igminiswap that ran on Instagram last year. I haven't ever been an angel in a swap before, and I found it quite tricky. I couldn't get feedback from the recipient along the way like normal, so I just had to go with my gut and hope she liked it. Kelly's main 'like' was rainbow, and she had a great picture of her wall of rainbow mini quilts in her IG feed, so it was fairly obvious what colours I'd be using. I'd picked up a rainbow bundle of Free Spirit solids at Quiltcon which I was busting to use, so I decided to use those (along with white Cotton Couture for the background).

I cut strips from each of the coloured solids and then added a strip of white (in varying widths) to each strip. I cut them using a ten degree wedge ruler, lining the narrow end of the ruler up with the white fabric (so the narrow points of each strip have a improv look). I'm really keen to do something similar on a larger scale, but vary both ends of the wedges. I love the angles wedges create, and I think lots of negative space around these would be loads of fun to quilt.

Even this little one was fun to quilt. I had no real plan when I started quilting this mini - I knew I wanted a ghost wedge on one end, but beyond that I literally made it up as I went along. In retrospect, I think I should have done all straight lines in the background, but I still like how this turned out.

It's nice to be blogging again (as much as I love IG, I do like to elaborate on my projects a bit more!!), so hopefully I'll get a bit more organised and share more of what I'm up to here more often. In the meantime, I hope you're all having a great weekend :o)  

xx Jess

Quilting again!!

In an effort to blog more regularly, I've decided to start doing WIP Wednesday posts again for a while. I'm tending to make more time consuming projects these days, so rather than go weeks or months without posting, I think having a weekly 'check in' will work well :o) As a bonus, this week has seen the return of my motivation to sew at last! I've been feeling really flat since I came home from Austin (jet lag hit me hard), so it was a relief to want to go down to my studio again yesterday.

I was keen to start using some of the ideas I got from the classes I took with Angela Walters and Krista Withers, so I took my roll up of Cotton Couture from Polka.Dot.Tea Fabrics, sorted them by value and sewed the strips together until I had a quilt top. We got a couple of new furry family members while I was away, and I didn't realise how much more complicated basting a quilt would be with two kittens trying to eat the safety pins. (They fell asleep on the quilt after a while though, so I think it has kitten approval at least!)

From there, it was simply a matter of using some of the ideas Krista shared in the class I did, and trying out graffiti quilting for the first time (thanks to the amazing book of the same name by the ridiculously talented Karlee Porter. If you've never heard of her, go have a look now. I promise you won't be disappointed!) I'm about half way done - and I'm having an absolute blast. I'm using a double layer of 100% wool batting, and the texture it's giving this quilt is phenomenal. 

 

I have to admit I find this kind of quilting quite difficult - it's pushed me right out of my comfort zone. I guess it will get easier with practice, but even if it doesn't it is so much fun, and I'm determined to do more and more of it. I decided from the outset that I wouldn't rip anything out while I was quilting this quilt, but use it as a learning experience as much as anything. I have a tendency to be ridiculously critical of my work, so it's been quite liberating just letting myself play and not worrying too much about whether it's 'good enough'. Some areas of this work better than others, but I'm really happy with the overall texture so far :o)

 I'm hoping to get this one finished in the next week or so (especially since the intended recipient was born almost two weeks ago!). I have a stack of other things I should be doing rather than this (cough bee blocks cough) but I needed to get this idea out of my system first :o) 

xx Jess

Cotton Couture Giveaway from Polka Dot Tea Fabrics!

I have to admit I have only recently discovered the awesomeness that is Cotton Couture, but they have very quickly become my solids of choice. I have used Cotton Couture in a few quilts lately (the most recent being my Kaleidoscope Star quilt, which I've renamed Galaxy, but also my Giant Chevron quilt I'm making for the FMQ QAL), and I can't say enough good stuff about them. They have the most amazing soft hand, and quilt up beautifully. They give quilts such a luxurious feel to them!

Rainbow Sampler Bundle

Polka Dot Tea stock a huge range of Cotton Couture (they have around 45 different colours in stock), including several to-die-for bundles. I bought their Spring Sampler bundle a few months ago and the colours are just amazing (and my son is continually harassing me to make him a rainbow quilt using them. It is on my to do list.) All the colours they stock are available as yardage, and Danielle and Jeanette are more than happy to set up a custom listing if you want something specific.

Spring Sampler Bundle

I have an amazing giveaway sponsored by Polka Dot Tea to offer you today - this gorgeous roll-up of blue Cotton Couture. Blue is one of my favorite colours - and this collection doesn't disappoint. It ranges from green/blue through blue into blue/violet hues. These photos don't do it justice. 

The roll up includes 18 5" strips of fabric. There are so many things you could do with these - a simple strip quilt, chop it into charm squares, make them into HSTs or HRTs - the possibilities are endless. Mine is destined to become a baby quilt for an upcoming nephew (possibly along the lines of the raindrop quilt I made for the Umbrella Prints challenge). If you're an Aussie, they would also be the perfect starting point for the AQC challenge for next year (which is True Blue).

The giveaway is open to everyone. To enter, just leave me a comment - maybe let me know what you think you'd make with them! For a second entry, sign up to receive the Polka Dot Tea newsletter to keep up to date with what's new in store (there are lots of gorgeous fabrics arriving over the next few weeks!) and leave a second comment letting me know you've signed up. 

This giveaway will close next Monday 15th December at 8pm AEST, and Mr Random will draw the winner. Please make sure to leave your email address if you're a no-reply commenter - if I can't contact you I will redraw. 

Good luck!

xx Jess