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 

Green Tea and Sweet Beans - My way!

I can not believe that I have actually finished the last stitches on my version of Green Tea and Sweet Beans by Jen Kingwell.  This is going to be a long post (pre warning you), I have been asked so many questions through Facebook and Instagram about the way I made mine that I thought I would write this post to go through my construction process of this quilt.  I love sharing with others my knowledge of quilting and this is just how I put this quilt together.  I decided that from the beginning that I was going to use techniques and methods that I felt very comfortable with and was stronger at.  I love a challenge but I also felt that for me I wanted to enjoy and have my best skills shown in its stitches.  So my version differs in techniques and construction than Jen Kingwell's quilt and pattern but is this not the true beauty of quilting.

I first started this quilt back in April with a Starter Kit from Westwood Acres. This was great as from this pack of fabrics I then pulled fabrics from my own stash that  I loved.

This is the techniques and methods I used for the blocks and tips that I found noteworthy for making the blocks.  I traced the templates from the pattern using an "Add a 1/4 ruler" and  Light box.

Wedding Chain Block
Machine pieced
The centre block was fussy cut. 

Propeller Blocks
Machine pieced

Cut out each piece individually with the fabric facing up.  In quilting we are so used to cutting out with fabric folded from the bolt but you need to cut each singularly to avoid the propellers going in the wrong direction.

This is my FAVOURITE block from the whole quilt!

Lozengers
Machine pieced

Garden Paths 
Machine pieced
This one has y-seams inset in the blocks - be careful not to stretch Piece "H" as you inset these as these are on the bias.

Double Pinwheels
Machine pieced

Press seams open when you iron for this block - it will help alleviate any bulk.  I sewed this block wrong! TWICE!  So I figured that the pinwheels facing the wrong direction was a point of interest.  

Churn Dash
Machine pieced

I love these blocks - I fussy cut some "Symbols" from some of the text fabric from the starter kit and love how these came together.  Press all seams open - they will lie nice and flat for this block.

Applique Block 1, 2, 5 and Berry Basket, Clam Shell
Hand Applique and Machine sewing

Needle turn is not my cup of tea - some people love it and I just can't get it looking as good as I would like.  Hand Applique using Button hole stitch is one of my favourites and I have used this technique on many, many quilts.  

I decided that as I love this type of sewing that for most of the pieces and blocks that use Needle turn that I would Hand Applique these pieces instead.  I used 2 strands of DMC Rayon embroidery thread and used Vliesofix to adhere all the shapes to block.  

All the stems throughout the whole quilt were made with a bias tape maker and stitched in place using a Triple stitch on the sewing machine.  These were sewn down first and then the applique flowers and leaves hand sewn.

For the Clam Shells I used the helpful Tutorial from Amanda at A Crafty Fox.  I am really glad that I over locked the edges of this fabric.  

Drunkards Path 
Machine pieced

PIN! PIN! PIN!  Bias curves can be tricky but when in doubt PIN!

Poppie
Machine pieced
The pieces were machine pieced and I Hand Appliqued the centre flower.

Tulip Block
Machine pieced

There are Y-seams in this block when you machine piece so pin and press carefully.  Mark the intersection of where the seams will meet at the 1/4 in mark with a pencil so that you know where to stop sewing to allow the y-seam to inset.

Hexagon Panel
English Paper Piecing

I used traced Hexagon papers and glue basted the fabric hexagons to the paper hexagons.  These were then hand stitched together using a whip stitch and Aurifil 50wt thread to make the panel.  My hexagons are the wrong size (I did not read the pattern properly and made the wrong size hexagons - hence having to add an extra strip of fabric to make the block the correct size).

Orange Peel, Igloos and Clam Shells
Needle turn

For all of my Needle turn I used Floriani - Stitch and Wash.  This is probably one of the most asked questions about my quilt.  I traced the shapes onto the Floriani and then cut them out.  The Floriani shapes were then ironed to the back of my chosen fabrics and cut out about a 1/4inch around the outside.  I snipped around the shape to make it easier to fold down the seam allowance and glued this seam allowance in place with regular paper glue stick and using a cuticle stick to help place and smooth as I went around the curves of the shape.  This made a neat shape which was then hand stitched into place on the background fabric.  

Day Lily
Machine pieced

Baby Carriage Flowers
Machine pieced
The stems were sewn down using a Triple stitch on the machine.

Flower Blocks
Machine pieced

Take your time this block is tricky but well worth the invested effort.  

Double Drunkards Path
Machine pieced

Square Daisy
Machine pieced

Pinwheel Blocks
Machine pieced
Great fun these blocks - press seams open

Checkerboards and Filler Strips
Machine pieced
I made these once I had finished all the blocks - I kept a bucket for scrap pieces that were leftover from all the blocks and then cut out the squares and rectangles from this little stash.

The Border
Hand Applique and Machine Pieced
For the border, just as with the Flower Appliqué blocks the Stems were sewn down using a Triple Stitch on my sewing machine.  I placed this all out first to see what it would look like and then pinned the stems down to sew.  The Flowers were then all iron into place and Hand sewn using Blanket Stitch.  I did not mitre my corners!

When I Hand Quilted the borders I used different sized masking tapes to set out the lines that I would follow.  Starting with 1/4in masking tape around the quilt and then working my way out with various widths.  The tape makes hand quilting easy as the line is there for you and you don't have to worry about marking your quilt.

Backing

I could not go past this "Word Play" fabric by Michele D'Amore for Bernatex Fabrics.

Hand Quilting

I decided to hand quilt the entire quilt.  This took a little while but well worth the effort.  For most blocks I just hand quilted a 1/4in in from the seams or with the Flower blocks I hand quilted very closely to the flower to make it "stand up" a little.  I used Finca Perle 8 thread to quilt the entire quilt.

Jemima x x