Lotta Jansdotta Bella Quilt

Never having made a quilt I was looking for a design that wasn't too complicated but still a bit of a challenge.  Inspiration came from Film in the Fridge's - Innocent Crush Quilt. Then I saw the Lotta Jansdotta Bella fabrics and put the two together. Squares and rectangles with boarders. How difficult could that be....Well I've learned a few things from making this quilt.

Cutting and Measurement
Precise measurement and cutting makes for an easier life later in the piecing together stage.

Blocks

I made the squares and rectangles a little larger than shown in the quilt block tutorial. Some of my prints needed a slightly larger square to see the design. If I made another quilt like this I would probably try using a smaller pattern print with less directional influence.

Quilting

I thought it would look quite nice to do the quilting stitch around each square/rectangle. A good idea but in practice this left me with a few problems with fabric shifting, hundreds of loose ends to sew in and on the back the effect not as pleasing as the front. Will remember this for the next quilt.

Binding and Fabric

Some time after purchasing the bulk of the fabric, I was searching online for extra Bella 'yellow dot' fabric to complete the binding. I discovered the range to be discontinued. I will have to plan ahead my fabric purchases (and get on with things instead of leaving them in a cupboard) similar to knitting yarn and discontinued ranges. They always do advise you to purchase enough to complete the project!  In the end decided to settled for making a plain white neutral bias binding to complement the other colours.

Finished Size
46" x 56".

Finishing

Some of my finishing work could have been executed with more finesse, however, for my first effort I'm please with the result.

Gingham and Ric Rac

 

Had the sewing machine out and made a simple tablecloth with red and white cotton gingham with a large white ric rac decorative edging.

Autumn Leaves

This simple embroidery project came from a download pattern called Day Three Tree via the lovely website called Lollychops (and well worth a visit). The embroidery hoop I used is 18cm (7") diameter and the backing fabric is some preshrunk medium weight unbleached cotton. I used the tree template from the pattern but cut the leaves out free hand in wool felt, pinned everything into position, then used embroidery thread to sew on in running stitch. Where there was space I used some wool fibre to stuff the trunk and leaves to give some raised relief texture to the piece.

Creatures Round Robin

Sometime in April I put my name down to join a "Creatures Round Robin" on the UK Handmade members forum. What exactly is that you may ask? The idea is that each participant makes a contribution to a creature design before sending the design onwards to the next person so that they can make their contribution. As there were four of us participating, four designs were being worked on simultaneously, each design had five stages which each participant contributed to. Very briefly the design stages were as follows;

1. Write a description
2.Draw a design based on the written description
3.Make a pattern, cut out and sew a creature based on the information in 1&2
4. Make a face
5.Finishing touches

Confused? If you are still reading, then I should tell you that it all worked perfectly and went like clockwork due to the excellent organisation of the host "Olly" who is the writer and artist behind the blog Wollies. The two other talented participants were Shaz of The Sock Garden blog and Kathleen of Murgatroyd Hoots. If you would like to see the other lovely finished creatures then click on the links below to visit each participants blog and read more about their creatures and the design process...

Olly - Wollies
Shaz - The Sock Garden
Kathleen - Murgatroyd Hoots

My rather long winded design description went through the stages and came back to me as this beautiful, colourful sleepy and awake owl.....

Colourful and beautifully detailed design interpretation from Shaz.

Pattern cut out, fabric and creature sewing done brilliantly by Olly.

Fabulous eyes and face embroidery detail by Kathleen.

A few buttons and ric rack added by me...

Summer Weeds

Summer Weeds
When this smoke blue tea towel from Skinny Laminx arrived in the post from South Africa I decided it was too nice to dry dishes with! Summer weeds print has been waiting patiently to be made into a cushion cover which I finished over the weekend. It's now sitting comfortably next to my green hand printed covers made by Kiran at Inkling Prints. (The wall art embroidery frames I made last year and talked about here).