This Week: Update

This week I've been busy finishing up a hugely big WIP, remember that Irish Chain quilt? Yep. I finished it yesterday, I'll be back next week with a full post on it after I've had some photo time with it ;-) So as a little treat for finishing, last night I finally got started on the cutest little mini Dwell quilt by Thimbleblossoms. I purchased it recently at 30% off! Camille is having a sale as part of the Moda blog-hop. You can find the details about it here. 

(don't ask me why I seemed to forget to make the middle house!?) I think I needed another instant gratification project after that monster! If you follow me on Instagram (@messyjesse1) you would have seen a sneak peak of the finished Irish chain quilt yesterday! 

I've also worked on some more letter's as part of the Spell It With Fabric QAL. I love working on these, they're so bright and happy. I'm up to 'O' now, so I'm starting to think about sashing and borders etc now I'm coming nearer to the finish line. Right, I'm off now. Just had a big box of Tasha Noel's latest collection 'Country Girls' delivered, which I've got to get listed in the Sew and Quilt shop asap. Oh it's a hard job! Have a great weekend guys. xo

Spell It With Moda Blog Hop!

I haven't joined many quilt-a-long's in the past but I have to say I'm beyond excited for the Spell It With Fabric blog hop by Moda! If you haven't heard about it before, Sandy Klop and Moda have released an alphabet quilt pattern that showcases her story of designing American Jane fabric collections through the years. Throughout the bog hop from the 17th - 28th Feb you can collect the alphabet letter patterns to make the quilt! Yay! along with interviews and prizes. 

I had so much fun making the first A, B, C, I whipped up the rest of he letters in no time! I'm planning on making the full alphabet quilt, which finishes up at 64" x 93" (using the original version, which you can see here). I know some people are planning on mini's with just their initial - I want a 'J' mini on my sewing wall too! :-) This is going to be a baby quilt for someone very special! >.< so I'm going for an American Jane/schoolhouse'y look using lots of bright primary colour's and cute 1930's novelty fabric for the letters and a mix of Kona Snow and low volume fabrics for the background. I'm so inspired by Sandy Klop aka American Jane. She produces some amazing patterns I would love to try someday, I love the sampler quilts she creates using rich primary colour's - like this and this. 

Here's the link to the complete blog line-up, where you can find the patterns as they become available. You can also follow along on Instagram using the hashtag #spellitwithmoda - that's where I'm posting mine. Right, I'm off to print out the new letters and get sewing! 

Are you joining? 

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Farmers Wife Quilt Update

Oh how I forgot how much I love working on my Farmer's Wife Quilt. I cracked on with 12 new blocks over the weekend and had a blast! but yikes, did I forget how labour intensive they were!? These pretty 6" blocks may look relatively easy peasy to some, but not me :/ I'm finding some of them quite the challenge! Especially the one's with flying geese units, I'm avoiding those blocks at all costs now… 

An enjoyable challenge, but a challenge nonetheless. I think my general piecing accuracy has definitely improved over time so I'm looking back at older blocks and thinking "what?!". I'm also finding that since it's taking an age to complete my taste is changing as well, so I may need to update some blocks, oops! I'm also in a quandary about adding solid white to some blocks, until now I had only used patterned fabric? Now I'm undecided.

I've been making the blocks in sets of four at a time and chain piecing as much as possible - following Camille Roskelley's FWQ tips. She recommends doing them six at a time but I don't think I have a workspace that allows me that so I can get into a bit of a muddle doing it that way.  

How's your #fwqal going?

PS. apologies to some of my lovely readers who are kind enough to leave comments but I haven't got back to you! A lot of comments are not being fed back to my email account so I haven't been able to reply, agh.. blogger can be a nuisance. Oh, and you may notice a picture of MEEE! on the blog now, I know? what was I thinking!? but I figured it was high time to have a permanent photo of my on here - like every blogger. I've been meaning to do it for years but I never have photo's of myself, and I had to take one of myself the other day for a publication so I figured I would post it here too! Maybe the fwq blocks may distract you anyway ;) xo

The Swoon Block

Happy Monday friends! Hope you've all had a lovely weekend? I had a productive one cracking on with some blocks for my much neglected Farmers Wife quilt! More on that in another post ;) Today I wanted to share a new Swoon block mini I finished up recently! I have to say, I couldn't be happier with how this turned out. Honestly I think this is one of my most favourite things I've made. Really.

I completely fell in love making the Swoon block (by Thimbleblossoms, you can find it here) it was such a pleasure to piece. I'm not so accurate with teeny tiny piecing, so I throughly enjoyed working with such a big block. I hadn't actually realised quite how BIG the Swoon blocks were until I finished it up and held it next to me! 

The fabrics are Liberty Tana Lawns, they really are so beautiful! (thoughts on stocking them for my Sew and Quilt shop?) You really get to see the fabrics with this design so I think it shows them off well. I use Kona Snow for the background, and le creme swiss dot in cream for binding, so as not to distract - I seem to favour a neutral binding in my projects, I think? 

I also tried a new quilting technique which I've always admired; baptist fans! Yep. Love those curves! It now hangs pride of place in our living room :) 

Perhaps, a full sized Liberty Swoon quilt is in order next? ...

More Mini's

Next up on the mini quilt train is this super cute apple design by Lori Holt. I fell in love with the apple's from the Quilty Fun book the moment I saw it and immediately put it on my 'sewing to do list'. 

The pattern originates from a full size quilt, but I knew exactly what I had in mind for these delicious apples ;) I also already had the fabrics chosen in my head (this usually happens when I plan my quilt projects). I'm so happy with how it looks in my kitchen on my vintage yellow cabinet. You can see it from the living room, so it's nice to have a touch of Lori's fun and happy personality in my home now.

One of the reasons I love making mini's at the moment is being able to try out new quilting designs without committing to a huge piece. For this one I tried a scallop design - I adore anything scallop! I used an acrylic circle template to draw half circles with a water erasable pen and followed the lines with my walking foot.

Ok, so to those who think I'm completely addicted you're right. I am, but to my defence this one was made before Christmas, I just haven't got round to sharing it! Again, from the Quilty Fun book, this one was a gift to my nana, who uses it as a table centre in her kitchen - she has a blue theme going on in there so I thought I'd stick to the colour theme. We all like a bit of matchy, matchy in our family. 

Mini Mad patterns from Camille Roskelley

My Instagram pals (I'm @messyjesse1) will know I was a sewing demon last week! I'm not sure if it was my super tidy new sewing room, the awful weather we've been having or a batch of new fabrics to motivate me to hibernate in-doors and sew.non.stop. but whatever it was, it worked. It also helps that Camille Roskelley makes the cutest patterns! 

I had such an urge to make the lovely Spools mini! The spools were all random pieces from my scrap pile, so it was a happy coincidence that it all worked together nicely. The brown reels fabric is a print I use again and again, chocolate spot by Darlene Zimmerman - it's so useful! I literally had so much fun making this I finished it in one sitting! which is really fast for me as I'm a sloooow quilter… 

Next up is the little house mini, I already had one block started from way back - I seem to remember it taking forever to make that first block, so I got put off and left it for ages, but weirdly I whipped up the new blocks in no time, funny how quick you can be when you're motivated! and I just love the navy check binding. The pattern for this one came from a book called Make Mine Mini, you can find the amazon link on the sidebar (thanks for clicking through!).

Since I had such a hoot making the Spools mini, I thought I would try my hand at the Swoon mini next! This didn't come together as quickly as the others, mind you. Though once I got my cutting done and did a test block the others came together much easier - and it would have been a lot quicker had I have not chosen a directional print for one of the blocks! Note the outwards directions of the red scallop print, yeh that didn't come easily :/ 

So I've gone a bit 'mini-mad' of late, and I love it. I took my fabric pin-board down that was above my desk in favour of the new mini's - a la Camille. It's so fun seeing them all the time now :) and I've already finished another mini for my kitchen too! Let's see how long this productive quilting gravy train will last… have a great week friends. xo

Liberty Valentines Card and Envelope DIY

Do you remember those beautiful Liberty fabrics I featured on the blog here recently? 

Well, they have now been turned into a super sweet Valentines card and envelope which you can all make too. I have a little tutorial and Q&A over on the Liberty Craft Blog, so if you've ever wanted to find out why I have the blog name 'Messy Jesse', or how I run my Sew and Quilt shop along with having a day job and being a blogger (spoiler alert; I have no social life!) or what I have planned for the coming year? Head on over and take a read.

I have lots of fabric leftover from the project, so I know I'll be working them into some projects soon. I'm so excited! Have a lovely weekend. xo

Scrappy Irish Chain

My scrappy Irish chain quilt has taken a bit of a back seat for the last couple of weeks, when I first started on it I didn't stop! Every chance I could escape up to the sewing room I was working on it. I love it when projects get you like that. It's been on the back-burner as I've been sewing up a storm of mini quilts recently, (more on that in another post / and follow me on Instagram @messyjesse1 to keep up to date!). I did a bit of a sewing room deep clean as well; culled lots and cut up tons of vintage sheets that I had piling up. So I have a bunch of vintage FQ packs and scrap bags for sale in the shop, which have proven to be very popular already :) 

Now I'm ready to get back to this. Hoping to find some time in the evenings this week, and with the stormy weather we've been having recently it's certainly helping my sewing time!