'Down The Rabbit Hole' Pillow Sham

Have you guys seen the amazing work of my friend Sarah from Ric-Rac & Retro? She is a free motion applique master, also known as 'drawing with thread' or 'sewing illustration'. Sarah herself hand-draws each of her designs and her hand-made goodies are extremely sought after with huge waitlists. Luckily for us sewists she has recently started selling patterns, so we can make our very own Ric-Rac & Retro sewing art. This is the pattern I picked.

It's called 'Down the Rabbit Hole' and as soon as I saw it I knew I had to pair it with my lovely bundle of Curiosities, courtesy of Polka Dot Tea Fabrics (one of my fave Aussie fabric stores).To follow my exact thought process: 'Down the Rabbit Hole' = Alice in Wonderland = 'Curiouser and Curiouser' = Curiosities (my mind works in strange ways sometimes). This gorgeous line was designed by Jeni Baker for Art Gallery Fabrics.

I love the smooth finish of Art Gallery fabrics which I think is perfect for quilts and bedding in general. So I decided to make a pillow sham for my own Alice.

Each stripe in the patchwork is 1" wide (1.5" cut). I quilted the patchwork in the ditch, and hand-quilted around 'Alice'.

For fellow collectors of classic book titles, these gorgeous books are from the Puffin in Bloom range, illustrated by Rifle Paper Co.'s principal artist, Anna Bond. There is an Alice in Wonderland edition coming out soon!

If you would like to try free motion applique go grab the pattern from Ric-Rac & Retro. It contains detailed step by step instructions on the technique. Sarah is literally giving away trade secrets people!! I won't lie and say I found it a breeze, it takes quite a bit of practice to get the fluid sewing motion right, my first few attempts were quite laughable. Black thread is so unforgiving, every mistake shows. In the end I switched from the open toe foot to my regular foot (I know it's weird, but I am more experienced with it). I also used a pair of quilting gloves which gave me better control and grip. Do give it a go, it's quite addictive actually! I am going to make more, and hopefully figure out the open toe foot eventually. If you like the technique also be sure to check out Minki Kim's amazing work over on her Instagram account @zeriano and also her website. These girls make it look so easy.

Petit Fleur 'Liberty Belle' Quilt

When I first started sewing in 2012, one of my first fabric purchases was some yardage from Lecien's Petit Fleur range which was in print at the time. This beautiful classic line is a timeless collection of dainty florals and coordinates, with muted colours that are suitable for 'grown-up' projects as well as a more understated pretty look for a little girl's room. So I was super excited when Lecien sent me a sushi roll of the new Petit Fleur 2015 Basics to play with (by the way I really love Lecien's terminology for these rolls - so Japanese, and they do look like sushi, don't they?).

I decided upon this  jelly-roll sushi-roll friendly quilt pattern by the lovely Jemima from Tied With A Ribbon, which had been on my 'must-make' list ever since I saw it on the cover of Homespun magazine's November 2014 issue (which incidentally also had my Alice in Wonderland hoop art project in it).

Instead of the full size quilt per the pattern, I decided to make a lap quilt for myself, as the nights are still quite chilly here in South Australia where we live at the edge of a desert and I needed a new couch quilt to snuggle under whilst watching TV (and crocheting, of course).  I found the pattern very easy to follow and the quilt top came together really quickly. I normally plan the exact placement of my fabrics before I sew anything, but I was in a foolhardy mood when I started sewing this (could have been the two glasses of wine I had earlier that night? Ha!). So I just started randomly picking colours from the sushi roll that looked good together, and paired them with some Robert Kaufman Essex Yarn Dyed Linen Blend in Flax.

Jemima hand-quilted her original 'Liberty Belle' quilt, but not having her stamina (or patience) with hand-quilting I opted for machine quilting it in a simple grid pattern.

For the backing and binding I used some of my precious 'old' Petit Fleur that I was talking about earlier.

If you would like to make this quilt, Jemima has kindly offered to give my readers 15% off this pattern and everything else on her website and Etsy stores until the end of September. Just use the code 'DOWNGRAPEVINELANE' during checkout.

Meanwhile in South Australia spring has arrived (finally - it's been a long and cold winter!). People are going around in t-shirts and shorts already, but I am a bit of a wuss so I'm still wrapped up warmly in my jumpers. Our lavender and native daisies are in full bloom, and one of my rose bushes has buds on it, about to burst open. I can't wait for the warmer weather, even though it will give me less of an excuse to make quilts!

'Toy Chest' cot quilt

As a member of the Penny Rose Fabrics project design team, I get to design and sew with their new fabric ranges, and write tutorials and features for the Penny Rose blog. For today's feature I have designed and made a cot quilt using one of their latest ranges, 'Toy Chest'.

As soon as I saw this line in Penny Rose's catalogue, I instantly knew I had to make a baby quilt with it. Frolicking lambs? Check. Fluffy bunnies? Check. Birds on see-saws? Check. Simply too cute for words!

And here is the quilt I designed. I went for a simple design with a vintage feel, and no fiddly points so it's suitable for all levels of quilters.

I had it professionaly quilted on a long arm machine, in a sweet floral swirly pattern. I didn't have enough Toy Chest yardage for the backing so I used a polka dot fabric which complements this range perfectly.

My little helper wasn't quite tall enough to hold it all the way up in this pic. He tried so hard though!

If you would like to make this sweet quilt, I have written a free pattern and tutorial for the Penny Rose blog, which you can get here. Those following me on Instagram may remember me posting about buying Electric Quilt 7 recently, which is the quilting software I used to design this quilt. It's so easy to use, and really an essential tool for anyone designing quilts and publishing or sharing their patterns. It's not cheap, but worth every penny as it saves so much time. It even calculates fabric yardage requirements and gives you rotary cutting instructions, and has hundreds of built-in royalty free classic blocks to play with. And the benefit of seeing what your quilt will look like in your chosen fabric combinations of course - for me this is the best part. I can highly recommend it.

Thanks so much for stopping by. I hope you have a lovely day!

 

Farm Girl Vintage Sew-Along: Pinwheels Block

It's a #farmgirlfriday again and this Friday it's my turn as guest blogger to make a block in the Farm Girl Vintage sew-along. Thank you for stopping by today!

This is the book we are sewing along to: Farm Girl Vintage by Lori Holt of Bee in My Bonnet. It has detailed instructions on how to make 45 of the sweetest blocks in two different sizes (6" and 12"), and lots of project ideas with detailed instructions on how to combine these blocks into several different quilts (including the one on the cover), table runners, pot holders, and lots and lots more. It's packed with inspiration, and stunning photography.

This week we are sewing the Pinwheels Block. A classic block, and one of my personal favourites.

As is always the case when I sew with half square triangles, I couldn't stop at just one block. I made eight more, using fabrics from three of Lori's own fabric lines (Bake Sale, Vintage Happy, and her latest line, Modern Minis - all by Riley Blake Designs). Which turned into this...

.... which then turned into this. Can you guess what it is yet?

Ta-dah! I used the pinwheel blocks to make one of the patterns from Lori's second book, Quilty Fun (you can see it just peeking under Farm Girl Vintage in the second pic above). It's a sewing machine mat featuring some super-useful pockets adorned with spools. Just the thing I needed for my new big sewing machine, as my old mat was way too small for it. I adapted the sewing mat pattern to add one more spool to make it wide enough, and added a white border around my pinwheels also, to make everything fit together nicely.

Pinwheels in cheerful colours make me smile. Every time.

A big thank you to the Fat Quarter Shop and Lori for inviting me to join in on the fun! For more Farm Girl Vintage inspiration pop over to Lori's blog, and Fat Quarter Shop's Farm Girl Vintage sew-along page which has the full sew-along schedule. Enjoy!