Bloggers Bom Block Nine - May

When I first received these gorgeous fabrics from our beautiful Bloggers Bom Host Jackie, they made me think of sparkling jewel stones...purple amethyst, yellow sapphire, pink diamonds, green emeralds.

I thought it was fitting to turn these lovely Kaffe fabrics into a jewel box block!

I have used all 6 fabrics in this block, using the grey aboriginal dot as the background fabric. The block is 8 1/2 inches unfinished.

Use a scant 1/4 inch seam for this block.

Creating A Jewel Box:

The four corners half square triangles
Cut one square 2 7/8 inches from each...stripe, purple, spot & green fabric.
Cut two squares 2 7/8 inches from grey aboriginal dot.
Cut all 6 squares in half diagonally. Set aside one triangle from each coloured squares (not grey). You will not use these.

With the remaining four coloured triangles, match them up with a grey triangle and sew scant 1/4 inch seam. Trim each of the four corner blocks to 2 1/2 inches. Iron seams towards the coloured triangles.

The centre half square triangles
Cut two squares 2 7/8 inches from yellow.
Cut two squares 2 7/8 inches from grey aboriginal dot.

Similarly to the corner blocks, cut all four squares in half diagonally. Match up each of the four yellow triangles with a grey triangle and sew scant 1/4 inch seam. Trim each of the four corner blocks to 2 1/2 inches. Iron seams towards yellow triangles.

Little jewel squares
Cut 1 1/2 inch squares...
4 purple, 4 stripe, 4 spot, 4 green
16 grey

Laying it all out!

Taking note of the arrangement in my photo, lay out your four corner half square triangles, four centre half square triangles and little jewel squares.

Sew together the top, sides and bottom little jewel square sets. Then sew the four centre half square triangles together. Iron seams flat (where possible iron alternate seams in opposite directions).

Next, sew into rows...top row, centre row and bottom row. Iron.

Now sew the three rows together. Iron seams flat and you are done!

Don't forget to add a photo of your jewel box block to the bloggers bom flickr group.

I have also sewn my jewel box using Keiko Goke fabrics, wow, very bright!

I hope you enjoy making this block as much as I did. Here are the links to the designers for each block in this bloggers bom series....

September - Sherri McConnell - A Quilting Life

October - Vicki Welsh - Field Trips in Fiber

November - Stephanie Dunphy - Loft Creations

December - Pat Sloan - The Voice Of Quilting

January - John Adams - Quilt Dad

February - Amy Smart - Diary of a Quilter

March - Allison Harris - Cluck, Cluck, Sew

April - Amy Lobsiger - Mrs. Schmenkmen Quilts

May - Cathy Underhill - Cabbage Quilts

June - Pam Vieira-McGinnis - Pam Kitty Morning

July - Victoria Findlay Wolfe - Bumble Beans Inc.

August - Amy Ellis - Amy's Creative Side

September - Sarah Fielke - The Last Piece

October - Jackie Kunkel - Canton Village Quilt Works (me)

Next month is Pam from Pam Kitty Morning, I can't wait to see Pam's block on the 25th June.

Are you joining in? xo

Flower Garden

Photo's as promised!

For those who haven't seen this before, I'm using Kim McLeans beautiful pattern called  Flower Garden.

I am only making five out of the six flower panels in the pattern, and instead of using a plain background for the appliques, I'm making the backgrounds out of stripes of fabric sewn together.

So I only have two long panels to go.

Panels are around 65 x 10 inches each

Some of the background fabrics and all of the flower appliques are done using Keiko Goke fabrics, an amazing Japanese quilt and fabric artist, you can see her fabrics here. I have purchased a lot of her fabrics from Liza at Glorious Colour, some from Superbuzzy, Equilter and Snow Cotton (a Japanese website).

When I took these photo's the other day, I didn't realise the fairies had been visiting that tree again...

...our little 'fairytale' mushrooms (that is what I call them because until last year I only thought these appeared in fairytales, not in real life!! They are actually called Amanita muscaria). Over a couple of days they go from little babies pushing their way through the soil, to being rather ugly, though statuesque adults!!

click on photo to see closer

Don't you just love the colours of nature? xo

Kaffe's Antique August Rose

I love the fact that some designers are re-releasing some of their older lines (Denyse Schmidt Flea Market Fancy, Amy Butler Gypsy Caravan to name just two!). This means that those of us who missed them first time round and have long since admired them, now have a chance to own some of them too. Kaffe Fassett has also re-released some of his wonderful prints including some favourites of mine...August Rose and Cabbage and Rose.

I ordered some gorgeous August Rose in Antique from Liza at Glorious Colour, and when it arrived it bought images to mind of chocolates in old fashioned boxes, reading a good book in front of the fireplace, special childhood memories and soft velvet!! Perhaps I was feeling a little nostalgic that day?!

I certainly wanted to cut into it quickly and start sewing, so I chose a very easy plus quilt which fit the bill very nicely. (The plus quilt is simply made out of squares, arranged to look like plusses, or crosses). My squares are all 4 inch finished.

All the fabrics I have used here are Kaffe's, his spots, stripes, aboriginal dots and shot cottons. I love how the solid and stripy fabrics give the Antique August Rose plusses an almost floaty feel to them.

The colours are not my usual choice, but I love them, especially the purples.

Is there a fabric range re-release that you are thrilled to get your hands on? xo

Playing Catch Up

It has been a while since I've shown my Bloggers Bom blocks. Considering I am posting my block on the 25th May, I thought it was time to catch up.

Mrs Schmenkman's is the current block and I just love it.

Actually, I love them all. I've been using lovely Keiko Goke fabrics to make my very bright blocks.

This has been such a great, bloggers bom hosted by Jackie at Canton Village Quilt Works. Look out for my block here on the 25th May. I will give you the list of where you can find all of these blocks then too, it is never too late to join in.

Do you remember this WIP?

It has been neglected, but not forgotten. My Flower Garden (Kim McLean) has been growing, more pics soon.

Do You Spoonflower?

Spoonflower is a website where people like you and me can go to design their own fabrics. I certainly have not thought about designing my own fabrics at this point, but I have purchased a few from other designers and I'm very happy with the fabrics I received so far. Fabrics from here are dearer than the regular quilting fabrics ($18/yard on Kona), so I will only ever buy those 'special' ones that take my fancy. They are also not produced for the mass market, so sometimes have a gorgeous hand made feel to the designs, a little rawer and less sharp perhaps.

My first purchase was from the lovely Peagreengirl (click on pic to see more detail).

Her vintage inspired fabrics really excite me, I love her use of old photo's, antique script, birds, angels and even fish. Henry Fish is one of my favourites!

This one is so lovely I don't want to cut it up, perhaps I will just leave it whole and quilt it as is.

My next purchase was a gorgeous text fabric from Holliconger.

Holli has collaged random dictionary pages to come up with this very useful design. So far I have used it in my New York Beauty cushion (Piece and Press pattern) and I'm very happy with the result (yes, I must get this cushion finished!!).

Another fabric I am eyeing off is by Mimma from Mimi&me. She is fine tuning the colours in the hearts before I buy it, I just love the idea of red hearts on envelopes (see it here).

Do you use Spoonflower? To buy or to design? Have you been happy with the fabrics? Or not? If you design your own fabrics, put your link in a comment, I would love to see!! xo

Special Times

Lately I've had a few!! I've just come home from a wonderful day teaching some beautiful women how to assemble their quilt tops at Treehouse Textiles. It has been such a fabulous treat to watch these ladies who have never sewn a quilt before, make their first masterpiece and perhaps even become addicted to quilt making in the process!!! And being at the Treehouse is always a gorgeous experience, if you ever want to treat yourself and your friends, I can certainly recommend a day here. Nicole Mallalieu is the VIP  there this month and her bag making classes are a hit! You will need to get in quick for this one. You can see here for the bag I made in one of Nicole's classes.

Then there was the stitch day at my house last Saturday, another very special time. In the end nine of us spent the day together over lots of food and coffee, great conversation and show and tell, and of course as quilters always do when they get together, much learning from each other. I adore my online virtual quilt friends, but it is so wonderful to meet these women and put faces to the blog names and email addresses!!! And I have some heaps of gorgeous pics to show...

Kay from Shocking Hocking was up first with her beautiful almost finished quilt in French General fabrics. Her machine quilting on this was magnificent.

Kay also had this grey/citrus number. Kay is quilting this using both machine and hand quilting and it looks fabulous.

I need to make a quilt with those colours!!! Next up we made Chris the Quilter haul her incredible hexagon quilt into the garden to take a nice photo under the cherry tree!

This quilt in progress is a work of art, over 9000 teeny tiny hexies (so far!) made out of Kaffe Fassett and Brandon Mably fabrics. Kaffe and Brandon even got to see this amazing quilt when they were in Australia last year!! The back of it is so neat...

Even Millie loved wearing it for a little while!!

Next we had Christmas come early with Michelle from The Quilted Tortoise and her beautifully appliqued quilt also using the gorgeous French General fabrics...

The details in this are beautiful with buttons and embroidery to finish off each block.

Michelle is also making Trish Harpers pattern Camelot, this will be stunning, I love the text fabrics in there...

Miriam from Yellow Rose Quilts bought her almost finished Bordered Diamonds quilt that we started in Kaffe Fassetts class at Amitie last Feb (mine is still in pieces sitting in a box somewhere, oops!!). Miriam's quilt colours really catch the eye, like jewels I think.

Miriam is a prolific quilter and is a part of the Bloggers Bom, she is making up her blocks in two gorgeous colourways...

...as well as making up Janet Quiltsalott's incredible Trailing Vines pattern, wow!! (My poor photo does not do it justice).

Next was my friend Deb's (no blog) beautiful squares quilt. I love the orange, creams, turquoise and browns and the perle hand quilting will be in those colours too.

My friend Kathy (also no blog yet!!), is a relatively newer quilter (18 mths), but is incredibly prolific already. Her stars quilt in creams, greens and reds is a stunner...

Kathy is also making a lovely Japanese x and + quilt, the browns in the corners of these blocks are giving the quilt a stained glass window look to it. I will show this one when she is done!

Later in the day Bron Whippet Good dropped in with Emma Treehouse Textiles after their class. Bron had just spent the day at Treehouse learning to make the schoolhouse tunic, you can see her beautiful tunic here.

Wow, what a wonderful day! And so inspirational to be surrounded by such talented women. A huge thank you to each of you for spending your Saturday with me. Very special times! xo