WIP Wednesday

Probably better known this week as oops, I started yet another new quilt!

When I attended Sarah Fielke's class in Christchurch last year, my friend Anne worked on the Bangles quilt, from Sarah's book Hand Quilted with Love. When she pointed out that the print sections could be cut from a jelly roll, I immediately thought I should use my jelly roll of Oh, Deer! fabric to make one! I bought the templates from Sarah, so the only question was when. Apparently, now.

Or, soon. I've cut all the pieces I need (because I'm using a jelly roll, I'm making a slightly smaller version of the quilt than in the book, but it's not too hard to work out how to vary the size), but I don't have space on my design wall to lay the whole thing out at the moment. It will keep.

In the meantime, I've sewn up a single hexagon. If anyone else is interested in making this quilt, I have ressurrected the #banglealong hashtag on instagram. Come and join me!

Linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced:

Sarah Fielke's quilts and hand quilting

To follow up on my post about Sarah Fielke's workshop in Christchurch, I wanted to share one of the highlights of the workshop, which was seeing a selection of Sarah's gorgeous quilts up close and personal.  She brought quilts from her latest book, Hand Quilted With Love, as well as quilts from her previous book, Quilting from Little Things.

This quilt is called Lady Marmalade and is really fun up close.  Most of the circles in the borders feature fun fussy cut and novelty prints, often with animals.  Did you know that there's almost always at least one animal in each of Sarah's quilts?  I didn't, and I thought that was such a lovely idea.

This quilt is called Bangles and every time I've seen it made up in different colourways it looks awesome.  One of my favourites is this version made by my friend Erica of Kitchen Table Quilting.  I bought the templates to make this quilt from Sarah and it's on my to do list - possibly using a jelly roll of Oh Deer! fabric I've got hanging around.

 

This quilt is truly stunning in real life.  The hand quilting adds so much texture which was quite hard to photograph inside.  I also really love the little tabs around the edge - so much, in fact, that I used similar tabs on this pillow.

 

This is one of my most favourite quilts in all of Sarahs's books - it's called In the Night Garden.  All those shot cottons are amazing - and look at that gorgeous hand quilting.  I bought the templates for this one too!

 

This quilt is called Millefiori and is such a happy quilt.  There are lots of shapes I love in here - probably too much appliqué for it to go on my to do list though.

 

This quilt is really amazing in real life.  This picture doesn't capture it but careful colour placement means there is a secondary pattern which becomes clear when you step back from the quilt.  There's plenty of interest up close too.  I'd love to play around with this kind of strip piecing/fussy cutting idea - I think there's a lot of potential for really interesting quilts there.

This quilt doesn't normally travel, but Sarah brought it along because she wasn't able to bring her Fancy That quilt (it's huge and really heavy with all the linen used in it).  This quilt is called On a Wing and  Prayer and it is really really gorgeous.  It includes Oakshotts (love) and text prints (more love) and I can see why Sarah likes to keep it at home safe and sound.  Yeah, I wanted to steal all of these quilts.

Going back to the workshop, Sunday was reserved for people to work on whatever quilt they liked from any of Sarah's books.  I continued to work on my Fancy That quilt, but I also took the opportunity to learn Sarah's method of hand quilting (you can watch for yourself in this free video tutorial).

I'd actually watched the tutorial before and given this method a go, but it helped so much to watch Sarah in person and to have her there to give me advice as I clumsily tried her technique. It took me a little while to get the hang of it (especially since I've barely used a thimble before) but I did, and once I got going I found that it's really rather addictive.

One thing that Sarah covered in person but not so much in the video is the type of hoop to use.  I have a really large oval hand quilting hoop that I bought second-hand (I thought it would be better quality than a cheap new one and I didn't want to invest lots of money before I knew whether I'd enjoy hand quilting or not).  It was really a bit big to travel with so I was lucky that Sarah let me use her hoop in class.  Her recommendation was not to use a really big hoop - you should be able to hold it so it sits comfortably along your forearm between your bicep and your hand.  For most people a 14" hoop or a 16" hoop will work well.  I found that really interesting - I don't think I've heard or read advice on what size hoop to use for hand quilting anywhere else.

Sarah was using a 14" hoop and I found that comfortable, so I've ordered one of my own.  I've done a little bit of hand quilting at home so I don't completely lose the muscle memory of how to do it, and it really is awkward using my giant hoop!  I can't wait for my new hoop to arrive so I can keep quilting.

I'm very new and to be honest I never thought I'd be a hand quilter, but it's surprisingly enjoyable.  So, any other hand quilters out there?  Maybe you're just starting out, like me, or maybe you have been hand quilting for ages and have some wisdom you'd love to pass on.  Let me know!

Sarah Fielke's class and WIP Wednesday

I spent the weekend before last in Christchurch to attend a workshop run by Sarah Fielke with a couple of friends.  It was really lovely to get out of town, enjoy the balmy spring weather (it was sunny and calm unlike Wellington which has been extremely windy lately) and spend a few days just sewing and talking about sewing.  I'm going to take the opportunity to talk about the class a bit, and show the WIP I started there.

Sarah's visit was organised by Fenella from Stitch in Christchurch (you may remember that her mother Penny designed the pattern for my Hexy Ottoman) and she was an active participant in the workshop as well as having a lovely range of fabric and notions available for sale.

The workshop spanned three days - Friday and Saturday were for participants to learn how to make the Fancy That quilt from Sarah's latest book Hand Quilted With Love.

Fancy That - photo from Sarah Fielke's website

I'm making this quilt for my sister, so I let her choose the feature fabric to use in the points of the central star.  Sarah used a large floral print, but after I pulled out all of my large scale prints my sister chose this really gorgeous fabric from Rashida Coleman Hale's Washi range.  I've been hoarding it for ages and waiting for just the right project.

For the fans, I pulled a selection of fabrics which echo the colours of the washi tape in this print.  I'm using a grey Crosshatch Sketch for the background - I thought it might be a bit simpler to work with than linen while still having some texture and interest.

After cutting lots and lots of strips and sewing them together, I cut out the wedges to make my fans.  The next part involves needle turn appliqué.  I abandonned my last needle turn appliqué project (a single quilt block that's not finished after nearly 2 years and probably never will be) so was a bit hestitant about this step.  I think Sarah's technique makes it pretty easy, although appliquéing such a large piece was tricky and I ended up with a bit of a lump in my appliqué.

My version of Fancy That - definitely still a WIP

I will unpick and stitch it back down straight - fortunately it didn't take too long.  If you are interested, you can learn Sarah's needle turn appliqué technique (and lots of other things) in her Craftsy Class.

One of my favourite parts of the class was seeing how the Fancy That quilt looked in all the different colour and fabric combinations chosen by the other participants.  All the quilts being made were lovely but these two caught my eye and made me think "I wish I'd thought of that"!.

Julia Fomison's version of Fancy That

I just adore this combination of Anna Maria Horner's Hand Drawn Garden collection with Art Gallery Fabrics Oval Elements and a little bit of Architextures thrown in for good measure.  With the bright green background it's definitely a slap you in the face kind of quilt, in the best possible way.

Jo Sewell's version of Fancy That

I thought Jo's combination of lovely warm Kaffe Fassett fabrics and Mirror Ball Dots was unexpected and delightful.  The colours just glow against the soft grey background.  I also thought Jo's choice to arrange her fabrics in colour order was inspired.

I hope both Jo and Julia will let me know when they've finished their quilts - I'd love to see them and I'd love to share them too.  I have lots more photos and things to share from the class so look out for at least one more post coming soon.

Linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced:

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