Liberty Lifestyle ~ Placemats

Invited to create a small project for the Liberty Lifestyle Craft Blog I was happy to oblige.  

With Liberty Lifestyle stash on hand I could not resist combining the saturated colors of the Bloomsbury Gardens collection with a textured linen - Robert Kaufman Yarn Dyed Essex Linen in Flax.  

I absolutely love the look of simple patchwork squares - especially on small scale project - and have made a set of four placemats featuring two different designs.

A tutorial for this project - including fabric requirements and step by step instructions - to create your own set of placemats can found right here: Liberty Lifestyle Craft Blog.

Dress up your table setting! I have listed this set of four placemats in my Etsy Store.  

The listing details and more pictures can be found here:  Liberty Lifestyle and Linen Patchwork Placemats

Happy Stitching!

Rita

[workinprogress]

Saturday, Sunday and Monday in pictures ...

I have had a wonderful time on the weekend digging through both my stash and scrap bin, creating huge piles of messed up fabric.  My search was for just the right prints to create the vision of a quilt that has been whizzing around in my head.  Something "low volume" but with a hint of color and definitely scrappy, very scrappy.

It feels like I am on the right path.  It's definitely scrappy, and I have included a wide variety of fabric designs, styles and fabric types, including hand screen printed, vintage (reclaimed bed linens), Japanese imports,  feedsack fabric, as well linen, and modern quilting cottons.

I finished sewing the quilt top on Sunday evening, but promptly decided that bigger would indeed be better.  So, today was spent going through my fabric stash once again, cutting more squares and re-jigging the layout.  

An usually productive weekend!

For now ... it's back to my design floor.
Rita

Sunday Stash #152 - Nursery Versery by Heather Ross

Nursery Versery by Heather Ross for Kokka ~ A collection of four different prints, each offered in at least three colorways.

I did try to resist the urge to purchase this collection - I still haven't used the earlier stashed Heather Ross ~ Far Far Away III collection! - alas, I lasted all but about a week or so.  The cutesy factor pulled me in; I blame those little pink pigs ...

.... and the family of country mice!  The Nursery Versery collection is printed on what I truly think is a lovely quality lightweight cotton/linen blend (85% cotton / 15% linen) suitable for a range of crafting projects,  including quilts!

Enjoy Sunday!
Rita

The Flying Geese Quilt

Inspired by the book that lives on my bedside table - Denyse Schmidt Quilts: 30 Colorful Quilt and Patchwork Projects, as well as by the wonderful Flying Geese Quilts seen on Flickr, I have created my own skein of flying geese. 

 I started off making the flying geese units using the very nifty Flying Geese Tutorial found on The Last Piece by Sarah Fielke, but found that my units were not all created equal.  This has nothing to do with the tutorial, and everything to do with my sewing and the fact that I was using a heavier linen blend fabric which greedily used up more fabric in the fold that was needed to provide the sharp and pointed tip with a quarter inch seam allowance. 

I then used the "Easy Star & Geese Ruler" by Kimberly Einmo which, although it meant working with bias edges, it gave me the extra control I need to make Flying Geese unit of consistent size.  

I have also used several different linen and linen blend fabrics in this quilt, all very similar in color but varying in texture and weight, to add variety and interest.

Quick Fabric reference:

• Black and White Floral - Joel Dewberry - Manzanita in Black
• Large Daisy Red and Grey - Kei Daisies
• Small floral print in pink, red and black - "Come Quilt with Me" by Pat Yamin?
• Red and Orange Solids - Shot Cottons by Kaffe Fassett
• Grey and White Polka Dot - Kokka Medium Dot in Grey

In choosing fabrics I have limited the number of fabrics and only worked with red/pink, orange, black and grey fabrics.  I also ensured that there was a mix of large and small scale fabrics, adding solid fabrics as a feature.

Although I dreaded the inevitable bulky seams the quilt top came together really well, and my thoughts have turned to piecing the back.

RELEVANT LINKS:
Modern Flying Geese Quilt and Quilt Pattern
Modern Flying Geese Quilt Pattern (Etsy Store)

Snippets of a Quilt

I am pleased with the progress of the custom quilt that I have been working on - I think the color play is working out well.  Contrasting printed fabrics with a solid linen blend fabric is always a really effective mix.

This quilt has become a collection of many of my favorite fabrics and some of the squares are the very last piece salvaged from the scrap bin.  

I particularly love the bold large scale blue print in this image as it adds so much interest to the quilt top.  This loose weave linen/cotton blend fabric is from the 2009 collection of nani IRO by by Naomi Ito for Kokka of Japan. (purchased from Mountain of the Dragon on Etsy).

The plan for today involves making the backing and perhaps even basting this quilt.  It does however promise to be a fine Autumn day today (welcome Autumn!) and a walk with the dog and a coffee stop on the way is much more likely.

Sunday Stash #37

Echino Solids by Etsuko Furuya

More linen blends!  These are Echino Solids, a Japanese import by designer Etsuko Furuya.  They are cotton/linen blend fabrics, medium weight and suitable for colorful home decorating, bags, cushions, skirts and quilts and more.

 Image originally uploaded by www.superbuzzy.com

Echino solids coordinate perfectly both in weight and with the unique colors of numerous Echino collections.

I purchased my Echino Solids Stash at Patchwork House in Hawthorn.  Sale now on  - 30% off all stock -  until the end of January 2010 both in store and online.

All Said and Done!

It feels good to have this one finished.  The linen was definitely not the easiest to work with, although the piecing was more difficult than the quilting.

Finished quilt measures 42.5 inches x 42.5 inches

  

The back of the quilt is also pieced making this quilt fully reversible.   I have used all cotton printed fabrics to compliment the front, and also to give the quilt top the stability it needed for ease of quilting. 

The quilt is quilted by cross-hatching.  I do still mark the quilt for this type of quilting using a Clover Chaco Marker (always in white chalk) and I have also taken to using a Hera Marker which is fantastic on linen fabric.  It marks by making a crease but leaves no residue on the fabric.

I was concerned about having such wide linen borders but did not encounter any great difficulty.  I think it helped that the backing was made from more stable fabric, and that the quilt was well basted with lots of pins for the borders.

A light green fabric with white dots has been used to bind this quilt giving the quilt just a subtle frame.  This fabric is by Joelle Hoverson from the Cake Rock Beach collection.

I really wish you could feel the soft linen and touch the lovely textures of the fabrics.  The pictures here really do not do justice to the end result.  This quilt is now in my Etsy Store, please do feel free to email me if you have any questions.

A Linen Quilt Top

I have stitched together a very simple quilt top using some of the linen fabric purchased earlier this week. To help make it easier to sew with the linen fabrics, I did incorporate some cotton prints, and made sure that the cut linen pieces were handled carefully, and pieced together sooner rather than later. 

As you can see I have omitted the pink linen that I purchased together with the other linen fabrics. The pink was more of a lilac/pink than a red/pink, and I just wasn't able to make that color work in this quilt, nor did I have the correct pink color fabrics in my stash to match with it.  I will save it for another project. 

I have added a 7 inch wide border in the natural linen to this quilt to make a feature of the linen.  I hope that the quilting process will go according to plan also.

Linen

Linen - A fabric made from linen fibers obtained from inside the woody stem of the flax plant. Linen fibers are much stronger and more lustrous than cotton. Linen fabrics are very cool and absorbent, but wrinkle very easily, unless blended with manufactured fibers. Linen is one of the oldest textile fibers.

 

Countless times I have driven past The Cloth Shop, it is within a stone's throw from where the teenagers go to school, but until yesterday I had never set foot inside this gem of a fabric store.  They seem to have a something for everyone.  Including me!

I walked away with a small sampling of some of their pure linen fabrics, my current obsession.  I have been hesitant to use it because its airy weave makes it so much more difficult to sew with than cotton fabrics. But I love the look, the feel and the drape of light weight linen fabric, and therefore feel compelled to give it a try.

The linen has been gently soaked in a tub of warm water with SOAK wash, spun in the washing machine, and line dried.  The loosely woven linen and their frayed edges are my nemesis, but a worthy challenge.

Modern Linen Baby Quilt

I have quietly been working away to stock my Etsy Store with more of these popular baby quilts.

Baby Quilt measures 24.5 inches x 31 inches

I am really enjoying making these, from selecting the fabrics and the piecing, to the quilting and the binding. (I am still not a great fan of basting!). I must say it certainly does get easier each time you quilt your own quilt and you get to know your sewing machine.

The Back

The printed fabrics that I used for this baby quilt were scraps from the quilt that I made earlier this week, and include some fussy cut flower fabrics from Kaffe Fassett.

The solid fabric used here is the ever popular Handkerchief Linen, a blend of 55% cotton and 45% linen. This colorway is called Birch. I have also again used QuiltLite as a batting to ensure this baby quilt is suitable for Summer seasons and warmer climates.

I have now updated my Etsy Store to include this delightful baby quilt.



COPYRIGHT: Do not copy or use any content or photos from my blog without my written permission.

Sunday Stash #7

There's some really cute Japanese fabric out there and I have come to the realisation that my stash is severely lacking in these.

These are both linen/cotton blend fabrics.

Both these fabrics were purchased locally at Amitie quite some time ago. Most of my fabric sources only sell cotton designer fabrics. Does anyone know of any great online stores that sell cute Japanese prints (not necessarily linen blend fabrics)?

Double the Fun!

This is what I have been working on for most of the week. I finished hand sewing the binding late last night, and was able to take some photos this morning, although it is rather overcast in Melbourne. No rain though!

The back of the quilts are pieced also, they are both the same:

I quilted this baby quilt the same as the Spring Quilt with straight vertical and horizontal lines just a quarter of an inch inside each square running from edge to edge.

I made two of these quilts. One has been added to my Etsy Store and one will go to a cousin who is pregnant with a baby girl due in June. I have really enjoyed making these, although I completely underestimated how many hours I would need to put in to finish these.

I have also received a few emails asking what sewing machine I use. I currently have a Janome 6600p which is a fantastic machine. I have not encountered any problems with it. However, I dream of a Bernina Aurora 440QE. One day, maybe? : )

Baby Quilts - Today's Progress Report

Wow! I have had another great sewing day. There just weren't enough hours in the day today, but I have finished what I set out to do.
I have basted these quilts:

I have been busy quilting on my machine:

I also made the binding. After much indecision I settled with an Amy Butler fabric, Full Moon Polka dot in Lime:

And picked a favorite fabric patch:

I will post pictures of the finished quilts tomorrow, when I can take some decent photos of them in the daylight.

Hope you too have had a great day.

Linen Baby Quilts

I have recently been wanting to try fabrics other than cotton to make a quilt, and so I ventured out and purchased some linen/cotton blend fabrics. As I wanted to quilt this linen quilt myself on my own sewing machine, I thought I would start with just a small baby quilt (or two).

I am so pleased with how they turned out. The linen/blend fabric was so much easier to work with then I had anticipated, and the colors of the cotton fabrics really stand out against the natural linen.

I used a product called Quilt Lite as batting. I can best describe this product as a loosely woven flannel fabric, which gives the finished quilt a really lovely lightweight feeling and results in a thin and manageable quilt. I have quilted these baby quilts with straight vertical lines, and used a Kaffe Fassett Polka dot fabric for binding.

This is a picture of the front of baby quilts. I have used some of my favorite fabrics, including a few pieces of the highly sought after discontinued range Flea Market Fancy by Denyse Schmidt (sparingly!).

I so enjoyed making these baby quilts, that I plan to make more just like them. In fact, I have also just finished making a much large linen quilt for my 15 year old daughter after she exclaimed words to the effect of "what's with these baby quilts, and why do you not make me a nice quilt like this?" Pictures of this larger quilt to be revealed soon.

***Edited to Add:*** These two baby quilts are now for sale at my Etsy Store. Visit me there!