Winter Wishes Christmas Table Topper Tutorial

It's my stop on the Riley Blake Stitch 'n Kitchen Christmas Blog Tour today, so I'm sharing my Winter Wishes TableTopper pattern which you can make in no time for your festive table this year. Learn how to make my *delicious* recipe for authentic Cornish Fairings biscuits as well, also known as the best ginger biscuits ever! ;-)

The Recipe:
Title: Winter Wishes Tabletopper

"Making" Time: One evening
Notes:  Please read through all instructions carefully. Seams are 1/4" unless otherwise stated. RST means right sides together. Press seams open unless otherwise directed. 

Ingredients: 

White fabric 1FQ

Red fabric (4) Fat Eighths

Green fabric 10" x 10" square

Binding 1FQ

Backing 1FQ

Instructions: 

Cut the following;

* From each red 1/8, cut (1) 2-7/8" strip. Sub-cut into (5) 2-2/8" squares, you need (20) squares total. Cut (1) 4-1/2" square from each red fabric, you need (4) total. 

* From the green fabric sub cut your 10" square into (4) 2-1/2" squares. 

*From the white fabric cut (1) 2-1/2" strip, sub-cut into (8) 2-1/2" squares. Cut (4) 2-7/8" strips, sub-cut into (20) 2-7/8" squares. 

1. Draw a diagonal line through from one corner to the opposite corner of each of the 2-7/8" white squares. Place a white square with corresponding red square RST together, sew 1/4" from the each side from the drawn line. Cut along the drawn line. Open and press seams to the dark side. You now have two complete half square triangle (HST) units. 
Repeat steps for remaining squares to make 36 HST units. 


2. Assemble your block as follows. Your block should measure 6-1/2" square.


3. Assemble your blocks in two rows. Join rows together. Press all seams open. 

4. Cut an 18" square from backing fabric and batting. Make a quilt 'sandwich' with your quilt top, batting and backing fabric. Baste. Quilt as desired. I chose to machine quilt at 1" intervals diagonally through the centre. 

4. Cut (2) 2-1/2" x WOF strips for binding. Piece together. Press in half length lengthwise (wrong-sides together) to create your binding. Sew to quilt top, miter corners and fold and hand-sew to the backside to finish. 



I hope you've all been enjoying the Riley Blake 'Stitch'n Kitchen' blog tour. Hop over to the main page for all the details with lots more sewing ideas to make and Christmas recipes to enjoy. Thanks for stopping by, Jessie

The Recipe:
Title: Cornish Fairings Biscuits

"Making" Time: 30mins

Ingredients: 
100g Butter
225g Plain Flour
2tsp Baking Powder
1tsp Ground Ginger
2tsp Mixed Spice
100g Caster Sugar
4 tsp Golden Syrup

Instructions: 
Heat oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6. 
Lightly grease 2 large baking sheets. Put the flour, ¼ tsp salt, baking powder, bicarb and spices in a food processor. Add the diced butter and mix until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Tip into a bowl and stir in the sugar. 

1. Gently warm the golden syrup in a pan, add to the mixture and stir to form a dough. Roll the dough into 16 medium-sized balls, and spread them on the greased baking sheets at least 2cm apart. Bake for 8-12 mins until golden. 
   Cool on the trays before transferring to a wire rack.
   
   
   Voila! Now enjoy that lovely Christmassy mixed spice taste! I eat them all year round too! (Thanks mum!) Hope you enjoy them too, Jessie

Great Granny Twist with Lori Holt - Blog Hop

The 'Granny-Square' quilt block is absolutely one of my all-time favourite blocks, and today I'm sharing a super fun project using Lori Holt's Great Granny Mini block, with a twist! Quite literally in fact … 


I'm putting them on point! By adding some setting triangles and corner setting triangles the finished blocks are ready to turn into a pillow! I'll be showing you how to set any size block on point with the quilty maths. 

This is part of the Great Granny Twist Blog Hop, where bloggers have been invited to put a spin on a project from Lori Holts book. You can read all the details on the rest of the blog tour with Fat Quarter Shop here and find out what the rest of the bloggers have come up with. Such a fun idea, thanks FQS! As well Kimberly, from FQS has put together this video tutorial of her twist on the Granny Square block using appliqué circles. 



I pulled some crazy bright fabrics from my stash for this special project! The blue floral print used in the triangles is a vintage fabric I've been hoarding for *just* the right moment and I think it makes for quite a striking finish! I had lots of fun choosing the fabrics for the blocks for an eclectic mix of modern and old - I even fussy-cut the centre block with some vintage stichery taken from an embroidered tablecloth. 

I hand-quilted using Aurifil 40WT thread using the Fat Quarter Shop Finishing Set. It worked a treat! I'm so pleased I took the time to hand-quilt. 





First, make up 5 Great Granny Mini blocks, according to Lori's instructions featured in the book. Once you have your finished 6-1/2" blocks we need the following calculations to determine what size to cut our pieces. Adjust the finished block size to make any quilt block on point. 

Corner Setting Triangles

6.5" (finished block size) / 1.414 + 0.875 = cut size of square 

Cut square diagonally to make 2 finished (Half Square) corner setting triangles.

Side Setting Triangles

6.5" (finished size of block) x 1.414 + 1.25 = cut size of square

Cut square diagonally twice, to make 4 finished (Quarter Square) side setting triangles. 

Assemble your pillow top as follows. (Navy squares are your finished Granny Square blocks.) Piece together in rows, then add the corner setting triangles to the each corner. 

                            

These measurements finish slightly oversized triangles so you have lots of wiggle room to square up your quilt top. I have a tutorial from a few years ago on how to finish your pillow with an envelope closure. 


Granny Square 'mini' block by Lori Holt, adapted with permission by Jessie Fincham.
You can purchase the book from Fat Quarter Shop here, and if you're in the UK you can purchase the book from me at Sew and Quilt. 

1930s Farmer's Wife QAL - #23 Charlotte / Rotary Cutting Tips

I'd completely forgotten how much I loved making these little Farmer's Wife blocks! It was such a pleasure rummaging through my scrap bins and stash auditioning different fabrics for each one. Thank you Kerry for inviting me this week on the 1930s Farmer's Wife Quilt Along, I don't think I would have got round to making one if I didn't have a special post to write. 

The big stack of blocks above are all from my original Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt, which I happen to make in 1930s reproduction fabric, so it's completely fitting for today's QAL blog post - so they made an appearance ;-) I started making these quite a few years ago but still haven't got to the finish line with it, I thoroughly enjoy making them (which can be extremely labour intensive), so I'm in no hurry! I'm all about the sloooow sewing…

I really love the new addition of the miniature diagram thats included on the pattern page of each block. How fun. I know this is used for foundation paper piecing directions, but I thought it might be a nice memento for a quilt journal with some watercolour paints perhaps as well? 

Says the girl that hasn't even finished all the blocks from the first quilt? I know, I know. 

1930's Kona Solid Fat Quarter Bundle, available at Sew and Quilt.

I digress, back to the #23 Charlotte block, which you can find on page 182 of the book. I rotary cut and machine piece, as I have done with all my FWQ blocks. There are rotary cutting templates provided, in addition to the foundation paper pieced ones. Just print them out on regular paper (they have a 1inch size guide on the page so you know you're printing out at the correct size, which of course I didn't on first time, oops. I succeeded on second attempt by selecting the US Letter page size in my printer - you might want to also use something like 'do not scale' etc). 

Most often I will dig through my stash as they are such tiny pieces you really don't need much. If I use yardage I'll rough cut a strip larger than the template and rough cut a larger shape than the template. I will often fold the strip to double over, depending on how many pieces are required for that fabric/shape. 

I usually stack about 2-4 pieces (depending on how sharp my rotary blade is) and trim off the excess, lining up with the edge of the template. Turn and cut, turn and cut, being careful not to shift too much. I use a mini rotary cutting mat that spins, not sure why it didn't make the picture? 


Once you're all prepped you're ready to go. Chain piecing makes life much easier here. Once I'm done with the chain I'll bring it straight over to my iron for pressing (without too much handling) and trim the threads while at the iron station to save time going back and forth. 

And here she is all finished! I went for a different colour combo than the book version. I used Corn Yellow Kona solid, which is a really bold yellow that packs a punch, alongside an old Mother's Melodies print I used to sell a few years back in the shop. The opposite side is my favourite green, Aloe Kona solid and a matching Pretty Posies print by Darlene Zimmerman. I have a popular Kona bundle I put together for Sew and Quilt, which is a complete FQ bundle of all 22 official 1930's Kona solids. They are perfect for this QAL!



Of course I couldn't leave without sharing some 1930's repro eye candy from Sew and Quilt with you! *plug, plug, plug*. On the left is the delightful Pretty Posies FQ bundle, it's subtle and sweet without bring over the top, plus it's 10% off ;-) On the right is a special Farmer's Wife FQ bundle I put together for the release of Kerry's QAL. What a great bunch hey?!

If you fancy joining in VeryKerryBerry's QAL, you can find all the details here. Kerry has lots of helpful tips and information on making the blocks using the foundation paper pieced method and other bloggers have been hosting to share their tips on the different methods of construction also. There is also a very useful errata page thats kept up to date so do take a look. (I reported no problems with my block).

Thanks for stopping by and have a great week! 

Quick Update

My new quilt pattern will be ready for release soon. I'm tweaking the pattern here and there and working on some last minute edits. The newly named Penny Tiles quilt has arrived back from the long arm quilter with a lovely Baptist Fan design, I'm really happy with the outcome so once I'm done with the binding I'll share the full reveal! Exciting!

I'll also be planning some quilt kits hopefully! A loooovely delivery of Liberty Tana Lawns arrived this week for Sew and Quilt, so I've been busy petting and admiring for the last few days...

As well I don't think I could write a blog post today without mentioning the terrible events that have happened in Paris last night. Devastating. This is a photo from my trip to Nantes this year, my first time visiting the country. I've never been to Paris, but its a place I've always wanted to visit and hope to someday. 

Lori Holt's Cozy Cottage Calendar: Blog Tour!

Today I'm kicking off the Lori Holt tour for her newest release; the Cozy Cottage 2016 Calendar! Lori, of Bee In My Bonnet puts her unique quilty spin on this fun calendar which you can use and enjoy all year! As well, you have the pattern to make the mini quilt on the front cover...

… and these cute pillows! Don't you just L-O-V-E that flag border around the cottage block!? A perfect finish. 
For my cozy cottage block, I decided on a Christmassy theme going all red, which I figured would be really sweet as a Christmassy pillow, or mini quilt for the upcoming festive season (not that long to go!). I made the larger 8" size. Lori has included pattern instructions for a 4" block and an 8" block. Whatever I decide to finish it into, I know I'll be using the border like Lori, for sure!

If you're a fan of the delightful Lori Holt Farm Girl style, you'l love this. Quilty, country styled photos are featured on every page, so each month will be a treat to turn over. A big thank you Fat Quarter Shop for my copy, I look forward to getting organised in 2016!  I also have copies available in my Sew & Quilt shop too, for those who want to order from the UK/EU. 

Have a great week friends! Its my birthday today, so I'm hoping for an afternoon of sewing, fingers crossed! Jessie, xo

Pssst… In other Lori Holt news new brand new Bloom Sew Simple templates have just been released and are now available at Sew and Quilt! Lori will be using these in her new QAL starting January to make the 'Bloom' quilt, which will be offered as a free pattern on the Riley Blake website.

Glorious Gingham Quilt Finish

There aren't many times I would share a quilt finish with the backing as the first photo, but on this occasion its a necessity! Favourite. Quilt. Backing. Ever. It really makes the quilt. With an all solid pieced top, it could look quite plain and simple, but the backing really makes it all pop! In a big way!  

The front is pretty nice too ;-) The quilt was a project I did for Love Patchwork & Quilting magazine earlier this year, issue #23. I had a major thing for gingham at the time (and still do!) so we collaborated on an idea and I think it turned out quite well. It makes the perfect picnic quilt and I'm excited to test that theory out next summer since I didn't have a single beach day this year, boo! Yep, lots of picnics in the park and summer beach days I'm planning next year. 

It uses simple strip piecing so once you've got your fabrics cut and organised you'll speed through construction. I have quilt kits available at Sew and Quilt, which includes the fabrics for the quilt top only, the pattern (at this time) is only available with LP&Q magazine. I managed to hunt down back issues here, if you're interested in making one. As well, I will be releasing the pattern myself next year once I'm able to do so. I'm planning another version in printed fabrics too. 

The quilting is a little wiggly for my liking, but hey, thats life! I quilted in 'straight' lines with 1/2" spacing on the two end borders and then through the centre of each pieced row, and then again 1/4" either side. I wish now I'd gone with 1/2" all over, but I know for next time now ;-) I carried on the same fabric for the binding for a clean finish. It gives a nice contrast against the white borders on the front too. 

I also made a couple of matching cushions too! There's a peach coloured one to match alongside the yellow below. I'm selling the cushions, so if you're interested in buying them drop me an email :-) 





Always fun to see my name in print! Thank you again LP&Q! The girls over there are the best. Look out for their new sister magazine; Today's Quilter too, its fab! 

Pattern: Glorious Gingham by Jessie Fincham (pattern featured in LP&Q #23)

Quilted: Jessie Fincham

Size: 54" square

Fabric: Kona Solids by Robert Kaufman Fabrics, backing and binding; vintage sheet

I've also FINALLY found a place where I can take full photo's of my quilts outside so I'm extremely happy today! Its the little things eh! ;-) Have a great Sunday! Jessie

Spell It With Moda Quilt: Finished

I've been getting quite slack on the finished quilts and blog sharing, so let me today update you on my FINISHED Spell It With Moda quilt. I started this quilt back in 2014 when the blog hop started, it was such a cool idea (good job, Moda!) and it perfectly tied in with my sister, Bianca being pregnant with her first baby ;-) so I had an excuse to pull out all my cute novelty 30s reproduction prints and primary colours for a happy baby quilt.  I think it took me about a month or so to make all the blocks and finish the top. They were so fun to do! Then of course I folded it up and put off the quilting 'for another day'… 

8 months later baby Benjamin was born, but alas the quilt wasn't ready. Doh. Festival Of Quilts prep, general life stuff got in the way, yada yada … it was always the bottom of the list. Then my patient (cough!) sister gently reminded me it was his birthday coming up in October, so perhaps I could finish it?? ;-) so I got to work last month and basted and quilted it. Finished the day before we travelled to London for his birthday, in typical last-minute-Jessie fashion. 

 It was the best thing gifting the quilt! Sooo special. They all loved it, phew! Aren't they a cute bunch too! 

I'm super sad not to have any better official finished photos though, I can only blame myself for finishing it in the late afternoon and not being able to take any decent photos. Hopefully these iPhone pictures will do! I used a really nice backing fabric as well, which of course I forgot to photograph. It has a really fun scrappy binding which works well with the low-volume and Kona Snow background.

Pattern: Spell It With Fabric by Moda (free)

Quilted: Jessie Fincham

Fabric: 1930s novelty reproductions, Ducks In A Row by American Jane, Kona Snow

Coming Soon!

Are you like me and have ideas scratching around in your head or notebooks dotted about your house? I do, all the time! and they ALWAYS end up at the bottom of my to-do list never to see the light of day. Well, I couldn't hold this idea in any longer, and I'm so pleased!! Its a special quilt I've been plotting for *years* to release as a pattern, and since I often do projects for editorial titles I figured why not release this one myself?! Perhaps my English readers will think this design familiar? I drew my inspiration from Victorian floor tiles, which is a familiar scene in terrace and town houses up and down the country. 

I've used all my favourite fabrics, so it's 100% me, which feels amazing! And the best backing fabric ever, officially! Sometimes we just need some 'selfish sewing' don't we? 

The top is finished, prepped and backing fabric cut - now it's arrived with the long-arm quilter who can work some magic on it! While we wait for the finish next month I have a little helpful team of pattern testers, testing the measurements and dimensions for me ;-) then I'll be revealing the full finish at which point you can order the PDF or printed pattern at Sew and Quilt! Hooray! I'll be doing a few happy dances once this is all done! I love ticking things off my bucket list, can you tell?! 

Tutorial // Apple Cores & English Paper Piecing: Part 2 / Sewing

I'm back with part 2 of my guide for working with apple core shapes using the English paper piecing method. So today we're going to be joining our shapes together. It can look a little bit intimidating due to the curved nature of the shape, but it's really quite simple once you have a little practise. 

Gather your supplies; including your basted apple core shapes, needle, thread and scissors. I've recently switched to using Bottomline threads by Superior for EPP, and I can't recommend it enough. Take a length of thread (no longer than your arm span, to avoid getting tangled up), thread your needle and knot the end. 

This is where you join your shapes together. 

So place your two apple core pieces right sides together. Can you see where I've flipped these shapes? I'm going to sew right along those two opposing curved sides are, all we have to do is just adjust how we hold the pieces as we sew. 
Start with needle in one side and slide it through the opposite piece. 

Take the needle back through your starting place and repeat. I like to do this at least 2/3 times to start off and make things nice and secure. Bleugghh please ignore my non-manicured, 'crafty-workers' hands folks ;-) these were some up-close shots! 

Now with your pieces still held in the same position, begin whipstitching your shapes as you would do your regular straight-edge shapes (previous tutorial here). 

TIP: I do a lot more stitches per inch with curved shapes to ensure there are absolutely no gaps in my work and ensure correct alignment. 

Once you reach the point above; where the curves are separating in different directions. Stop. 

Re-position your shapes so they are lying at wide angle apart, almost lying flat - but not. 

TIP: My technique for a neat non-visable stitch is to place your (non-needle holding) middle finger underneath the section where you are sewing, use this as a balance to hold your pieces correctly. I've actually moved my thumb out of the way in the above photo so you can get a clear view of my stitch and my middle finger underneath holding the position - but I do like to have my thumb exactly where the needle pokes out on the opposite side. I do this to guide my stitches and be sure I'm 'eating' into the fabric evenly with each whipstitch. 

I find apple cores to be a very forgiving shape for not being visible from the front. Due to the shapes lying quite flat as opposed to  the normal way of placing two shapes right sides together and whipstitching tightly, here you are almost skimming the fabric so you aren't 'eating' into the fabric very deeply, which is generally the problem when stitches are visible from the front. 

Whipstitch all the way along the side, re-positioning as you need. Be sure to pull the thread firmly as you go to keep a tight seam.

Once you reach the end, take 2/3 anchor stitches (just as you did at the start). You'll want to go through the two folds here to make everything secure. This is why we paid extra attention to basting the corners of the apple cores; so we have nice crisp folds so the shapes are the same size and it matches up accurately. Knot your work to finish the seam. 

Your first pieces are joined! As a general rule, I sew apple cores in rows adding in one shape at a time. Once you have your row complete you will want to add more rows one by one. 

I like to remove the papers once I have all sides joined so I can move my work more freely. I lie my work on a flat surface and work the seams with a whipstitch just as I did when joining the individual apple core shapes together.

Once you come to an 'intersection', where four shapes meet together. Catch your needle through the first folds of the lower shapes, repeat 2/3 times. Then repeat for the other two folds of the upper apple core shapes. This will make everything really secure and very neat from the front.

Once you pass the 'intersection', pull the fabric tails or folds out of the way to keep everything neat as you continue whipstitching. 

This is how your work will look from the front. 

I hope my guide has helped you on your future apple core adventures! 

Helpful things to recap and remember:
* When basting your shapes, ensure you have nice tight, folded corners.
* Don't snip into the curved edge too deep, otherwise your fabric will weaken and tear.
* Use a neutral matching thread, if in doubt choose grey! 
* Remove paper templates once all sides are joined to allow more movement.
* Use anchor stitches at the start and end of each shape and 'intersections'

I'm using the 3" apple core templates for this tutorial. You can find them in my shop here.

If you have any questions, just jot them below and I'll reply in the comments so we can all share. Likewise, if anyone has any tips, do share! I love testing new ideas. Jessie