JellyBean Jar Quilt

I designed this quilt for the Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild's challenge due in November. We were given some fat eighths of Michael Miller Cotton Couture bright solid cottons and they immediately reminded me of candy... jelly beans to be precise!

We just happen to store our candy in a jar at home so the Mason Jar came instantly to mind. I had a hard time deciding whether to make a flat quilt or a three-dimensional bag; large or small. I eventually opted for the easier design in the larger size which just seemed modern. There's nothing like giant jelly beans! The finished jar ended up being 29 x 51 inches. I pillow-cased or "faced" all the appliqué jelly beans so that they all had a second white layer in behind to keep the colours bright even on the dark purple background.

I added a wide binding and sewed it by hand so I could change the width as I went along, making it wider at the bottom. I added a pre-sandwiched lid at the end to give it extra loft, and felt as if I were screwing the lid onto a real jar as I quilted it!

I think I stuck with the original design pretty close except that the jar called for some extra free-motion quilting to fill in the empty space. I also felt that 5 cents was a bit steep for a jelly bean!

I won first prize and received a fabulous Cotton Couture colour chart as well as an even more fabulous $50 gift certificate for Sew Sisters Quilt Shop! (Thanks Stacey for the photo.)

Enjoy your afternoon tea & quilted crafts :o)

Leaves

I made this set of three Leaf Potholders in October. I have only made sets of two large leaves before and was toying with different size options. I am planning to release the pattern due to a growing number of requests!

Quilters will have the option of creating sets of two in any size or a set of three which I think looks super cute all linked together. The small leaf would be perfect as a coaster.

I always have so much fun making these leaves. They are fast to make, and there's something very rewarding about sewing all those small scraps together. You can see more of my Leaf Potholders in my flickr gallery.

Here's a few of my favourite pictures from last Fall. Yup... more leaves and Jack-o-Lanterns in Spring while I still try to catch up on blogging.

Enjoy your afternoon tea & quilted crafts :o)

Pencil Mug Rug

This was just a little gift for Claire's teacher at the end of June. Her favourite colour is yellow and I had the perfect fabrics.

I was very happy with the bit of pink velveteen I used for the eraser. I paper-pieced the pencil and had lots of fun free-motion quilting her name!

I hand-stamped a little note from Claire on the back. I heard through the grapevine that she is still enjoying it on her desk at her new school.

I had so much fun making this little mug rug that I think it will be the year-end gift for the teacher every year!

Enjoy your afternoon tea & quilted crafts :o)

Colourbrick Quilt

As you may have noticed I haven't been blogging lately but it seems that most of you now realize that I blog in spurts only when I'm feeling inspired to write which isn't very often. It's been a while and so I have many creations to share with you over the next few posts.

I will start with my Colourbrick quilt I finished in May. I based it on Stitched in Color's Colorbrick Quilt-Along. I made my brick wall larger, horizontal instead of vertical, and made the mortar sashing a bit wider. The finished size after washing & drying is 70 x 85".

I have been enjoying it all Winter because I used the most luxurious Hobb's Heirloom wool batting and it is OH SO WARM! My cat Percy agreed and much cat fur was quilted into the threads! It was the first time using wool batting and it was very nice for free-motion quilting. Free-motion scallops around each brick... what was I thinking?!

I never pre-wash my fabric so it shrunk a bit more than usual but I like the extra crinkly effect. The quilt feels nice and light even with the cozy flannel I chose for the backing.

I wanted this quilt to be really bright & cheery which was a challenge for me since I'm used to creating with neutrals and dusty colours. I found some fabrics I adore including some large teacup and bird prints, ABC Cookery, and Denyse Schmidt's Hope Valley and Flea Market Fancy. Brighter, bolder, more modern fabrics have been creeping into my stash since joining the Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild.

I pieced a single row of bricks into the backing which included a hand-stamped label. And of course I took the opportunity to add a couple more teacups ;o)

Enjoy your afternoon tea & quilted crafts :o)

Madrona Road Challenge

I finished my Madrona Road challenge quilt for the Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild two days before the deadline of March 18th. When I first arrived home from the guild meeting with my bundle of fabric, I pain-stakingly worked on deciphering the story in the text fabric hoping to gain some inspiration.

I knew right away that I would design the quilt around the gypsy girl in the story. I headed on over to the fabric designer Violet Craft's blog to check out the entire fabric line and there in a post was the entire story written clearly right in front of me... ! I immediately fell in love with the Farmstead print which was missing from my bundle. I added a bunch of fabric to my pile plus a yard of the white text fabric and six other fabrics in the Citrus colourway... drool!

From the start, I knew that my quilt would need large rickrack and bright yellow pom-pom trim to give it a gypsy flair! It was the first time using rickrack in the border and I was so excited to see it put together that I sewed it to the quit top without thinking... big mistake! Free-motion quilting + rickrack = trouble! Next time I will remember to sew the rickrack on after quilting! I definitely put my new Janome Horizon to the test and was thankful for the easily height adjustable free-motion foot!

I left the outer border un-quilted to allow turning the edges of the quilt under when sandwiching the pom-pom trim. For the front edge, I folded a strip of black fabric in half lengthwise and pressed. Then I basted the pom-pom trim the folded edge of the strip. I attached the strip just like regular binding but to the quit top only, folding the batting & backing out of the way. Then I folded the batting and backing to the inside of the quilt matching the edge of the quilt top & trimming excess at the corners.

Here is the front of the quilt. It is 42 inches square and filled with details. It is basically a giant log cabin layout with the story of the gypsy girl's life beginning at the bottom right and spiralling toward the centre. The gypsy girl is riding Buster the donkey following the winds through the forest, the sea and the desert. I originally had 21 paper-pieced trees in the design but that was insane so I toned it down to 19 ;o) I am especially proud of my free-motion pebble path through the forest!

Then the girl falls in love with the robot maker which is shown by a row of paper-pieced robots whose magnetic hands stick together to form hearts. She climbs a huge ladder to battle an evil giant and settles with her family in a beautiful castle under the watchful eye of the Griffin in the City of Bridges. I had fun piecing and embroidering the bridges... maybe it's just me or does anyone else see Darth Vader's helmet in them?!

They move on in search of a farmstead to call home and settle on Madrona Road. I changed the original design for the centre block slightly by using the Farmstead fabric for the background and I added a row of appliqued tulips with a fussy cut "Madrona Road" street sign. I finished quilting the outer borders with a few ducklings all in a row amidst tulips.

Here is the back of the quilt. I fussy cut the complete story from the white text fabric, and used the information and a row of those sweet little flowers from the selvedge as the title! I machine embroidered a label and attached it to the bottom of the story and finished it off with a black border and a very carefully planned random-looking border that took me hours to design incorporating every last scrap of Madrona Road fabric in the Ocean colourway.

I really like how my quilt turned out. I had fun free-motion quilting so many different designs and I enjoyed working with the Madrona Road fabric. And just look at that yummy pom-pom trim!

Enjoy your afternoon tea & quilted crafts :o)

I Love Sushi

Who loves sushi?

I love sushi... especially this type of sushi! I had lots of fun testing this fabulous paper-pieced "I Love Sushi" quilt pattern by Sonja Callaghan of Artisania. As always, I spent way too much time picking out just the right fabrics...

Any level quilter will be able to paper-piece these simple blocks with ease. The finished quilt is 37 x 43 inches which makes a lovely wall-hanging or baby quilt.

I love adding extra details so the embroidery around the sushi & rice was a pleasant break between the piecing and quilting stages. I even embroidered the name of the quilt pattern on the cup!

The following shows my usual quilting method. First, I doodle on a small black & white copy to figure out how I want to quilt it. Sonja has made it easy for you by including some design pages in the pattern booklet!

Then I trace the design onto Glad Press'n Seal with a Sharpie and once dry, I wipe it down to make sure none of the black transfers to the quilt... especially if it's white! Next, I position & stick the designs to the quilt. I quilt on the main lines through the plastic film, tear it away & add details later. As you can see in the picture, I have cut the centre from the flower. The film tends to be a bit tricky to pick out of intersecting & travel stitches. I use this same method for transferring embroidery patterns to linen.

Once my cherry blossoms were quilted, it was just a matter of filling in the empty space. I haven't done a lot of compact free-motion quilting especially on something this large so I admit I was a bit hesitant and terrified at first. I did some more doodling on paper and quilted a test swatch before I started on the quilt but once I got going it was quite fun and it was a lot easier & quicker than I expected.

After quilting the entire centre panel, I even felt confident enough to free-hand the blossoms in the outer border using only chalk dots marking the centres. The heavy quilting caused the quilt to pull into the centre and distort the shape but Krista came to my rescue. She suggested to quilt piano keys in the brown outer border and it worked perfectly!

Make your own "I Love Sushi" quilt by instantly downloading the pattern from the Artisania Pattern Shop or by running out to select local shops to add a professionally printed paper pattern booklet to your collection. You can find more information & watch some cute videos by visiting Sonja's blog.

Enjoy your afternoon tea & quilted crafts :o)