Friday Fabric Finds

It's been a long time between my Friday Fabric Finds posts - but I'm hoping to get back to doing them on a regular basis again. These posts are where I share what's new in my sponsor's shops, and any sales or specials that they are running.

First off the ranks this week is Pink Castle Fabrics, who have just begun stocking Janome sewing machines and accessories. Pink Castle are running a Janome kick-off sale from 18th - 28th of June, and they have some phenomenal deals on offer. If you're in the market for a new machine, it is definitely worth checking out! Pink Castle have also just listed this limited edition Alison Glass bundle of fabrics - 46 fat eighths of rainbow goodness with a bunch of fantastic low volume prints thrown in!

I always find it hard to choose what to share from Sew Me a Song - Becca carries such a unique range of fabric in her shop. As always, Becca has a huge range of fabulous low volume prints in the shop - and this Floursack bundle from Suzuko Koseki really caught my eye. These would make such fantastic fussy cuts, or backing fabrics.

Polka Dot Tea have just received a whole bunch of fantastic collections. They have the full collection of Jen Kingwell's recently released Gardenvale, Skopelos by Katarina Rocella for Art Gallery Fabrics, and this spectacular bundle of Cotton Couture solids. Just think of all the rainbow goodness you could make with 42 fat quarters! We have had so much cloudy, rainy weather here lately, I think I'm craving colour ;o)

Finally, the Fat Quarter Shop are celebrating their 12th birthday, and are having a week of fabulous deals. They are running a different 24 hour sale each day this week - and you can check out what's on offer each day on the Jolly Jabber blog. Right now they are offering 30% off selected layer cakes.

I also wanted to share a sale that's happening a little close to home - Frangipani Fabrics are currently offering 40% off loads of designer fabric, including Amy Butler, Tula Pink and more. Even better, if you're based in Tassie it's free postage! 

I'll be back over the weekend to release my Misdirection pattern - I can't wait to share my tester's gorgeous versions with you! 

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

TMQG Raffle Quilt

Earlier this year, some of our Tasmanian MQG members got together at one of our sewing days and started putting blocks together for our raffle quilt. One of our very dedicated members (my friend Lauren) then put the rest of the blocks together. We worked together to piece the top - and then it was handed over to me for the quilting (which I finished back in April).

We made this quilt using a bundle of Kona solids, and Carolyn Friedlander's fantastic Aerial pattern. The blocks are all paper pieced, so it was the perfect choice for a group quilt in terms of making sure the blocks were all the same size. It went together like a dream! 

It took me a while to decide how to quilt this one, but I knew I wanted to keep it fairly simple since it's such a dynamic and complex design. I ended up deciding to quilt in the ditch in all the seams in each block, and then chose one colour within each block to do some free motion organic straight lines. I think it works really well - the texture is really lovely without distracting from the complexity of the blocks. 

I used coordinating Aurifil thread for all the quilting - my healthy thread stash certainly came in handy ;o) How to quilt the borders had me stumped for a while - but I ended up extending out the 'fractured' lines within the blocks, and then filling in the spaces around them with some swirls and a couple of feathery designs.

 It wasn't until I quilted the last border that I discovered what I should have done across the whole border - rather than extending the line and echoing it at an angle on both sides (as in the photo above), it looks much more effective where I've just echoed one side (as in the lower area in the photo below). I'm still really happy with how this one came out, but it was a really great learning experience and has given me ideas for how to quilt future projects :o)

We are currently selling raffle tickets for this quilt, and the winner will be drawn at the Craft and Quilt Fair in July. The money we raise will be going to a support a sewing program at our local Women's Prison. I am thrilled that we are supporting this program - I know so many people (including myself) who have found sewing and quilting to be amazing therapy when going through difficult times in life. If you are interested in purchasing tickets, please contact us at tassiemqg at gmail dot com.

xx Jess

PS stay tuned for my MisDirection pattern release later this week! I can't wait to show you my amazing testers versions.

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

Bloggers Quilt Festival - Galaxy

It's that time of year again when Amy runs her fabulous Bloggers Quilt Festival for those of us who aren't lucky enough to go to Quilt Market. And it's nice to have an excuse to share a couple of my favorite quilts from the last six months ;o)

You probably remember this one, as I over shared it to death while I was making it. I made this quilt over a (slightly insane) five week period in October/November last year. I spent close to 100 hours working on this quilt (mostly quilting it). It was worth every single second though - I am SO happy with how it has finished up! It's just been accepted to hang at Modern Quilt Show Australia too, so I finally have a push to finish burying the threads and get a hanging sleeve on it!

Almost all the star fabrics in this quilt are from various collections by the hugely talented Jenean Morrison. Her fabric designs are just perfect for fussy cutting, and it was lots of fun creating kaleidoscope effects with them. This quilt is vaguely made using Jaybird Quilts Night Sky pattern - although there are only a few Night Sky blocks sprinkled around the quilt. The rest were made using Julie's Sidekick ruler (which is PERFECT for fussy cutting), but simplified so they don't include the outer star points in the Night Sky blocks. I also mucked around with different sized stars - some are bigger and some smaller than Julie's pattern.

Having the stars different sizes was the perfect way to incorporate lots of quilting into the quilt, too. I added 2 1/2" borders to the small and medium sized stars to bring them up to the same size as the biggest ones. The way I pieced it made it very easy to plan my quilting too - and it meant I did very little marking too as I could just use the borders to guide my quilting. I went all out with the quilting on this quilt, and I am delighted with the results. I feel like I'm a lot more relaxed when I'm quilting lately - I don't need to focus on what I'm doing as much anymore, so it is a very meditative thing to do. The only problem is how sore my shoulders get after quilting a quilt this densely ;o)

The back is an amazing print from Parisville by Tula Pink - I had just enough for the back, but not enough to match the print unfortunately. I suspect this one will hang on a wall though, so I'm not too phased (and it's the kind of print that isn't horribly noticeable when it isn't matched). I love, love, love how much the quilting shows up on the back - I used a bobbin thread matched to the top thread, and even though there are lots of different colours in there, they all blend into the print.

I used 100% wool batting in this quilt - and I am completely in love with using it. I've gradually been working my way up in terms of the loft of batting I use as I've become more confident with my quilting, and I love how much texture wool gives to quilting. I don't think I'll go back to lower loft batting now I've tried this stuff.

The stars themselves are quite sparsely quilted - I used the fabric design as a guide for the quilting in most of them, and simply stitched around some of the designs to add a bit of dimension to the stars, but still letting them pop a bit.

 Quilt Stats:

Size - 72" x 75"

Fabric - Lots of Jenean Morrison prints, along with a few Joel Dewberry and Amy Butler prints. Background is Cotton Couture in Soft White. 

Quilting - on my domestic Bernina, using a variety of Aurifil threads (40wt in the background, 50wt in the stars). 

Backing - Damask Dot from Parisville by Tula Pink

Binding - Cotton Couture in Soft White. 

It's really nice to be able to share this quilt again. I'm looking forward to checking out the other entries this time around, too :o) 

xx Jess 

The Aviatrix Begins

It's funny how the best of intentions can be easily thwarted. I had planned on photographing and sharing several quilts last week, but we have had nearly constant rain so quilt photography has been a bit difficult ;o) I did manage to scoot outside today and snap a few, so there will be finishes revealed in the near(ish) future, but today I'm just sharing a couple of works in progress I have on the go.

I have an upcoming class teaching the Aviatrix Medallion by Elizabeth Hartman, so I started making my class sample last week. I've had the fabric for this quilt set aside since the end of last year, when I chose all the fabric at Frangipani Fabrics (where I'll be teaching the class). I decided to use the same colour scheme as the pattern, but I'm using print fabrics where Elizabeth used all solids. It was pretty easy to match prints using the colour chart in the pattern, and it is making it a breeze to make this quilt, at least in terms of colour placement. I think I'd approach this quilt very differently if I was making it from stash and challenge myself more in terms of colour palette, but I must admit it is nice to not have to think so much about those things!

I'm not going to lie - that centre block was a pain in the butt. There was quite a lot of unpicking (and swearing) involved, and it still isn't perfect, but I think it looks okay (and to be honest, I'm being very picky here - there are a few points in the blue bird that are quite dodgy, but overall it isn't bad). And once the first border went on, I decided I could live with it ;o)

And now the second and third borders are on, I'm most definitely in love with it. I've been feeling a bit under the weather this week, and all this colour just makes me happy :o) It is such a pleasure to work on this quilt!

The other project I'm working on has been a slow-sewing project since I came back from QuiltCon. The orange peels are all needle turn appliqued, and I finally sewed it all together last week. I want to quilt it soon - but I'm completely stumped as to what to do. Normally by this stage I would've had a flash of inspiration but this time around it just isn't happening. I think I'd like to emphasise the fading out and decreasing size of the 'flowers' with the quilting, but I can't decide the best way to do it. Any and all ideas would be gratefully appreciated :o)

I hope you're all having a great week! I found out this morning that two of my quilts have been accepted into Modern Quilt Show Australia at the end of May (woohoo!!) so I'll be burying threads and sewing hanging sleeves for the next few evening I think. 

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