Calling The Doctor

My long suffering partner had a birthday in *ahem* February. He asked me to make him something geeky for his desk at work (you know, Star Wars, Marvel, Doctor Who - that sort of thing) because he'd just started a new job. I googled Tardis quilts at the time, and came up with some totally amazing quilts, but no tutorials and they all looked far too scary to try to figure out myself. But then a month or so ago, Caroline at Trillium Designs announced that she would be co-hosting a Doctor.Who.Along.

The first block was published earlier this week, and just so happens to be a Tardis - so the birthday present is made. It's only three months late ;o)

The dark blue is Quilters Linen in midnight, the lighter blue is a sketch fabric and the background is a print from Tula Pink's The Birds and The Bees collection. I deliberately chose the background to give a sense of movement. It's simply quilted in the ditch using Aurifil thread (50wt in 2740) with some straight lines radiating out from the centre in a lighter blue (Aurifil 50wt 50060). It measures 12.5" square - so a big mug rug I guess. 

Hope everyone is having a great week!

xx Jess

Crossing

I had a bit of child-free time today and got quite a few cross blocks made. I put together the four Schoenrock Cross blocks for my Pillow Talk Swap 10 cushion - feedback on the first on Flickr was positive so I soldiered on with the other three. I really love the secondary pattern created by the green bits. I'm hoping my partner still likes it, because I've got some ideas on how I want to quilt this baby :o) Still playing around with placement, but I think this is my favorite arrangement so far.

In a moment of perfect timing, my copy of Tula Pink's City Sampler book arrived (finally!) just as I finished putting these together. I've been not so patiently waiting for it to turn up, so I got stuck in straight away and made my first couple of blocks.

Block 1

Block 2

These little guys are totally addictive - they are 6.5" blocks so some pretty teeny piecing, but it is loads of fun picking fabric for each block. I think I'll make a few more tonight :o)

xx Jess

SMS Giveaway Day!

If you're visiting my corner of quilty-bloggy land for the first time, welcome! I have a small but special parcel of goodness for Giveaway Day this year :o)

In light of my most recent quilty finish - my Good Folks Retro Flowers quilt (sorry had to sneak another pic of this one in today!), 

I'm giving away a fat quarter of Small Gathering from Anna Maria Horner's much sought after Good Folks collection, as well as a copy of Amy Butler's High Street Messenger Bag sewing pattern (completely sealed and unused). I'll probably sneak in a few other Good Folks scraps as well :o)

If you'd like to win these lovelies, just leave me a comment on this post - I'd love to know what your all time favorite fabric collection is. 

My followers get an extra entry - so please leave a second comment if you are, letting me know how you follow :o)

That's it! If you're a no-reply commenter, please leave your email in your comment so I can contact you, or I will have to redraw the winner. International entries are welcome. Giveaway will be open until 10th May at 5pm PST (or as close as I can get it, being in Australia), and I'll contact the winner by email. 

Be sure to head back to Sew Mama Sew and check out all the fab giveaways happening! 

THIS COMPETITION HAS NOW CLOSED.

xx Jess

Retro Flowers {A quilty finish}

I'm so excited to be writing this post! I spent the last three evenings hand stitching the binding down (yes, I'm that slow) and managed to get a few photos taken today. So you get to see her in all her glory :o) A warning too - this is a veeeery long post!

This is probably going to sound incredibly smug, but I am so, so happy with how this quilt finished up. I've learnt a huge amount while making it too, which is always a huge bonus. I started this quilt back in April last year as part of the Retro Flowers QAL, so it's spent a lot of time languishing in a plastic tub while I worked on other projects, only being pulled out occasionally for a bit of piecing or trimming. But then a few weeks ago I pulled it out determined to finish it, and I'm so glad I did! I love it! It probably helps that Good Folks is the prettiest fabric line ever ;o)

It was my first foray into curved piecing and my first time trying some pretty epic custom quilting on a project - free-form feathers around the borders and triple stitched lines around all the flowers and feathers (inspired by the amazingly talented Lisa, one of my quilty heros). One big thing I found when piecing it was my seams matched much, much better when I didn't pin - I have no idea why, but there you go!

This quilt is entirely pieced and quilted with Aurifil 50wt in colour 2021 (my go-to thread). When I was quilting it there was a LOT of travel stitching over where I'd already stitched - in some cases four or five times - and the thread didn't break once. I used a lot of thread on this one - it's a 60" square quilt and I think I went through about 12 bobbins. And the quilting took around 25 hours. It was worth every minute.

When I stitched the feathers around the border I left a gap on two of the sides - I think these spots are probably my favorite of the whole quilt.

The back is also mostly Good Folks. The main piece (Small Gathering) is such a large scale print, it works really well as a quilt back. I actually like the back as much as the front, even if I didn't centre it very well ;o)

The quilting has shown up beautifully on the back. I have to say I'm a bit in love with the hand stitched binding too - I think I might be a convert.

Thanks for all your lovely words of encouragement along the way with this one (and for putting up with my many posts while making it). I appreciate every single comment I get.

Quilt Stats:

Design - Retro Flowers pattern by the Sometimes Crafter
Fabric - Good Folks by Anna Maria Horner, and Kona PFD
Quilting - by myself on my domestic Bernina
Thread - Aurifil 50wt 2021

This quilt is on my FAL quarter two list, my second finish this quarter!

It's also my May goal for ALYOF. 

xx Jess

Linking up to Let's Get Acquainted, Fabric Tuesday at Quilt Story, TGIFF and Free Motion Friday :o)

Therapeutic sewing

We're coming to the end of two weeks of school holidays. Two weeks in which my boys have been fighting (with each other and myself) a lot of the time. I hate admitting this, but I'm actually looking forward to them going back to school (and I feel like a really bad mum for saying it). I love my kids beyond compare, but their behavior can be a pain in the butt sometimes. On a less whingey note, I had an unexpected child free day yesterday thanks to Grandparents, and spent a good five hours quilting my Retro Flowers. Not surprisingly I felt a LOT better by the time they came home ;o)

                                   

I'm pretty sure my kids think it's a dance floor ;o)

And it's done! I couldn't be happier with how it's turned out. I've cut my binding (same colour as the background) and I'm hoping to get it sewn on tonight. I don't think I can wait another two weeks (till the Blogger's Quilt Festival starts) for the reveal, so I'm hoping to get the photos done over the weekend and do my ta-dah post next week :o) 

I had a wee bit of gorgeous post arrive today as well - my first month's fabric and pattern for the Amitie BOM. Even better than I was expecting - I will definitely be visiting Amitie in person next time I'm in Melbourne (which might be a while, considering it involves a plane trip...)

Lastly, Catilin at I Don't Do Dishes is having a sale for the entire month of May to celebrate her first year anniversary of opening her shop. Enter coupon code ONEYEAR at checkout and receive 15% off your order. 

She has lots of new goodies in stock - Simple Marks Summer by Malka Dubrawsky

She also has Angela Walter's Right Angle Panel in stock - just in case you wanted to take part in the Make It Right challenge Art Gallery Fabrics is running at the moment (there are some amazing prizes on offer!)

Hoping to be back in a few days with the big reveal :o)

xx Jess

Linking up with Leah at the Free Motion Project.

April Makes

April was a fairly good month on the sewing front - lots and lots of bee blocks saw me caught up (finally), and I managed to finish a quilt and two cushions. Well, the Architextures one was technically a March finish, but I couldn't show you until yesterday, so let's say it's an April finish?

1. Reflected Textures Pillow, 2. winged square, 3. Bronwyn's block #2, 4. Nicky's April blocks, 5. Boat block, 6. Bronwyn's Block #1, 7. Charlotte's block #2, 8. Charlotte's block #1, 9. Sashiko cushion, 10. Mario full11. Not available12. Not available

A lot of my April sewing time has been devoted to piecing together and starting quilting my Retro Flowers - so although it's still a work in progress, it's getting closer to the finish line :o) I'm really hoping it will be done in time for the Blogger's Quilt Festival this month! It's also going to be my May goal in A Lovely Year of Finishes (and it's on my FAL list, so triple whammy!)

Linking up with Lynne

and ALYOF

xx Jess

Fabric Fast Fail

Okay, so I'm not considering it too much of a fail - I did last almost four months without buying fabric. For me, that's pretty amazing. I'm a wee bit surprised how much I missed the enjoyment of browsing online fabric shops (although I still did a bit lot of that), and then the excitement of opening squishy parcels. The other reason I'm okay with these fabric purchases is that they're for specific projects - much better than just buying stuff either because it's on sale or to stash it indefinitely ;o) I have to say though, having not bought any for so long made it extremely satisfying to open my two parcels this morning!

First up is a parcel from Pink Chalk fabric. I won a voucher for Pink Chalk in the Emerald Quilt Challenge, so I kind of had to buy these, right? These are all Quilter's Linen from Robert Kaufman - one of my favorites for paper piecing and near-solid backgrounds. They give such a subtle texture, and have a gorgeous hand. Kathy stocks a massive range of colours too, it was difficult to narrow it down to these. Most of these are destined to be used in my Forest QAL blocks, and some will probably make their way into my Steam Punk quilt.

And I might have snuck in a yard of AMH linen - I'm thinking a bag at this stage. I adore this print so, so much!

My second parcel is from Sew Me a Song - all specifically bought for my Steam Punk quilt. It's no secret that I absolutely adore Becca's shop - it was extremely hard to narrow it down to these to be honest. So much awesome in one little shop.

I think my absolute favorite from this bunch is the third from the left on the bottom - Tea Delights in Jam from  Splendour 1920 by Art Gallery Fabrics. Such a great print!

So far my stack for Steam Punk is looking like this. A lot of DS in there, lots of checks and stripes.

 I am bustingly excited about getting on with Steam Punk (my templates arrived last week too) - but I want to finish up Retro Flowers and get more of my PTS10 cushion done before I start. Oh and bee blocks. Thankfully school goes back next week and I'll have a bit more daytime sewing time :o)

Off to play Monopoly with master 6 now - and probably get beaten as always. My kids seem to have the most insanely good luck at board games!

xx Jess