Weekend Quilting Sew Along

Hi Friends,  well it is time to celebrate Weekend Quilting and some time to sew for yourself with a Sew Along.

Ministry of Fabric are hosting this wonderful Sew Along event and sponsoring the prizes so that you can get sewing, quilting and making some or one of the projects from the book.  

Starting from Monday 17th July join us for four - Fortnightly rounds.  Join in one round or as many as you like and use the hash tags - #weekendquiltingsewalong to share your work with us.

Each round will be judged and there will be a prize up for grabs each week. There will also be a Grand prize at the end of the four rounds,  with the Grand Prize winner receiving a handmade prize from myself.   

So grab your copy of Weekend Quilting and start planning those projects you have been dying to make for yourself or even as handmade gifts and you could be in the running to win some great prizes.

With all the projects designed to be made in the time frame of a weekend or less choose from Small Lap Quilts, Table runners, Pillows, Mini Quilts or even a Pennant to get you inspired.

Alisha and myself are really looking forward to you going us for this Weekend Quilting Sew Along.

You can follow along at #weekendquiltingthebook to see lots of inspiration for projects made already.

Happy Quilting

Jemima x 

Star Filled Skies Pillow Tutorial - Weekend Quilting Bonus Project!

In my book - Weekend Quilting (available here) one of the projects is a Lap Quilt called - Star Filled Skies.  When I created this design, due to the number of colours and prints I used, there were some blocks left over that were not used in making the quilt.  I decided after some discussion with my Editor that I wanted to keep the pattern written with the extra blocks otherwise the cutting instructions would have become fiddly and more complicated.  I also admit that I like a few extra blocks to play with the colours and placement of patterns to achieve the perfect layout.

So after keeping the extra blocks it was decided that I thought it would be great to use them to make a Pillow from these leftover blocks to have a Quilt and Pillow set.  Below is a Tutorial for how to construct the Pillow.  You will need a copy of Weekend Quilting to make the Star blocks (or have them leftover from your Quilt).  

Star Filled Skies Pillow

16.5in x 16.5in

Requirements

Leftover blocks from Star Filled Skies

(1 medium and 4 small stars)

1/4 yd Background Fabric

1/4 yd Binding fabric

Cotton Thread

20in x 20in Square Batting

1/2 yd Backing Fabric

18in Zip

18in Cushion insert

(I always upsize my insert by one size from the finished 

size of the pillow for a "plump" looking Pillow)

Cutting Instructions

From your Background fabric cut:

4 - 3.5in x 6.5in pieces for the pillow top

2 - 2.5in x 12.5in pieces (left and right borders)

2 - 2.5in x 16.5in pieces (top and bottom borders)

From your Backing fabric cut:

1 - 4.75in x 16.5in piece for backing top

1 - 14.25in x 16.5in piece for backing bottom

From your Binding fabric cut:

2 - 2.5in strips x WOF (width of fabric)

Step 1 - Layout your spare blocks as above and place the background pieces as shown around the stars.

Step 2 - sew a background piece to either side of your centre star and in-between your top and bottom smaller stars.  Press your seams open.  

Step 3 - Sew each of the rows together, pressing seams open.  This block now measures 12.5in x 12.5in

Step 4 - to each of the sides sew the left and right border pieces.  Press seams open.

Step 5 - sew the top and bottom border pieces to your pillow top.  Press seams open.  Your finished Pillow top will now measure 16.5in x 16.5in.

Step 6 - Take your pillow top and baste to your Batting.  Quilt however you choose.  I decided to machine quilt mine using the outside straight lines of the stars to quilt along side.  You could even hand quilt your Pillow top.  Trim your excess batting.

Zipped Cushion Back and Binding - Follow the instructions outlined in Weekend Quilting using the Chapter - Putting it All Together to show you how to make the zipped Pillow back and how to add binding to your Pillow.

Happy Sewing

Jemima x 

#weekendquiltingthebook, #weekendquilting

Weekend Quilting - Showcase Wrap Up! (lots of stunning Pics in this Post!)

I am completely and absolutely blown away by how amazing all the projects that have been made by my Blogging friends are.  I am so inspired by each of them and then to see how they have taken the patterns from my book - Weekend Quilting and made it their own is breath taking.  I am also, so very humbled at the words they have all written within their posts, the time they have all taken out of their busy schedules and family lives and just how willing everyone was to be a part of celebrating my first book.  

Over the past month 23 Bloggers have showcased the projects they made from the book.  Take a look below at these adorable and inspiring projects made by this very talented group of people I am blessed to call friends:

Lisa from A Spoonful of Sugar

Robyn from The Strawberry Thief

Melissa from Oh How Sweet

Emily from Quilty Love

Samantha from Aqua Paisley Studio

Nadra from Ellis and Higgs

Peta from She Quilts Alot 

Stacy from Stacy Olson Design

Sedef from Down Grapevine Lane

Elizabeth from Quilters Candy Box

Suzy from Suzy Quilts

Amy from Nana Company

Jodi from Ric Rac

Ange from A Little Patchwork

Heather from Quilt Story

Elea from Elea Lutz Design

Lauren from Molly and Mama

Claire from Claire Turpin Design

Jennie from Clover and Violet

Fat Quarter Shop

Alisha from Ministry of Fabric

Minki from Minki Kim's Worktable

I also during the Showcase was busy making a new version of my "Hearts on Fire Quilt".  My older daughter, while I was making the book quickly claimed the Denim and Cotton and Steel version that I was making (I took that as a compliment that a 14year was "baggsing" a quilt I was making).  So for my younger daughter I decided I would make a Liberty version and make it quite different in colour and texture from the original.  

These Liberty fabrics from The Strawberry Thief were just so pretty and the Nude Solid background colour just perfect.  It is no secret how much I adore Liberty fabrics - the prints make me so inspired and I love the colour ways and dainty prints.  

I also used Quilt-Lite for this quilt (made by Vilene) which is a really soft and draped almost flannel like batting.  It is much thinner than regular Cotton Batting and is the perfect summer weight Quilt. I used the shape of the heart as the outline for the Machine Quilting.  I quilted 1.5in apart lines around the whole outside of the heart. Said younger daughter has even used this Quilt so much already it has already been washed.

And that wraps up the Weekend Quilting Showcase!

GIVEAWAY WINNER - thank you to everyone who left a comment in the first post.  The winner of the Weekend Quilting Showcase Prize pack is - Anna Short - email me Anna at tiedwitharibbon@gmail.com and we can get your prize out to you.  

There are also so many wonderful pictures to see over at #weekendquiltingthebook, #weekendquiltingshowcase.

There are still a few copies of Weekend Quilting available in my store or you can also order through Amazon. 

I can't wait to see the projects you also make from my book so please tag me @tiedwitharibbon and #weekendquiltingthebook so I can see what you are making.

Thank you so much again to all the Bloggers who created a project but also to you the readers for being so supportive of my first Book - Weekend Quilting.  It means the world to me.  I have such a great and supportive team behind me at Fons and Porter and they have been such a big part of this journey so also a big thank you to Jodi and Kerry especially.

Happy Quilting

Jemima x x

Blooms Garden Quilt - A Free Pattern

When I wrote the pattern for my Blooms Mini Quilt from my book - Weekend Quilting I knew that I would need to somehow turn this into a larger quilt.  I have been just so in love with this design that I wanted to do something on a bigger scale.

Hence I have come up with the Blooms Garden Lap Quilt and even better - the pattern is free.  This Lap Quilt measures 60in x 60in (153cm x 153cm) and is the perfect way to extend the Mini Blooms pattern into a Quilt for on the couch or for a bed or even a beautiful picnic quilt.  

To make this Quilt you will need a copy of 

Weekend Quilting 

and the pattern which you can download from the link below 

Blooms Garden Lap Quilt.

There are also Acrylic Templates available as well for this project which make tracing out your shapes onto your Fusible Web a breeze. 

This pattern is designed as an extension of the pattern from the book so further tips and techniques can be found in the pages as well as all the detailed instructions to Baste and Bind your Quilt of Weekend Quilting. 

For this Quilt I used a Fat Quarter Bundle of Heather Ross' Sleeping Porch  for Windham Fabrics.  It has the sweetest butterflies and snails and was perfect for this Floral inspired quilt design.  The fabrics too - being Lawn are just so soft and work really well against the White Linen I used for the background fabric.

I love using a Triple Stitch on my machine for Raw Edge Appliqué.  I use really shiny threads to give just a bit of sparkle to the design.

I'd love to see any pictures/posts you make of this Quilt so make sure to tag me @tiedwitharibbon in any pics that you post or use the hashtags #tiedwitharibbonpatterns, #weekendquiltingthebook #bloomsgardenquilt.

Happy Sewing

Jemima x x