Tuesday, June 30, 2015

New Pattern Releases


While it may be a little early to start thinking of Christmas it is not too early to start to think about your Christmas Crafting.  As soon as "Little Joys" by Elea Lutz (for Penny Rose Fabrics) arrived I knew exactly what I wanted to make.


With beautiful vintage Christmas designs and traditional colours in these fabrics I set about making my "Christmas Cheer Advent Calendar".  Little Joys is now available in Australia at these stores



You can fill these pockets with which ever treats, sweets or little gifts you choose and all the family will enjoy this countdown to Santa's arrival.  

PDF Downloable Pattern for my Christmas Cheer Advent Calendar is now available at my Website and Etsy Store



Liberty fabrics melt my heart - I love the prints, colours, designs and feel of the beautiful Tana Lawn.  This bright bundle arrived from Ava and Neve and I quickly set about making this large cushion teamed with Essex Yarn Dyed Linen (Navy)


This new pattern - Confetti Cushion shows the beautiful bright prints and how striking they look set against a beautifully textured Linen.  


PDF Downloadable Pattern for my Confetti Cushion is now available at my Website and Etsy Store.

Happy sewing
Jemima x 

Saturday, June 27, 2015

Bits and Pieces


Earlier this year in my travels to Melbourne I visited the Morris and Sons store.  So full of yarns, wool and so many patterns and inspiration - it was a great stop especially if you love all things Crochet, Knitting, Embroidery and Cross Stitch.  I  chose these two balls of yarn for a Coco Cowl that I had in mind to make for a special friend.  I used Morris "Paddington" 6ply in Ink Blue and the amazing variegated yarn is the most amazing Debbie Bliss "Luxury Silk Dk" col 48041.



I have used Silks before but never ones like this - it was so beautiful to crochet and the colours are so vibrant and it has the softest feel to it.  I made this cowl from the Coco Cowl pattern by Tangled Yarns.  It is a fairly quick project and I have made a few of these before as I just love to crochet these.



I am participating in the #craftybirthdaybash1.  There are 12 of us in this group and each Month we send the Birthday person a sweet handmade gift.  It is an amazing group of very talented sewers and stitchers.  


I made this Kaleidescope Mini Quilt for Sarah who celebrated her birthday in May.  I made it all from Liberty fabrics from my stash and then Hand quilted the Linen.  This is such a fun and creative group to be a part of and - well it is my  Birthday Month next so I am truly excited.


Many of you know that I am a big Jen Kingwell fan and spent hours visiting Amitie Textiles as well when I was in Melbourne.  Jen's book - Quilt Lovely had just been released and all the quilts and cushions were actually in the shop when I visited.  There were so many amazing Quilts and Cushions in this book.  I fell in love with this one - "Small Wonders" and have made my own.  I just love it and no one is allowed near it on the couch.  I have plans for quite a few other projects also from the book.

Jemima x

Wednesday, June 17, 2015

Strawberry Picnic Quilt - New pattern release


I have no doubt that Tasha Noels latest range - Vintage Market will be huge hit. Designed for Riley Blake Designs and now available here in Australia this range has the sweetest prints and the colours in the designs are just sublime.


This range has some beautiful Fussy Cuts and those are what I wanted to feature within this new quilt design.  A modern twist on the Traditional Churn Dash Blocks to create a design that showcases these Fussy cut characters.


A sweet quilt filled with strawberries, fair stands, jam bottles and girls on bicycles.


Vintage Market will be available at these stores here in Australia
Fabric Pixie
The Stitcher's Cupboard
Minky Bear & Me
Peg’s Pieces
Fresh Fabrics Australia
Sew Stashed
Bellarine Sewing Centre
A Little Different
Sew Fab
Patchwork on Pittwater
Thorpe & Co
Black Tulip
3 in a Tree


The PDF pattern for Strawberry Picnic is now available here at my Website or Etsy store


I had this quilt professionally Long Arm Quilted by Carol Brady of The Quilting Cottage.  The design features strawberries and leaves.

Happy sewing
Jemima x 

Monday, June 15, 2015

Tulip Hiroshima Needles and a Bear Pillow

I have always believed that having the right Sewing Tools and Equipment makes all the difference to your love of sewing/quilting.  If you are going to spend your time hand making treasured items then have equipment and tools that help make this so enjoyable.

I recently got some Tulip Hiroshima Needles from Ava and Neve. I had been wanting to try these needles out for a while as I had heard such good reviews about them.  These are beautifully presented in coloured boxes and contain little "test tubes" that hold all the different needles and pins.  Made in Japan and using a manufacturing technique that specially polishes the needles for easy gliding through your layers of fabric.


I had never given much thought to the number and different types of needles I use when I making different projects.  I decided to make the Bear Pillow from Amy Sinibaldi's new book - Sweetly Stitched Handmades.


Using a bundle of Liberty fabrics from Ava and Neve I set about test out these Tulip Hiroshima needles. 


Embroidery Needles - I do quite a bit of hand quilting and embroidery work.  These needles have a large eye which is great for thicker threads such as Aurifil 12wt and Embroidery Floss.  They run very smoothly through the layers due to the special polishing process they are made by.



Patchwork Pins - beautiful fine pins with glass heads on them so you can use them near the iron.  (*Never, ever sew through pins on your sewing machine).


Milliners Needles - if you love Needleturn Appliqué then you will love these "Straws" - long, fine and flexible to work quickly as you go.


Sewing Needles - great for all your general sewing with cotton thread.  I have used them for binding and they worked beautifully through the fabric.


These needles are definitely a great tool to have and with different varieties available no matter what you like to sew there is a Tulip Needle that will be perfect.

Jemima x

Wednesday, June 10, 2015

Vintage Market by Tasha Noel


Tasha Noel's latest range - Vintage Market does not disappoint.  If you loved her Little Red Riding Hood Range or Country Girls then this range for Riley Blake Fabrics will be on the top of your want list.


There is a large selection of prints with the sweetest characters and most vibrant of colours.  Sweet Strawberries, Girls on Bikes, Market Stalls, Quilts on Washing Lines and flowers all feature in these beautiful fabrics.


Those who love Fussy cuts prints will especially love this range with the Characters and pictures to feature in your projects.  Vintage Market will be hitting Aus in June (Distributed by Millhouse Collections) so stay tuned for updates on its arrival.



To feature the beautiful fussy cut prints I decided on using them within Churn Dash blocks.  The vibrancy of these prints is amazing and the colours are so fresh and make you feel of those beautiful summer picnic days we love so much.


This new quilt design - Strawberry Picnic will be available very soon for you to create for yourself.


Jemima x 

Thursday, June 4, 2015

Smitten Quilt - My English Paper Piecing Adventure


Back in March this year I travelled to Melbourne for a girls weekend!  I went a few days earlier than my girlfriends to check out all my favourite Quilting and Sewing stores before they arrived.  I went armed with this pattern - Smitten by Lucy Carson Kingwell to Amitie Textiles as I knew that I wanted to pick fabrics to make this quilt.  About 3 hours later - I emerged with this pick of fabrics from this amazing treasure of a store.


I have sat hesitantly on this project for a while before starting.  I simply could not decide if I was going to Machine Sew this Quilt or if I wanted to sew it by hand using English Paper Piecing (EPP).  There are so many projects that I want to make that I thought well - Machine sewing it would be quicker but in the end I decided that taking the time to Hand sew this quilt would be well spent.  And After the first few stitches.  I knew I had made the right choice. 



With using English Paper Piecing to create this quilt - I set about finding matching Papers.  I had quite a few of the matching sized papers from my Sue Daley Paper Precuts (Sue Daley is about to release a Smitten Kit and I will keep you updated with when it is available here in Aus).  I found the others I needed at Paper Pieces who have a whole kit of papers for the Quilt.


To hand sew these shapes together I am using Auriful Thread in #4060 and #2024.  Clover - Black Gold Appliqué 9 Needles, a Sue Daley Glue Pen and some Clover Binding Clips to help keep the blocks together as I sew them.







I am fast becoming addicted to these blocks and I am just loving sewing these together.



I will keep you updated with more blocks as I go.

Jemima x 
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