Sunday, June 24, 2018

Aurora Quilt Sew-Along Week 4


Well as we approach the halfway mark it is really so exciting to see the Aurora Quilts you have been making over at the #auroraquiltsewalong and #auroraquilt hash tags.
Remember it not to late at all to join in! 




This week - Week 4 is all about continuing on with making your second Quadrant.  By now with your first quadrant together it will be a good time to have a look at your colour placement and make sure you are happy with everything where it goes.  


Helpful Tips

A great hack to see what your Aurora Quilt will look like once it is finished (and to help make sure you are 100% happy with your fabric placement choices) is to use a Phone App or Computer Photo Editing Program.


Phone Apps and Photo Editing Programs
There are heaps around - these are just a few of the ones I have used in the past. I only have an i-phone so am only familiar with Apple Apps (and I am not affiliated with any of them)

Phone Apps
A Beautiful Mess (there is an Android version for this app available)

Photo Editing Programs

How to:
  1. Take a photo of your First Quadrant and make sure it is nice and square.
  2. You can then use one of the Apps or Programs (listed above) to upload your picture into to make what will look like a full quilt.  
  3. Use a 4 Picture Layout  and add the same picture to each quadrant and then rotate your picture to have your centre squares placed in the correct orientation.  (Of course if you have fussy cut or placed fabrics directionally it won't be exactly accurate but it will give you an overall look.
  4. Adjust the frame on the pic to be zero so you have no divide between the picture and then your quilt will magically appear like.........

Aurora Quilt Inspiration

Image thanks to @thecatbx

Image thanks to @jesslovestosew

Image thanks to @sew_love_scuba

This week our Sponsor of the Aurora Quilt Sew Along is Cottoneer


Andrea is giving away a complete Aurora Quilt Kit to one lucky winner - just like the same as the one I am making.  So to be in the running - make sure to post your progress to the #auroraquiltsewalong and #auroraquilt hashtags.

Happy Quilting
Jemima x x

Thursday, June 21, 2018

Quick Cut Kits - awesome new Product Alert!



I am so EXCITED to introduce to you my latest Quilting product made in conjunction and distributed through Creative Abundance. Last year I began working with Creative Abundance on developing and working on making these Applique pre-cut Kits a reality.  

In my years of teaching I have had many people comment on Applique and how they would love to do it but found it time consuming to do all the tracing and cutting, or actually didn't like tracing and cutting.  I had a number of people who would love to give Applique a go but have dexterity issues with their  hands or found this a time consuming style of quilting.  For so many reasons, I wanted to make Applique, fun, quick accurate and accessible to anyone wanting to give it a go - and so these Quick Cut Kits were born. 


I have taken 3 of my most popular Applique Mini Quilts and turned them into Quick Cut Kits.  First up is my "Just Sew Happy" Mini Quilt.  Made using Leanne Beasley's "Spring Mischief" range for Ella Blue Fabrics.

Each Kit contains the Pattern, Fused - pre cut fabric pieces as shown above, Binding and a Cover Page for each Kit all presented in a resealable Pocket.  All you need to do is clip the tabs from each of the letters or pieces and arrange them onto your Backing fabric (not included in the kit) according to the Pattern instructions. It really is that quick and then you are ready to sew.  




Next up is my "Rip It" Mini Quilt made using fabrics from Emma Jean Jansen's "Matilda" and Jodie Carleton's "Bug City" ranges.  



The beauty of these kits also are that you can still choose to Applique them in any method you prefer - whether by hand or machine these will be great fun to sew and make.


"Cut, Sew Press, Repeat" Pennant is my third Quick Cut Kit we have produced.  


These Quick Cut Kit Mini Quilts are great to make as presents or even give the kit as a present.  You might like to make them for Quilt Swaps and they are certainly a great time saver when your sewing time is precious.  

Quick Cut Kits are shipping to stores and we have the following stores to date who have ordered these - we are hoping to expand this list as interest grows.  A great way also to get your hand on one (or two, or three) is to ask your Local Quilt Store to get them in for you.  

I will keep updating this list as more stores start to carry Quick Cut Kits here in Australia, The States and around the world. Many of the stores listed below also ship worldwide!

IN AUSTRALIA

Fabric Patch (QLD)
Sew Fab (NSW) 

IN THE USA

Roxannes (CA)

IN THE UK

IN NEW ZEALAND

I am looking forward to turning some of my other Mini Quilts into Quick Cut Kits and working on adding more to this range.

Please share your Quick Cut Kit makes using #quickcutkits, #tiedwitharibbonpatterns

Happy Quilting
Jemima x 

Sunday, June 17, 2018

Aurora Quilt Sew-Along Week 3


Welcome to Week 3 of the Aurora Quilt Sew-Along.  Now things start to get even more exciting as you will start to see your fabrics take their place and your design begin to form.  

There have been so many beautiful progress shots over at the #auroraquiltsewalong hashtags - be sure to check them all out.

Remember its not to late to join in the fun to make your own Aurora Quilt. You can join in at any point.




Making your First Quadrant
It was a big week 2 with lots of sewing and prepping your Half Square Triangles.  I assure you that trimming and making sure your HST's are square before you begin sewing them together will save you lots of grief and unpicking as you now come to sew them together to make your first quadrant.

Following your Pattern you have a Quadrant Layout guide.  This will help you to place your pieces in the correct position.

REMEMBER - if you are using fussy cut or directional fabrics that you may need to change the direction of the block to suit which quadrant you are making - so that you don't have upside down characters or so that your lines work nicely together.

Helpful Tips
I find it really helpful to use Row Markers when making my Quadrants.  There are lots of fancy ones available. But I have made my own - by taking a permanent marker and using some Clover Flower Head pins - I have written numbers on the flower heads and these are ever so handy to help me keep track of the rows.


Not sure of a Colour?
Once you have laid out all your colours you can sometimes see a colour may not work as well as you may have intended.  If this is the case for you - this is now the time to change out any colour you may not be happy with.  It is much quicker and easier to change out a colour fabrics at this point then later after having sewn them together.  

Sewing your First Quadrant
Begin working through the sewing the rows following the directions also for pressing seams - this will help reduce bulk.  

I have been busy making all of my HST's from my Spectacle fabric and have laid them out then shown as below.  

Because of the fabric I chose for the light purple centre squares (as shown in the pattern) rather than cut it into four pieces - I cut it as one 8.5in x 8.5in square so that the characters would be more dominant.  You can do this by cutting a square at the above dimensions and then sewing the first 3 rows together, then sewing rows 4 to 5 in two parts placing the larger centre square between the rows and then completing by sewing rows 6, 7 and 8.  


Aurora Quilt Inspiration

Image thanks to @septembers_delight

Image thanks to @mashie_v

Image thanks to @sewstitchinghappy

This week our Sponsor of the Aurora Quilt Sew-Along is Quilters Candy Box

Elizabeth has this whole prize pack up for grabs for the winner of Week 3 of the Sew-Along.  So to be in the running - make sure to post your progress to the Hashtags - #auroraquiltsewalong and #auroraquilt

Happy Quilting 
Jemima x 

Sunday, June 10, 2018

Aurora Quilt Sew-Along Week 2


It's Week 2 of the #auroraquiltsewalong and I am so excited to see so many posts and people having started their own #auroraquilt over at Instagram.

You are very welcome to join in at any point along the Sew-Along - so if you have been inspired by seeing all the great fabric pulls for the project then it is certainly not to late to join in.



This week is all about taking your cut fabrics and making your Half Square Triangles or HST's as they are more commonly referred to.

You can take all your cut squares for the HST's (these will be the larger sized squares) and following the pattern instructions on page 5 - there is a "Fabric Combinations" chart to help you pair up and make the required number of HST in the right combinations.

How to HST!

There are many ways to make Half Square Triangles (HST'S), you only have to do a quick Google search and you will see countless Tutorials on how to do them.  In the pattern I have outlined my favourite way to make them.  


Chain Piecing is a great way to sew the large number of HST's required.  Chain Piecing is when you take one block and continue to sew the next through the machine without backstitching each block.  It is a quick and easy way to speed up the sewing process.  With these HST's - I like to run down one side of the marked line in a chain with about a dozen squares and then turn them around and sew down the other side of the marked line in a chain. Then use your scissors and snip the threads joining the blocks.


Oversizing - I really do like to make my HST's - oversized and then allow for trimming back to the correct size.  I do this for a number of reasons.  Firstly as many of my patterns are beginner friendly - I think this helps with accuracy.  Secondly after pressing your HST's - you can have some stretch from the bias of fabric and this may have distorted the HST a little.  Thirdly - trimming them back really does make for getting "Perfect Points".  I think it saves time and issues later in trying to make the seams line up later - if they are trimmed back everything should line up nice and neatly the first time around and save you unpicking later.  

TRIMMING
Bloc Loc Rulers
Most people will know I am a big fan of Bloc Loc Rulers (you can check out this post).  Having taught many students over years of Quilting I find them one of the most useful and purposeful tools to have in your kit.  I make a lot of HST's and so I always use them to trim my HST's to the correct size - they really do make for "Perfect Points".


NOTE - I am not affiliated with Bloc Loc Rulers I just really think they have a great product in my opinion.

Using your Regular Ruler
To make your HST's you do not have to have a Bloc Loc Ruler.  You can certainly trim them back using your regular square ruler.  As long as your ruler has a 45degree angle line on it you can simple line up the diagonal of your made HST along this line and trim your block to size.  Make sure the points run through this 45degree line.  



Aurora Quilt Inspiration

Image thanks to @sewstichinghappy

Image thanks to @katebasti


This week our Sponsor of the Aurora Quilt Sew Along is Ava and Neve



They are giving away an Aurora Quilt Kit in their beautiful Liberty fabrics

Post your progress to the hashtags - #auroraquiltsewalong and #auroraquilt to be in the running for this weeks prize thanks to Ava and Neve.  

Looking forward to seeing all of your progress this week.

Happy Quilting
Jemima x 

Sunday, June 3, 2018

Aurora Quilt Sew-Along Week 1



Welcome to Week 1 of the Aurora Quilt Sew-Along.  Get excited because this is going to be a really fun adventure ahead.  This Sew Along is designed to help inspire you to make your own version of the Aurora Quilt and give you lots of tips and tricks along to way to guide and help with your quilting.  Please share your comments or questions that you may have along the way.  Designed to be causal and over a realistic time frame, we will all sew along together.  

Stay up to date with all the details - Sign up to the Sew Along Newsletter.

Schedule
Week 1, June 4th - Choose and cut fabrics
Week 2, June 11th - Make Half Square Triangles
Week 3, June 18th - Construct 1st Quadrant
Week 4, June 25th - Construct 2nd Quadrant
Week 5, July 2nd - Construct 3rd Quadrant
Week 6, July 9th - Construct 4th Quadrant
Week 7, July 16th - Sewing Together Quilt, Quilting, catch-up if needed
Week 8, July 23rd - Finishing up, Binding


Choosing Fabrics

This is such a fun part of the process although I totally understand how this is the daunting part for many people.  I always start with whom I am intending on giving the quilt to.  Hence why I have chosen the Spectacle Bundle I am using.  I will be giving mine to a child so I wanted it to be bright fun and primary coloured fabrics.  So think about who you might like to make the quilt for as a way to get colour inspiration.


Fabric Print / Colour Options 

You can make your Aurora Quilt in so many different options.  Here are some ideas for you to run with ....



Rainbow - yellow, orange, red, pink, purple, turquoise, green, aqua, blue.

Ombre - choose a colour and then gradiate the colour from lightest to darkest in that colour.




Scrappy - dive into your Scrap Basket and make a dent. 

Two-Toned - this quilt would look great if you choose just to do it in two colours.

Neutrals - how about a black and white quilt with either a great background or low volume fabric background.




Solids - choose your favourite colour palette and make a statement with Solids.





A Range - choose fabrics from a collection from your favourite designer.

No matter what you choose I cant wait to see what you do end up deciding to go with.  Follow your instincts most importantly!

DIRECTIONAL FABRIC - Something to take into consideration when making your Aurora Quilt is if you choose Directional Fabric.  You can certainly use it you just may want to be aware that if you want characters or prints to line up certain ways then this will need to plan early for this.  Each quadrant although pieced in the same way requires the finished quadrant to be rotated to make the pattern.  You will need to arrange your quadrant in the correct finished order if using directional or fussy cut fabrics before sewing.  

Colouring Page


Image thanks to @katebasti

Included in the pattern is a Colouring Page for you to use.  Grab your coloured pencils and if it helps to plan your fabric colour layout then get colouring.  

Some people find it much easier to plan what fabrics will go where and what the colours might look like.  Using the colouring page may be helpful to give you an overall look of what your quilt will look like without cutting all your fabrics necessarily first. 

Image thanks to @rebeccaw.projects

Gathering Supplies

Make sure you have all the tools and notions you will need to make your Quilt.
Aside from the Pattern, you will need Sewing Thread (I always use Aurifil), a Rotary Cutter, Ruler and Cutting Mat.  

Bloc-loc Ruler - this ruler is completely optional but is my preferred ruler to use when making Half Square Triangles.  You can get these from many Local Quilt Stores or online.  These are one of my most Favourite Tools, I use them so regularly in my quilting.

Fabric Kits

If you are looking for Aurora Quilt Kits check out


If you are looking for a Quilt Kit like the Pattern Cover then head to Sew-Mondo where you can pick up a Quilt Kit made with these Alison Glass Sunprint 2018 fabrics.  Use the Code "AURORASAL" at the checkout to get 20% off your basket when you purchase an Aurora Quilt Kit

 
I will be making an Aurora Quilt from this beautiful kids inspired Bundle (Spectacle for Cotton and Steel).  If you would like to make this kit you can grab one here.  Andrea is also offering a 10% off discount on any order more than $50, using the Code - "TWAR10" at checkout.    

Cutting your Fabrics


Once you have settled on your fabric combination for this quilt it is time to get cutting each of the blocks. I am using Spectacle for my version and have ordered them below to show you.  




Give your fabrics a press with the iron and using the Cutting Instructions in the pattern begin cutting your blocks depending on which size Quilt you are making.  As far as cutting out your fabrics it is very straightforward.  As a TIP - I always like to cut the largest pieces/strips first from the fabric piece.




Aurora Quilt Inspiration 

There have already been so many beautiful Aurora Quilts made by some very talented people.  You can head over to Instagram and checkout the #auroraquilt hashtag to see some more stunning quilts.  Check out these below.  


Aurora Quilt made by Lindsay @linzentart

Aurora Quilt by Hanna @hannabanna203
Aurora Quilt Quadrant by Kate @katebasti

Week 1 Prize
This week our Sponsor of the Aurora Quilt Sew-Along is - My Fabricolgy



Post your progress to the hashtags to be in the running to win this box of Aurifil Thread and  Merchant and Mills Scissors thanks to Susan at My Fabricology. Susan will pick this weeks winner.

We will be back next week with the winner and to announce our next prize up for grabs!

Special Offer - Karlee from Sew Inspired 2 Day (located in West Linn) is offering a 10% discount on Long arm quilting or if you are participating in the #auroraquiltsewalong, Karlee is offering 15% off Edge to Edge services.  You can contact her here.


I can not wait to get the #auroraquiltsewalong started
Jemima x 
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