Quatro quilt in 'Posy Garden' | Alice turns 4

Meet my latest baby! It's been a while since I made a 'big' quilt, so when a bundle of Posy Garden arrived from Riley Blake I knew this was a collection that deserved to be made into one.

Posy Garden is the latest stunning line by fellow Riley Blake designer Carina Gardner, whom I had the great pleasure of meeting at quilt market - she is so lovely in person and her Posy Garden 'booth' (aka glamper) was so cool. It was a polka dot camper van decorated top to bottom in all these pretty fabrics!

The pattern I used for my quilt is called 'Quatro' and is by Aussie quilter and designer Keera Job of Live.Love.Sew fame. I got to know Keera via our mutual quilty circles and she has turned into a great friend in the short time that I've known her - she even did me the massive favour of doing the technical editing on my book! If like me you have a fondness for classic patterns that showcase the prints in a fabric collection, you must check out Keera's patterns - she has so many stunning ones. This one is definitely one of my favourites, it's layer cake friendly and from a distance the pattern appears to have curves (without having to actually sew any fiddly curves!).

Now, I confess this quilt was made at a snail's pace, even for me. It took me a month to piece the quilt top, and then it went to my friend Cassie from Cassandra Madge who worked her long arm quilting magic on it at lightning speed. Unfortunately due to a heavy blog tour schedule it then took me another month to bind it and then a few more weeks to eventually take some photos (I literally had to bribe my husband to hold the quilt for the first photo above!).  It's been one of those projects that I've been doing in my spare time and there has not been much of that around lately with the launch of my debut collection and book, and finishing off my next line for Riley Blake (there's a little snippet of news for you! For those of you who asked, yes, it's on its way.)

As time was a precious commodity, I decided to give machine binding a go this time as it would save so much time compared to hand-binding. I followed the excellent tutorial by Rita from Red Pepper Quilts and I surprised myself with the result! It was SO easy and SO fast - in one hour the quilt was bound and finished. I mean there are one or two places where the stitch line is not 100% perfect, but really I'm being a perfectionist. I'm never hand binding a large quilt again, I am a convert!!

In other news, this week we survived two days of severe storms in South Australia, which got so bad that a few dozen electricity towers were ripped out of the ground and the power to the entire STATE was cut off. For those of you following from the US, that's an area almost double the size of Texas! Our power finally came back after 12 hours, and life returned to normal just in time for Alice's 4th birthday. Seriously, I've no idea when this girl got so big! And don't be fooled by these sweet innocent looks, she is getting cheekier and more headstrong every day. In fact, my hubby often jokes that I have truly cloned myself in her, not only in looks but temperament also. He has two of me to contend with!

I was totally intending to bake her an awesome cake, but I came across this rainbow cake at my supermarket. Too good to resist, right? And definitely not a Pinterest fail (which my cake would've most likely ended up being!).

Boy, did we spoil her this year with this Sylvanian Families doll house. But it's already provided countless hours of 'quiet' and 'gentle' play (a rarity in this house with my two hooligans rampaging around most of the time). This tired mummy is so grateful for that. Though I find myself with another house to tidy up every few hours - all those little bits and pieces end up everywhere! But the kid in me is loving it, really, it's just an excuse for mummy to play with the doll's house.

Thank you for visiting! I still have a few advance (and signed!) copies of my book in my Etsy shop, as well as Sweet Orchard bundles, in case you missed previous post. Until next time, have a lovely week!

Quilt Petite & Sweet Orchard listed in my shop!

Last week I got my designer bolts for my first fabric collection, Sweet Orchard, and today I received my advance copies of my book Quilt Petite! Talk about happy mail!

One of the privileges of being a published author is that we receive a small number of copies before the books hit the shelves - and I have decided to share some of these with my followers by way of a 'thank you' for all your amazing support! If you would like an advance copy of my book before it's available worldwide (October in Europe, November rest of world), please pop over to my Etsy shop now. I am signing each book individually before I mail them out of course!

In addition to my book I have also listed a few bundles of Sweet Orchard in the shop. There are fat quarter bundles, fat eighth bundles, and bundles by colourway and by print. Currently the shipping on my fabric bundles is restricted to Australia but if you are overseas and would like to place an order please contact me and I will calculate postage costs for you (it varies so massively depending on where you are in the world). It's not a problem at all.

And I will be having a few giveaways of both my fabric and book in coming weeks too, and other goodies also - so keep your eyes on my social media, especially my Instagram account!

Sweet Stars Sew-along - Easy Corner Triangles

Today I'm the guest blogger on the Sweet Stars quilt sew-along, hosted by my lovely friend Peta from She Quilts A Lot who designed this quilt. You guys should recognise it - it was the star of the show in my Sweet Orchard booth at the spring quilt market in Salt Lake City. Here's a photo of me and Peta in front of it - we had to travel all the way from Australia to Utah to finally meet in person! And she is not only a terrific quilter but also a lovely sharing person with an incredible dry, Aussie sense of humour - we had a blast together in SLC!

The Sweet Stars sew along kicked off just a couple of weeks ago (so there is plenty of time to join in!). There are a number of blocks in this quilt which have 'easy corner triangles' - in other words a triangle on the corner of a segment - such as in the diamond blocks, and the flying geese squares and rectangles. Today I am going to make a diamond block to show you my easy corner triangle method and how I get perfect, crisp results every time.

~ My 'Easy Corner Triangle' Method ~

Step 1. Starch! Starch your fabric before you cut out your block segments. I cannot emphasise how important this is - your precision will improve tenfold when you are working on starched fabric. You can use specialist quilting sprays such as Best Press or Flatter (which I love!), or if you are on a budget just ordinary supermarket starch will do too. I have tried a variety of starch sprays from my supermarket and prefer their cheapest one as it doesn't leave stains like some of the more expensive brands can do.

Step 2 - Trace a diagonal line. Draw a line from corner-to-corner on the back of your corner square pieces. To do this place your quilting ruler on the square and align the 45 degree angle line along the top edge of the square, as shown in the picture. Note how I have positioned the ruler just 1mm to the left of the imaginary line going from one corner to the other - this is to allow for the thickness of the Frixion pen nib so your drawn line connects your corners precisely. I use Pilot Frixion pens for marking lines such as this which will be hidden in seams - you can use a pencil or a different quilt marker if you prefer.

Step 3 - Position & Sew. Place the square on the corner of the pink fabric right sides together and pin, then sew along the drawn line. When sewing, bear in mind the weight of your thread. If you are using 50 weight or heavier thread you may want to sew a fraction of a mm to the right of the traced line to allow for the thickness of the thread, so you get a precise result when you fold the 'wing' over later.

Tip: If you are sewing corners onto a large number of segments, I recommend chain piecing these i.e. sewing a corner onto a piece of fabric, then without breaking your thread sewing a corner onto the next of piece of fabric, and so on, so you end up with a long chain of pieces with one corner sewn on. Snip the threads, then repeat the process for the next corner on each piece.

Step 4 - Trim excess. Trim the excess material approximately 1/4" away from the seam. Note the positioning of my ruler - I use a scant 1/4" allowance for this so the seam doesn't show when I fold the fabric over in the next step.

Step 5 - Fold over & Press. Fold the 'wing' over and press towards the triangle. See how precise the corner triangle is, perfectly aligned with the edges of the pink fabric.

Repeat the steps above for the other corners to complete the diamond block.

And that concludes my little tutorial! You can find a full schedule of the sew-along on Peta's blog, and info about how you can win a bundle of my Sweet Orchard fabrics also (courtesy of Riley Blake there are two prize bundles)!

If you would like to join the sew-along, there are quilt kits available including the pattern and my Sweet Orchard fabrics. You can order these from Fabric Pixie and Fabric Patch in Australia, and Fat Quarter Shop in the US. Please use the hashtags #sweetstarsal and #sweetstarsquilt if you post photos on social media, so we can see everyone's progress!

Happy quilting!

Full Bloom Mini | Book & Fabric News

I haven't had much time for selfish sewing lately, it's been a busy few months of blog tours, magazine work, and of course the launch of my first book and fabric collection (which by an amazing stroke of luck, coincided). Finally I managed to get a few spare hours this weekend and made a new mini quilt for my sewing room wall.

This mini quilt is called 'Full Bloom' and it's a free pattern by Bridgette from The Family Hearth - I love all her work and her photography is incredible. I wish I could take photos half as nice as hers! As soon as I saw it I knew instantly that I wanted to use some of my prized Les Fleurs by Anna Bond for Cotton & Steel, which I had bought at quilt market. I paired it with the Cotton & Steel sprinkles in dark navy, which works so well with Les Fleurs.

This pattern is very clever and simple, consisting entirely of half square triangles and squares - so goes together very quickly, and is suitable for all levels of quilters. Thanks Bridgette for generously sharing your pattern with us!

In other news, this past week has been an incredibly exciting one! My book Quilt Petite has come off the printing press and two big boxes are on their way to me! It will be available worldwide from 1 November (a little earlier in Europe) and you can preorder it on Amazon, Book Depository, and Barnes & Noble. Or if you say you can't wait till November to get your hands on it, check my Etsy shop next week as I will have some advance (and autographed!) copies available! ;-)

Also this week I received my designer bolts of Sweet Orchard from Riley Blake.  They fit perfectly in the bottom section of my new floor to ceiling fabric cupboards (new sewing room update coming real soon!). As well as advance copies of my book I will be listing a few bundles of Sweet Orchard in my Etsy shop shortly!

Farmer's Wife QAL - Block 3 'Alice' Tutorial

Welcome! It's my turn again today as an official blogger on the Farmer's Wife 1930s Sampler quilt-along, and I will be showing you how to make the 'Alice' block (block #3). I was so excited when I found out that this was one of my assigned blocks as my daughter is called Alice! :)

TUTORIAL

For this block I used my Marti Mitchell templates and followed her conversion chart. If you are rotary cutting or paper piecing 'Alice' please be aware there is a correction for this block - you can download the corrected pattern here.

FABRIC SELECTION

The fabrics I used are some of my favourite florals from my stash. The pink is an old Lecien Old New 30s print but you may be able to find it on Etsy or ebay. The green floral is another old favourite from Cottonholic on Etsy. And the red floral is a Sevenberry print from Ministry of Fabric.

CUTTING

Before cutting, I always starch my fabric using spray starch - I spray it onto the fabric generously but without soaking, then press it with a dry iron until the starch sets. I make sure the iron is not too hot or it scorches the starch, leaving brown marks. The starch lends stiffness to the fabric which makes cutting easier and more precise, and the finished block looks a lot sharper than it would have been without starch. You can also use products such as Best Press and Flatter to get similar results. Starching is especially important when you are working with teeny tiny pieces such as in this block!!

Following the Marti Mitchell conversion chart you will see that there are three different size 'units' in this block, corresponding to the same size Marti Mitchell template: A-3 square units, A-6 small triangle units (corners), and A-4 large triangle units (sides). Cut your fabric following the instructions in the conversion chart. You will also need to print out the corrected pattern for this block and cut out the templates for 3I, 3J and 3K, then use those to cut your A-4 pieces.

PIECING THE BLOCK

In explaining the steps I will refer to my pieces using the colours in my block i.e. pink, red, and green. Replace these with your own colours when you are following the steps below. Use a scant 1/4 inch seam allowance, RST means right sides together.

Step 1. Draw a diagonal corner to corner on the reverse of the green squares. Place a green square RST on the bottom edge of a small pink rectangle (A-3 units). Sew on the traced line, trim excess fabric 1/4" away from the seam, flip the wing open and press. Make 4. Repeat the process to make 4 more mirror image pieces (by flipping the positioning of your green square). Sew together with a small red rectangle to make a square unit as shown. Check the finished unit measures exactly the same size as the A-3 template, trim if necessary (you will notice I also trimmed the corners as they help massively in the final assembly of the block). Make 4.

Step 2. Join the long pink and red rectangles and cut into three 1 1/4" wide pieces (you will have a little excess fabric left over). Combine with the two red and one pink squares as shown to make the centre nine patch unit. Check it's the same size as the A-3 template, trim if necessary.

Step 3. To make the A-6 size corner units, Place the pieces you cut as shown. You need four corner triangles, and you can either make them all identically (as I have), or if you want to be super precise make two as shown below, and make the other two mirror image by moving the positioning of the red square and long pink rectangle when you are piecing the units. Sew the red square onto the small rectangle, then sew the long pink rectangle to one side. Trim to size using the A-6 template. Make 4.

Step 4. To make the A-4 side triangle units, sew two mirror image green pieces to either side of a red piece. Check the finished piece is the same size as the A-4 template, trim if required. Make 4.

Step 5. Lay out all your units. To assemble the block we will sew the units together first in diagonal rows, as shown, and then sew each row together.

MY TIPS ON PRECISION

- Starch your fabric before you cut (I use spray starch and a dry iron (ie no steam) on medium-high heat).
- Make sure your rotary blade is sharp so it doesn't chew and stretch your fabric as you cut.
- Pin blocks together before sewing. The pieces we are working with are very small so it's easy to be tempted to skip this step - don't.
- Press seams that will intersect in opposite directions so you can 'butt the seams' when you are sewing the two pieces together. I pin the butting seams together using a single pin placed at a slight angle - push the pin down through one seam, and back up again through the other seam.
- Check sizes of pieced blocks before continuing on to the next step.
- If you do a lot of patchwork, invest in a 1/4 inch foot, which makes it so much easier to get that precise quarter inch seam.

If you aren't currently sewing along but would like to join the 7500 quilters worldwide taking part in this mega-quilt-athlon it's not too late! You can find all the information you need on how to join up and key links in my previous blog post. This is the book you will need.

 

** The Farmer’s Wife 1930s Sampler Quilt: Inspiring Letters from Farm Women of the Great Depression and 99 Quilt Blocks That Honor Them by Laurie Aaron Hird for Fons & Porter/F+W; RRP $28.99 – Click here to purchase. **

Happy quilting!