Quilt Big - The Aurifil Thread Collection by Jemima Flendt

I have been secretly working on a very exciting project on over the past many months - Introducing the Quilt Big Aurifil Thread Collection. 

For many years now I have been using and promoting Aurifil Thread.  I have been an #aurifilartisan and love sharing how wonderful I find this thread to be.  So, insert squeals of excitement when the opportunity arose for me to curate my own Thread Collection.

The collection consists of 12 Large Spools in 50wt thread - just perfect for all your piecing and quilting projects.  I wanted the collection to include my go to colours for the piecing and the colours I love to use for when I Machine Quilt and Bind my quilts and projects. And of course you don't have to be making a project from my Book - Quilt Big to love this collection.

The collection was launched at Houston Quilt Market and already has started shipping to stores Internationally and here in Australia.  

You can check out the Interview I did with Aurifil Thread all about the collection and how it came about.

While I used these threads to co-ordinate and work with the Quilts in my Book - Quilt Big - this is a collection you will be able to use to build you stash of sewing thread colours and introduce you to some new ones.  

At the recent Australian Quilt Market (AQM) here was my collection on the Aurifil Australia Booth.

You can check out the following stores to get hold of your Quilt Big Aurifil Thread Collection

Fat Quarter Shop

Sew Mondo Online

Amitie Textiles 

Carols of Midland

Checker Distributors 

Wholesale orders through

Aurifil

Aurifil Thread Australia 

Happy Quilting

Jemima x x 

The story of the making of an Aerial Grove Quilt.

It was a long, long time ago when I decided to make an Aerial Grove Quilt.  I fell in love with this pattern by Carolyn Friedlander from her book - Savour Each Stitch back in October 2016. I was smitten - I knew after reading the book from cover to cover that this was a quilt that I wanted to make for myself.   

First part was getting to choose all the fabrics I was going to use for my Needle turn "squircles".  I went through my Liberty fabric stash and pulled out all the ones that made me so happy in a Rainbow colour way.  Cutting up this many Liberty squares actually took a while - to cut, press and then fold back up all these fabrics.  It also made a wonderfully beautiful mess in my sewing room.

Next up was deciding what fabrics I was going to use for the backgrounds of this quilt.  I wanted the quilt to go on our Bed, so although I had picked some very girly Liberty fabrics I then decided to try to make it more something also that my hubby would love on the bed too.  As a big lover of Denim and Chambray fabrics I had the perfect variety of lots of different prints and types of these Denims and Chambray's left from projects that I had already made.  So, so far - I used the Liberty fabrics from my stash and the Denims/Chambray's also came from what I already had.

Some of the Denims and Chambray's I used are below

Art Gallery - Bombazine Inspired

Art Gallery - Casted Loops

Gertrude Made Essentials - Texas Denim

Gertrude Made Essentials  - Chambray

Robert Kaufman - Essex Yarn Dye - Indigo

Sevenberry - Royal Chambray Dots

Sevenberry - Royal Chambray Stars

I then spent the next year hand sewing all the squircles into place.  The pieces even came on our Family Cruise in December 2017 to Vanuatu.  I had already basted down the Liberty squircles so this made the strips very portable and easy to take with me places when I had a chance to stitch.  

Early in 2018 I had finally finished the hand sewing of all those squircles and began to piece together the strips and background pieces of Denims and Chambray's.

I began to build the quilt out using all the pieces of the Denims and Chambray's I had chosen to use.  I was aiming for this to be quite large and worked it up to be 2.2m x 2.2m so big enough for our Queen size bed.  I knew very early on that I was going to Hand quilt this quilt.  So I also cut the pieces for the blocks with this in mind so that I could use lots of smaller blocks to create the hand quilting design rather than leaving fabric pieces in larger squares and rectangles. In between the Denims and Chambray's I placed a few background blocks in Liberty fabrics to draw cohesion from the Liberty squircles that were in the centre.

Next I sent the Quilt off to my Long Arm Quilter.  Because I knew this was a project that was going to take me a while to work on I had the quilt Basted.  This would save me not only basting such a large Quilt myself but then I would not have to deal with the weight of the number of pins I knew this quilt would need for hand quilting.  

The next task was to collect up all the Thread I was going to use for the Hand quilting - this was the easy part - Aurifil 12wt.  I chose about 8 different blue 12wt Thread colours and then matched each the fabrics to one of these colours so that I knew which fabric would be matching to which colour thread.  

With all my tools ready for Hand quilting - I then started what I knew would be a long and rewarding process.  Over the years I have hand quilted many quilts - I love hand quilting, I find it relaxing and such a worthwhile way to add such a beautiful texture and feel to your quilt.  

If you have wanted to give hand quilting a go or already love this part of quilting and would like some extra tips - here is a Blog post I wrote all about  - My Favourite Hand Quilting Tools.  Here you will find some helpful tips and tricks. 

I used a variety of different Masking tapes - 1/4in, 1/2in and 1inch tapes to help create the spaced lines which went horizontally, vertically or diagonally randomly throughout each background block. 

Once I could see the finish line almost in sight for all the hand quilting, I then went back to my Liberty stash and found some Binding that would go perfectly for that finishing touch to the quilt.

Aren't Binding Babies ever so cute - always the perfect way to store your Bindings and  so very helpful when it comes time to sew the Binding onto your Quilt.

The Backing I choose to use for the Quilt - well that took a long time to decide what to go with.  My first initial though was that I wanted to use Liberty.  I knew that was an extravagant way to use this fabric and it was for the backing so I tried to work through other options.  I looked at Widebacks, lots of different Chambray's and Denim options, I tried looking at yardage of regular Quilting cottons that I thought might work.  It wasn't working for me.  I had spied this Liberty Betsy in Denim from Ava and Neve and then just could get this out of my head to use this.  While it certainly was a luxury - I figured that this was going to be our quilt, all the fabric for the top had come from my stash and mostly I knew I would have regretted not using it.

Within the first 10 seconds of opening up the package of the yardage of this Betsy I knew I had made the right decision.  This Liberty was going to hand quilt up a dream, be so soft and have a much lighter weight to the overall quilt - especially as I had used the Denims and Chambray's on the front which are a little heavier than regular quilting cottons.  I was in love!    

So all in all this quilt took about 2 years to make from beginning to end.  Certainly a wonderful journey in hand sewing and hand quilting.  

Happy Quilting

Jemima x 

Smitten Quilt - My English Paper Piecing Adventure - The final chapter!

I can't believe I have stitched the final hand quilted stitches into my Smitten Quilt.  This quilting adventure has take me most of the year but I have never more enjoyed hand stitching and hand quilting.  

When I first started this quilt - fussy cutting was not on my agenda.  I had only bought Fat 16ths of my fabrics so this mostly wasn't possible with that size of material.  However as the year went on and I got my hands on some larger pieces of fabric just perfect for fussy cutting I could not resit adding in a few here and there.

I have always loved Hand quilting and as I went along English Paper Piecing the top I knew that I wanted to hand quilt this as wee.  I tried to make the hand quilting quite random, some hexagons are quilted around all sides and some not at all.  

For Hand quilting I used Aurifil 12 wt threads in a variety of colours.  Mostly matching fabrics and coloured threads as I went.  These have a beautiful sheen to them and the perfect thickness for hand quilting.  I also used Tulip Embroidery Needles - Sharps.  These have the perfect flex and size to the needle for such a big task.

I came across this "April Showers" fabric by Lewis and Irene earlier this year and purchased enough for the backing.  As soon as I saw it I knew it was perfect for this Smitten.  I then placed a few fussy cuts of this sweet girl into the front to tie them both together.

I am definitely Smitten with this quilt and I hope you have loved reading about my adventure along the way.

Happy Sewing 

Jemima x 

Heart You Mini Quilt - Tutorial

Heart You Mini Quilt Tutorial

Lets just start by saying I love Liberty London fabrics!  I have been collecting them for a while and just adore working with them.  So when you are lucky enough to put together a Tutorial for the Liberty London Blog - life pretty much is ever so sweet.

You can check out my Tutorial and Interview here!

Deciding which idea to go with from those I had put together was hard.  I wanted a project that would look striking, wouldn't require yardage for those who are starting to collect or for those who already have lots of Liberty fabric - a great project that could showcase some of their favourites.

I don't believe there is such a thing as Liberty scraps - rather Liberty treasures and this project is just perfect for those smaller pieces, smaller prints and even some fussy cutting if you like.

Finished Size – 20in x 20in (51cm x 51cm)

¼ inch seam allowance included

Read all instructions before starting

Fabric measurements based on fabric 42in/110cm wide (WOF)

REQUIREMENTS

6.5in x 6.5in of 18 different Liberty Prints

16in  (40cm) white fabric

6in binding fabric

26in x 26in  (60cm x 60cm) Batting

26in x 26in Backing fabric

Cotton sewing thread

Pencil

Hand quilting embroidery cotton (I have used Aurifil 12t)

Rotary Cutter, ruler and mat

General sewing supplies

Sewing machine with ¼ inch and walking foot

For sewing the Mini Quilt I used Aurifil 50wt #2024 - This is a great white thread.  This was also used for the quilting lines on the top of the quilt.  For the Backstitch I used Aurifil 12wt #2530.  I love this shade of hot pink.

Cutting Instructions

From the White

Cut 8 –1.5in strips x WOF.  Cross cut into 224 – 1.5in x 1.5in squares

Cut 1 – 2.25in strip x WOF.  Cross cut into 16 – 2.25in x 2.25in squares

From each of the 18 Liberty fabrics

Cut 8 – 1.5in squares.  You need 144 squares in total

Cut 1 – 2.25in square.  You only need 16 in total.

Binding

Cut 2 – 2.25in strips x WOF

Step 1 - Cut out as per cutting instructions.

Step 2 -To make the Half Square Triangles (HST) – take the 2.25in white squares and with a pencil mark a diagonal line from one corner to the other.  Place one Liberty 2.25in square with right sides facing a white 2.25in square.  Pin together.  Sew ¼ in, along either side of this marked line on your white square.

If you mark and pin them all up you can chain piece these to speed up this step.  You will have 2 Liberty Squares left over, as you only need 16.

      Cut along the diagonal line and press the seam toward to coloured fabric. 

Trim these HST to be 1.5in squares.  Repeat until you have made 32 HST’s in total.

Step 3 - Lay out your white squares and Liberty prints in the Heart pattern (following the diagram) so that you make 20 columns by 20 rows.  Play with the placement of the Liberty fabrics to create a pleasing look to your mini quilt top so that you do not have too many of the same fabrics or colours together.  The HST blocks will form the shape/sides of your Heart.

    Note: Diagram above is to scale - 1 square = 1.5in unfinished square

Step 4 - Sew up the squares and HST by sewing each of the 20 squares together the make a row.

Step 5 - Press the seams in the same direction.  Continue sewing each of the rows together pressing alternate rows in the same direction.

As you have pressed the rows in opposite directions the seams will “nest” when you sew the rows together.  This will make it easy to pin the squares in place. 

     

Step 6 - Once you have sewn all of the rows, sew them together to complete your mini quilt top.

Step 7 - Draw the word "love" onto the mini quilt top with a pencil.  Using Backstitch - sew the lettering using your hand embroidery thread onto the mini quilt top.

Step 8 - Sandwich your Mini Quilt

Lay your backing fabric right side down, then centre the wadding and lay the quilt top right side up over the top.  Smooth out the quilt top and pin the three layers together.

Step 9 - Quilting

I machined quilted the quilt in the ditch around the heart.  I used a white cotton thread to sew the lines and then I echoed the shape of the heart out from the centre to make a heart shape with my quilting lines.

Step 10 - Binding

Take the binding strips and join them with right sides facing.

Mark the diagonal and sew along this line.  Trim and press the seam open. 

Then press the entire strip in half length ways with wrong sides facing. 

Start about half of the way along one side of the mini quilt sew the binding strip to the right side of the mini quilt, mitring the corners as you go. 

Stop about 6 inches from where you started.  Join the ends and cut off excess.  Continue sewing the binding to the min quilt top.  Trim the backing and wadding.

Fold over the binding and slip stitch into place along the back seam line.

I would love to see your Heart You Mini Quilts.  You can send pictures to me at 

tiedwitharibbon@gmail.com

Or you can link them over on Instagram with the #heartyouminiquilt

Or you can even send me a message on Facebook or post them on my wall.

Happy Sewing and I can't wait to see all your stunning Heart You Mini Quilts

Jemima x x