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

Fresh Sewing Day and WIP Wednesday - another one with no finishes, and more beginnings...

I still haven't had a finish for 2012. Lots of starts, but no finishes. Looking through what I've actually gotten done though, I'm not too upset - I just need to get a lot of these done in the next month :-)

I have finished my Outfoxed on the High Seas quilt top - and I'm still deciding how to quilt it, and whether to put a border on it (I am actually thinking I will - pretty sure I'll use a solid, just not sure what colour) Any suggestions would be most welcome!

I've started my Swoon quilt - four blocks done, another two cut and started (HSTs and flying geese done)

I've almost finished the piecing for my For the Love of Solids swap project:

I'm doing a smaller sized sparkle punch (squares are 2.5") and its going to be a sewing machine cover. Once I've finished piecing it, I'm going to hand quilt around the stars using embroidery floss. And I'm thinking a scrappy binding using the same colours as the stars...

And I've finally decided on my Name Game Swap quilt. My partner is into very country style quilty stuff, which is totally outside my usual comfort zone - so I'm going back to my pre-quilty-cross-stitch-obsession and cross stitching the centre part of the mini, and will do some patchworky stuff around the outside. We're going on a mini break tomorrow for four days so I'm hoping to get the stitchery done while we're away.

I have a semi-secret paper pieced project I'm going to start very soon. And there is a great little paper-pieced sew along happening over at A Labour of Love, inspired by the very awesome, paper pieced issue of Fat Quarterly which I am going to get involved in (check it out - the more the merrier!) Oh, and I've just been commissioned to make a couple of twin sized quilts for some little girls which is very exciting :-) A bit frazzled, I need my kids back at school so I have my nap-time quilting again!

I'm linking up to Fabric Tuesday, WIP Wednesday and Fresh Sewing Day.

Lotus Garden Baby Quilt Tutorial

This quilt pattern/tutorial is available as a word document here.

Lotus Garden Baby Quilt Pattern

This quilt is really quick and easy and brilliant for a beginner quilter (or for the more experienced) as it has no seams to match up, and it comes together really quickly. It could easily be made larger (or smaller) by adding (or subtracting) rows of squares.
Finished Quilt size 40” x 59” (102cm x 150cm) - see below for photo.

Materials and Tools:

Each of the print I have used is from Amy Butler’s Lotus collection – but could easily be substituted for other prints. This pattern works especially well for large prints as the squares are quite large.
The following quantities are based on standard 44” (112cm) wide fabric. Fat quarters are considered to be 18” x 21”.
One fat quarter (or quarter yard) of Lime Full Moon Polka Dot
One Fat quarter (or quarter yard) of Temple Garland in Pink
One Fat quarter (or quarter yard) of Lace Work Floral in brown
One Fat quarter of Wall Flower in green
½ yard of Lotus Pond in yellow.
2/3 yard  of Temple Garland in Green.  I used this in the quilt top as well as for binding fabric – if you prefer you could make a scrappy border using left over pieces from the quilt top (you will have remnants of each of the prints used).
1 1/4 yards of neutral fabric for sashing (I used Moda Bella Snow)
Two yards of backing fabric (I used Moda Bella Snow)

48” x 68”  Batting/wadding of choice (I used 100% organic bamboo batting)
Cotton thread for quilting and piecing
Rotary cutter, ruler and mat

Cutting:

From each of the fat quarters, cut five 6” squares. From the Lotus pond in yellow, cut five 6” squares. The fabric quantities given are sufficient to fussy cut your squares if desired. You should have a total of twenty five 6” squares.
From the Lotus Pond in yellow, cut two 4” strips across the WOF.
From the Temple Garland in green, cut two 3” strips across the WOF. For the binding cut six 2 1/2” strips across the WOF (this leaves you with extra binding length).
From the neutral fabric, cut fifteen 2 ½” strips across the WOF; sub-cut five of these into thirty 6” x 2 ½” rectangles.

Making the Rows of Squares:

All seam allowances are 1/4 “ throughout this pattern.

Sew a 6” x 2 ½” rectangle to one side of each 6” square (chain-piecing if preferred).  Press seams toward the print fabric.

At this stage, lay out your squares (with sashing strip on one side) five across and five down in an arrangement pleasing to the eye. Based on the layout you decided upon, sew the first two squares in each row together - you should now have five pairs of squares with sashing strips between them. Again, press seams toward the print fabric.

Continue in this manner, until you have five rows of 5 squares with sashing strips between each [diagram 3]. Finally , sew a sashing strip to the end of each row, and press toward the print fabric.

Making the Long Strips

This quilt has four sets of width of fabric strips of print fabric, with a neutral sashing strip on either side.

Sew  each of the 4” wide lotus pond strips to a 2 ½” WOF sashing strip, and press toward the printed fabric. Repeat this process on the other side of the lotus pond strip – you should end up with three strips joined as in Diagram 4. Sew each of the 3” wide temple garland fabric strips to sashing strips in the same manner. You should end up with four WOF sets of strips.
At this stage, lay out your rows of squares and strip sets and decide on a layout that you like (refer to the photo for layout plan).

Once you have chosen your layout, sew a WOF sashing strip to the bottom of your uppermost block row, and press toward the blocks. You will have some of the sashing strip overhanging on either side of the block strip – trim this so it is square with the sides of your block row.
Next, sew the next block row to the other side of the sashing strip (matching up the sides of the block strips), and press toward the block strip. You should end up with two block rows with a sashing strip between. Repeat this process for the bottom two block rows (so they have a sashing strip between them).

Now it’s time to join all your block rows and strip sets together. The strip sets are wider than the block rows so first of all, measure the width of your block rows and cut the strip sets to this width. Assemble the rows according to the photo on the last page.
When its done, quilt and bind as desired!

This pattern is intended for personal use only. Please do not distribute or copy it. I worked hard to write this up :)

WIP Wednesday: Stars in my eyes

After last week's stuck-in-bed sickness I am really, really glad to have my sewing mojo back. I tried on Sunday but still felt really flat, so it's been nice over the last couple of days to feel well enough to get some things done.

I finished my third Swoon block. This is all three of what I have so far:

I'm pretty happy with how they're going, although there have been a couple of great threads on working with large-scale prints which would have been brilliant to have read before making the centre block... I might possibly redo the big points, but I'll wait and see. I don't hate it, but it bugs me that the stripes don't align in all of them...

I've also started working on my partner's item for For the Love of Solids swap. I'm hoping she'll like it - she's a bit of a silent partner, so I'm working with what's in her mosaic and form. Here's what I have so far:

She asked for stars and her mosaic had similar colours to these (teals and purples, and wine-reds) so hopefully she'll like it. I'm (obviously) using the Sparkle Punch quilt along as inspiration - but I've made my squares 2.5" instead of 3.5" so I can fit more into the space I need to fill. At this stage I'm thinking a sewing machine cover, and I think I'll hand-quilt around the stars... It's a bit over half-way there size-wise.

WIP stats:

* New projects: 1
* Finished: 0
* In progress: 8 (I think...)

I'm linking up to WIP Wednesday and Fabric Tuesday

xx Jess

What a week.

Last week is a week I hope I'll never have to repeat. Ever. Everything was going swimmingly on Monday - I even managed to sneakily cut two more Swoon blocks while my kids were happily playing. We have school holidays happening in our neck of the woods for another 5 weeks or so, so my daytime sewing time is rare, and this does NOT happen very often - the kids-happily-playing-and-me-quilting thing. Anyhoo, I managed to get both the blocks cut, and then sewed all my HSTs and flying geese together that night.

Tuesday started out okay. Until lunchtime when I started to feel pretty dodgy. By that night I knew I wasn't well when I hit my bed at 9pm without even touching my sewing machine. Then Wednesday things went downhill fast. I could barely talk, I couldn't swallow anything (even saliva) without feeling like I was swallowing razor blades, and I definitely couldn't eat. My throat and neck swelled up massively and I slept all day (thanks to my wonderful parents who looked after my boys for the day). Thursday was the same, but I still thought I'd give my body a chance to fight whatever it was.

Friday I asked my lovely man to take the day off work (he's never been able to before, either being too flat out or interstate) and he did. Can I just say (and other stay at home mums have most likely experienced this very thing quite a lot) it is the most amazing thing to be sick and just be able to sleep, and not have to look after other small people? I felt so relieved that I could just be sick and not have to be responsible, and actually have someone doting on me (like when I was small, and my mum would look after me :) ) He took me to the doctor who took one brief look at my throat and declared 'that's one awful throat infection' and started I (painfully) taking massive antibiotics. They kicked in by Saturday night, and I'm feeling pretty good now. Still sore throat, but I can actually eat again and have a bit of energy.

I still have a pile of HSTs and flying geese that need to be put together, but that'll happen this week. As well as all my other WIPs which will hopefully get some work done on them.

Hope every one is well

xx Jess

Fabric stashing - Lizzy House

Ok firstly I apologise for the self-indulgent post. I just love these fabrics SO much I wanted to share their awesomeness.

I admittedly have a serious addiction when it comes to fabric. One of my favorite designers is Lizzy House, and I've recently stocked up on a good chunk of her prints. I received these packages today and had to take some photos of their absolute gloriousness before I cut them (although I really will be finishing some WIPs first... really!)

In my fabric stalking last week, I noticed Julie at The Intrepid Thread had (and still has!) 30% off Outfoxed in her shop. What could I do but grab a FQ bundle? It got here super-quick too :-)

Just before Christmas Peg and Becca at Sew Fresh Fabrics had a great postage deal ($7 for an unlimited amount - being in Australia means postage is usually the real catch when ordering fabric. $7 is cheaper than it is to get fabric from within Australia - booyah!) So I managed to convince my other half (and supplier of fabric buying cash ;) ) that I really needed some more Lizzy House. Cue a half-yard bundle of 1001 peeps (and a few larger pieces) - the intention being to make Diamond Mountain - Lizzy did a quilt along with video posts for it, which makes the whole thing seem far less scary.

Last but not least, a FQ bundle of most of the Castle Peeps range (also from Sew Fresh Fabrics). This will probably become a quilt for one of my boys...

And finally all my Lizzy House together. Sigh. So lovely.

I'm just going to go and stare at these a while longer now. And then keep sewing my Swoon blocks. And then maybe look at them some more...

Jess

Outfoxed on the High Seas

I finished putting all the blocks for my High Seas quilt together yesterday/last night. I'm pretty happy with how they line up - not perfect, but you only notice if you look closely!!

I'm trying to decide whether to put a border around it (thinking not at this stage) and considering how to quilt it. I'm thinking of quilting the lighter swirls quilt densely so they sit quite flat (either echo-wavey type design, or even spirals), and not doing much to the darker ones... but any ideas would be appreciated :)

To get this quilt top finished was my 'one thing, one week challenge' aim (I was hoping to get it pin basted as well, but the main aim is achieved, so YAY!!)

I'm also linking up to {sew} modern Monday

and Fabric Tuesday at Quiltstory. 
Glad I've finished the top - it can languish in my WIP pile until I decide what to do, while I get on with my swoon blocks!

xx Jess