As many of you know, I send out free monthly patterns to my Newsletter subscribers, and for the last few months we have been working on a mystery block-of-the-month, the Birds of a Feather quilt.
Well, last month saw the grand reveal, and then I thought I would add a bonus email with instructions for a pieced backing, and then ideas for quilting.
I then one step further and made up a quick video on how quilted my own version in a concentric circles design using my walking foot on my home machine.
Even though this design does take a while, especially on a domestic sewing machine, it is still possible (though I strongly recommend an extension table and quilting gloves) and the time and patience is well worth the effort! I love the texture this design creates and I think it accentuates the idea of the birds flying out of the centre nest. I'm hoping to put this quilt together as a kit soon, so watch this space!
Elsewhere at Sewmotion, I'm in the middle of Festival of Quilt prep madness, surrounded by kits, papers and patterns that all need sorting into boxes! I also came across some tickets for this year's show, so I'm holding a little competition on my Instagram page for a chance to win not only two show tickets, but also one of my new Hoop Art kits - visit my page for more details here. Wishing you all a fun and creative week, linking up with Midweek Makers and Needle & Thread Thursday
For my latest appearance on Sewing Quarter, I was asked to make the gorgeous Lisbon Tiles quilt by Jo Avery of My Bear Paw, which was featured in a recent Today's Quilter. As you can see below, Jo made her quilt in rich red and yellow scraps from her stash.
I was asked to make the quilt in pretty floral prints from Moda, so I sorted out the colours according to the brief, the yellows and greens were like for like in the quilt which was fine, however, the pinks and blues were to replace the reds in the original quilt, which is where my quilt went in a different direction.
Once I had cut all the fabric pieces, I got stuck into a few hours of foundation paper-piecing, surrounded by the usual mess, am I alone in this? With all the trimming and different pieces, I soon find myself getting very untidy! Anyway, as Jo suggested, I made a few blocks at a time - the whole quilt is actually made of just one block, four of which make the star. As I made each block I laid them out on the floor beside me, and soon realised this was going to be even more scrappy that Jo's.
Even though I tried to go for some pattern and had the red stars in the centre and four corners, with the blue stars filling the rest, I still think something was lost in having so many very similar prints close to each other, in some cases the star is lost completely. I realised that this came down to fabric values... Fabric values, along with hues and saturation, are all interlinked in colour theory, and come in very handy with planning a quilt design. Hue is what people mean when they say 'colour' - red is a different hue than blue. Value refers to the lightness or darkness of the hue, so you could have reds of the same hue, but one is of a lighter value than the other. Whereas saturation is the intensity of the colour and is related to the hue and value. Fully saturated colours appear brighter and clearer, while less saturated colours are milky or greyer. A fully saturated yellow has a much lighter value than a fully saturated red.
So if we apply this theory to my quilt, you can see that there is one red hue that stands out more than any other as it is the most saturated, while the other reds used to make up the star design are less saturated and very similar in value to the neighbouring yellows, making the overall star design less distinct.
When preparing for the Sewing Quarter show, I decided to make up another block using identical red and yellow prints for the four blocks to make up a full star to show how being less scrappy would give you a whole different look. As you can see above, I used the same strong red and yellow prints for the star shape, but still went scrappy for the smaller pieces. While I prefer this layout, I also still love the scrappy version I made for the show, and of course, just had to quilt it in wavy lines!
After last week's grand reveal of my Birds of a Feather Mystery quilt, I've seen some lovely completed tops - I have a few prompt quilters who have religiously kept up with my monthly posts, one of which had saved them until the end and then made it during her last five weekly quilt group meetings!
The first of these quilts is by Justine, who had actually got ahead of me and finished the quilt before the grand reveal, clever girl!! ;) I was so happy to see the quilt made up in the luscious grey and purple fabric bundle - doesn't it look so rich and sumptuous! Justine tells me she plans to add a couple more borders to increase the size, which will look amazing!
You can see the close up centre of this colourway in Ann's quilt - made over five weeks in her quilt class, she also loves how the purples and greys work so well together.
Ruth was wonderful throughout this process and more or less made up each block on the same day she received the pattern, which was why she was the first to tell me of any hiccups! Thanks again Ruth :) In her version she used the Flora Pop fabrics, similar to my own, however, if memory serves, I think she bought two or three of the curated fabric bundles, so I can see her making at least one more quilt!
Finally, Jan went for her own choice of fabrics, and purchased some Linen Textures from the Sewmotion shop - I love these soft pastel shades, and it really does look like such a different quilt compared to the grey and purple. Next month I will be sharing quilting ideas and a free pieced backing design. This free pattern will be available to my Newsletter subscribers until the end of June, sign up now and join in the fun - you will also receive subscriber-only offers, more free patterns and the latest Sewmotion news.
Meanwhile, in the Sewmotion shop, I have released two new EPP Flower Hoop Art Kits - these projects are mounted into 12" hoops and come in two designs. The first is in lovely 1930s-inspired vintage fabrics, while the second features Makower's Woodland range in soft blues and greys. Each of these kits include the fabric and wadding, embroidery thread, pre-cut papers, 12" wooden hoop and full instructions - the perfect holiday project! What's more, if you subscribe to the Newsletter, you can get 10% off these new kits today!
