Bequest Makers Tour - Briar Hill Designs

Have you seen the very talented and amazing Fabric Collections by Briar Hill Designs. Caverly and Julia are the duo behind this design team.  Caverly is the artist and Julia is the quilt designer which makes for a perfect pairing.  Bequest is their second range for RJR Fabrics which is shipping now.  I am excited to be sharing with you today something I have made for the Makers Tour.

For all those Floral Lovers then you will just adore this range in all the Blue and Whites making such a complimentary colour palette to these fabrics.  With large florals, small scale leaves along with geometric prints, this range has it all.  The Watercolour styled designs make this range fresh all the while giving it that vintage country feel.

In the words of Julia and Caverly...

"A Bequest is something given or transmitted from the past. An heirloom. A legacy. An antique. We used these precious items as our inspiration behind these 20 blue and white prints. Each of the print names go along with our theme: ‘Hope Chest’, ‘Looking Glass’, ‘Loom’, ‘Music Box’, etc. We had such a blast naming them."

Deciding what to make will certainly be the hardest part.  After lots of thought I decided to make one of my Confetti Cushions to showcase these stunning florals.

Getting to work on cutting out these fabrics and then piecing was great fun, taking in the bespoke nature of these prints.  With such a beautifully co-ordinated colour palette all the hard work is done and all the the colours and prints just work so well together.   

Confetti Cushion is available as a PDF pattern in my store

Bequest is hitting stores now, so you can get making in plenty of time for Christmas.  You can follow along with all the Makers involved in the tour here: 

November 12th

Jemima Flendt @tiedwitharibbon

November 13th

Julia Wentzell @briarhilldesigns

November 14th

Jacquie Schluter @jacquiesews

November 15th

Stacey Lee O'Malley @slotstudio

November 16th

Wendy Mierke @sewknotcrochet

November 19th

Lisa H @sewwhatyoulove

November 20th

Carla Peicheff @cpeicheff

November 21st

Jen Orme @lilmaisydaisy

November 22nd

Shannon Fraser @shannonfraserdesigns

November 23rd

Jess Zimmerman @coralbunnyandlo  

Happy Quilting

Jemima x 

RJR Fabrics - What Shade are You Blog Hop

I was recently asked - "What shade are you" by RJR Fabrics and while in your head your like that easy - I know exactly what my favourite colours are. Then you get presented with an extensive Colour Card to select from, to narrow that down to make a quilt from - well not as easy as I thought.  

RJR Cotton Supreme Solids have such a large range of colours and for this project - deciding which ones to choose became a tough choice - I had so many favourites. I love the slight sheen these fabrics have to them - just so subtle and the movement in the light - beautiful.

So here is #whatshadeareyou

Optical White - #33

Lemon Chiffon - #182

Flamingo - #338

Hot Pink - #217

Rhodedendrom - #181

Hydrangea - #214

Jacaranda - #317

Riveiria - #274

Robins Egg - #391

Harbour - #425

So with a plan in mind I set about sewing and making - the saturation of the colours against the white - I just love. I usually don't work with just solids so I was welcoming the change of direction and really loving the opportunity to design a project where it was about the colours of the fabrics rather than the prints.  Starting first with paper and pen and then moving to the fabric to create my plan - I was starting to feel comfortable with the fabrics I choose and how they would work together.

Using the White background fabric meant that when it came time to pressing that I needed to consider the colours of the fabrics.  When coloured pieces were sewn together for the Half Square Triangles- I pressed towards the darker fabric, when sewing the blocks together - I pressed all my seams open so that I wouldn't have any dark shadows behind that crisp "Optical White".

This is my Aurora Quilt that I designed - and I couldn't be happier with how these solids have worked against the white background in this pattern.  It was exactly what I was after.  

We recently travelled down to our friends farm out in the country, down south and after a bit of location scouting came across the neighbours property where these shed were.  As soon as I saw them I knew they would be perfect against the colours of the quilt for a backdrop.

I had the quilt Long Arm quilted by Carol Brady of The Quilting Cottage with this circular design and it was done in a Mint green thread so that the colour of the thread with the quilting wouldn't stand out to much over the range of different colours.

The pattern for my Aurora Quilt is available in my store here

I truly loved making this quilt - these Half Square Triangles were cheerful and fun to sew.  And I even have plans for anther Solids inspired quilt.  

Happy Quilting

Jemima x