Déjà Vu

A custom order and a re-make of a quilt previously made and sold through my Etsy Store. 

A request for the same of everything including the quilt back which isn't surprising as it's from Aneela Hoey's delightful fabric collection Little Apples (Round and Round in white linen).  I so adore this print and purchased yardage for several quilt backs when I found it on sale at the Fat Quarter Shop.  It's just about all gone ...

And a RPQ standard binding ~ a black and white stripe:

This quilt is ready for shipping across the oceans and European Continent to the UK.

Some of the finer details:

The Design:  Cut 80 squares each measuring 5 inches x 5 inches.
Quilt Size:  44.5 inches x 36 inches
The Fabrics: 

• 100% cotton gingham from Spotlight.
• Dumb Dot in Ebony by Michael Miller
• Flower Sugar - Mini Flowers in Cream (Fall 2011) by Lecien
• Binding ~ Lecien Black and White Stripe
• Backing ~ Little Apples - Round and Round in White Linen by Aneela Hoey.

Thank you for stopping by,
Rita

Brrr! A Polar Bear Quilt

In January Laurie Wisbrun sent me a fine selection of her yet to be released fabric collection Brrr! which I have previously posted about in Sunday Stash #126.

I have had some time to think about how best to work these adorable prints and decided to keep it simple and make a feature of the polar bears by careful fabric placement.  The polar bears are so delightful ~ I love them!

Rather than using the standard RPQ white background fabric this time I have chosen a solid grey fabric for contrast.  The grey background fabric is Freespirit Designer Solids in Nugray.

I have used up some of the leftover fabric scraps to piece a patchwork panel and add some interest to the back of the quilt.  Fussy cutting fabric can otherwise be very wasteful of fabric and what better way to use these scraps than for piecing a quilt back?

A solid red binding seemed like a great way to frame this quilt and matches perfectly with the splashes of red in the quilt.  I have used Robert Kaufman Kona Cotton in Rich Red for binding fabric.

I have listed this quilt in my Etsy Store.  For all the details and more pictures check out the Etsy Listing here:  Red Pepper Quilts - Etsy.  SOLD

 

More stitching ahead!
Rita

Brrr!  by Laurie Wisbrun for Robert Kaufman will be available for purchase in June 2012.

Sunday Stash #134

Denyse Schmidt has been delighting fabric addicts and quilters worldwide not only with the Legacy Flea Market Fancy reprint, but also by continuing to release numerous fabric collections with Fabric Traditions (under the name DS Quilts) available through chain stores (like Joann Fabrics and Spotlight).

Featured here today is Aunt Edna which is the latest DS Quilts release (available in Australia in May 2012).  Aunt Edna comes in two color palettes:  Cherry (above left) and Far Meadow (above right).

The quality of these fabrics has improved significantly from the first DS Quilts collection  (Picnics and Fairgrounds) ~ the fabrics are softer, lighter, with a smooth touch and a lovely drape.

I am looking forward to cutting into these fabrics!  The colors and designs remind me of the Hope Valley fabric range also by Denyse Schmidt; I think these two collections will work nicely alongside one another.

Enjoy Sunday,
Rita

Aunt Edna was purchased and is available from Fabric Worm.

Let's Go Green!

I am observing and celebrating St Patrick's day with a pair of green hand warmers :o)  Let the party begin!

This is my second pair of hand warmers made from the free Purl Bee project: 

 Whit's Knit - Colorblock Hand Warmers. 

The yarns are all leftover skeins from previous knitting projects:

Madelinetosh Merino Light in (left to right) Grasshopper, Antler, Clover and Silverfox

For more pictures and all the details check out my Ravelry page:

Enjoy St Patrick's Day!

Rita

Amy Butler ~ Sun Glow ~ Pillow Cover

In between larger quilt projects, but with time up with sleeve and in need of a sewing fix, I thoroughly enjoy making pillow covers.

Emma from Ballarat Patchwork very kindly sent me a whole range of batting samples that I have been keen to work with ~ ranging from cotton, cotton/poly blends as well as 100% wool and wool/poly blends.  The sample pieces are more than generously large enough for pillow covers and I have enjoyed this opportunity to try out a different batting as well as quilting designs.

I love quilting small projects!  If you look closely at the quilting lines you may notice that I have used different colored threads for the horizontal and vertical lines of the grid ~ a green and a blue thread ~ although not immediately distinctive the colored threads do add small detail to the pillow cover.

The threads I have used are by Rowan and are designed to match Amy Butler's Soul Blossoms fabric collection.  They are 100% cotton 50 weight thread - extra long fibers - which more simply translates into a lustrous and fine quality thread.  Previously blogged here:  Threads.

For the back of the pillow cover I have used Anna Maria Horner's Innocent Crush Home Dec (Lovesme Lovesmenot) in Leaf.  The pillow cover has a zippered seam for easy insert removal and cleaning.

Pattern:  Sun Glow is a free Amy Butler Pattern available HERE (pdf file):  The pattern is for a large pillow measuring 24 inches x 24 inches and is well written with easy to follow instructions.  I used my own method for sewing the quilted pillow top into a cushion with zip inserted in side seam.

Fabrics:   Soul Blossoms by Amy Butler (quilting cottons)

Batting: Hobbs Heirloom 100% Cotton (which quilted beautifully and combined with the quilting grid created a texture that I hope to replicate on more quilts).

Thank you for stopping by,
Rita

Quilt Labels

Today ... 

 

I finally pulled out my Amy Butler fabric stash and enjoyed a little piecing which was soon followed by some super quilting ~ a closely spaced quilting grid using colored thread (It's so nice to use thread in a color other than the usual grey/white/beige/cream).  More progress pictures soon!

 

 In the mail today ::  A restock of quilt labels!  

These tapes are custom printed by Anna, the talented

 and very clever designer of all things

 Lillalotta @ Etsy : :   Facebook - Lillalotta

Many more quilts yet to be made!

Rita

Sunday Stash #133

Courtesy of Michael from Oakshott Fabrics this bundle of fabric promptly arrived gratuitously on my veranda all the way from the UK.  

Oakshott cottons are a fine quality fabrics which are ethically hand loomed, in an environmentally friendly way, in the south of India. The cotton weave is shot - with a warp and weft of different tones - which creates a beautiful luminous and iridescent hue.

As pretty as this bundle is, and as much as I have enjoyed having it sit right near my sewing machine whilst piecing my Flea Market Fancy Quilt, I really did want to have a little test run (play)!

So, using 16 different colors from my bundle, I have taken the traditional Bear Paw quilt block, re-gigged the placement of the colors without much aforethought, and made a patchwork pillow cover. 

The half-square triangle units are tiny - 1 inch finished squares - and I was able to piece them effortlessly, no spray starch required.  I thoroughly enjoyed working with Oakshott cottons and certainly enjoyed my fix of color play. The quality of the fabric and weave was consistently even and on-grain. 

For the back of the pillow cover I have used Anna Maria Horner's Innocent Crush Home Dec (Lovesme Lovesmenot) in Leaf.  I adore this print!  The pillow cover has a zippered seam for easy insert removal and cleaning.

The pillow cover is available for purchase in my Etsy Store.  SOLD

With thanks to Michael from Oakshott Fabrics for my glorious bundle (I still have lots of fabric left over and already have several Oakshott projects rumbling around in my mind ...)

Enjoy Sunday!

Links:
Oakshott Fabrics and Subscribe to Mailing List

Flea Market Fancy Progress III

My current quilt project has taken some time to complete, but the Flea Market Fancy Quilt top is now finished (and will remain without borders).

The quilt top measures 60.5 inches x 60.5 inches

With 100 paper pieced blocks each measuring 6.5 inches x 6.5 inches.

200 paper pieced units,

800 pieces of fabric,

and many happy hours of stitching.

Once all the blocks were complete the quilt top came together without too much difficulty.   Although all of the corners of each block (the edges of the printed fabrics) were off-grain, I had taken steps to ensure that all of the edges of the white fabric were perfectly on-grain.  Most seams aligned without too much fudging ...

Fabrics used:  Flea Market Fancy  ~  original collection as well as 2012 Legacy Reprint.

Robert Kaufman Kona Cotton in White

I am now wondering if my quilting style suits this quilt (I am concerned that I might ruin it!) and therefore contemplating sending the quilt top to my long arm quilter.

As always, thank you for stopping by,
Rita

Pattern reference:  Quilt Revival by Nancy Mahoney.

Progress Links:

Flea Market Fancy Progress I

Flea Market Fancy Progress II

Sunday Stash # 132

I've been bitten by the Spoonflower bug - again ...

Spoonflower is a custom fabric printing service, which allows you to upload your own textile designs, printing only what you need on fabric weight of your choice.  You can also purchase fabrics designed by other Spoonflower community members and I have found some goodies:

From top left to bottom right:

• Time Travel by SURLYBIRDSTUIO
• Kunda Linen in Ocean by Holli Zollinger
• Lemon Squares by Thebline
• Selvages on Steroids by A Few Scraps  (Eep!  I also like the tiny version of this selvage print, which is still en route).

I so love these bold, colorful and clever designs.

In contrast these rather sweet vintage reclaimed linens have also found their way to the stash:

So pretty!  The colors are so vibrant and the quality is excellent.  A reclaimed fabric project is slowly unfolding and has been shortlisted on the to do list.

Vintage sheet fat quarters were purchased from: So So Vintage @ Etsy. 

Enjoy Sunday!
Rita

Flea Market Fancy Progress II

Just so that you know that I haven't been sitting on my hands this week, here is a little of the progress that I've made on my Flea Market Fancy Kaleidoscope Quilt.

The above image was taken at first count.

 You know when you are beavering along sewing blocks, 

not stopping to check on "how many more?" 

in the hope, that when you do eventually count, 

that you're almost done?  

Well, this only half way there ...

But late last night early this morning I finally met my target of 200 paper pieced triangle units and therefore 100 blocks.  Paper piecing is a wonderfully rhythmic process, but after say 100 the same units it does become a little tedious.  Trust me on this.

I have minimized off-grain side edges of  blocks and therefore all foundation papers have now been removed.  I can't wait to sew the blocks together and finally see the full impact created by the fabrics and the design.

Rita