I have sewn all of the blocks and I have put the quilt together.
I had a play along the way to see if I preferred any other layout options!
I finally went with the traditional layout with a border in the white calico!
All ready for quilting now!!!
I was excited to see this week that a demo that I did for Just Hands TV is posted this month! So if you want to see me show you how to make string blocks of the Japanese Stars and Lanterns quilt then pop over to the site!
In the meantime, this is a slide show I did of the quilt!
Japanese stars and Lanterns 2-Medium
And for those of you looking out for the Quilting-on-the-Go book, it is listed on Amazon here.
Where they also have my new book too! How exciting is that! Check out Utility Quilting!
I don't do a lot of applique but sometimes the urge over comes me and I embark on a project. Needless to say, that the fact that I don't do much applique doesn't stop me buying books about it and downloading the patterns for this lovely quilt regularly!
The quilt I am sewing this summer is from Mississippi Quilts by Mary Elizabeth Johnson.
My blocks are 20" square based on the size of the original quilt. I draw it out roughly then refine it with templates that I have cut from card.
I use a freezer paper technique and tacking to make the shapes. Pin them all in place with Clover Applique Pins, and stitch away!
The freezer paper comes out before the last stitches enclose the shape.
And then I added the flower middles.
The fine stems were sewn in a chain stitch as the ones in the original were embroidered too. I used Valdani Pearl cotton no.8.
I plan on sewing 9 of these, but the original quilt has 16. I will see how I go!
Kathie mentioned in her post yesterday (2nd June), a tumbler quilt template that I have in the Kaleidoscope Hexagon pattern that I sell. And in doing so we discovered that I have not got the pattern on my website yet! Sorry, things will be updated in the Summer!
I mentioned the pattern for the quilt in a previous blog post here.
This is the quilt that I made from the pieces left over form the quilt, I used to sew this tumbler quilt:
The pattern is available from me in the UK at £10-95, and in the US direct from Landauer. at $18-95. The pattern book includes the rotary cutting templates!
Phew! Two posts in one day is a bit of a record!
Thanks Kathie for pointing this out!
There have been a couple of quilts that people are sewing on-line that I have enjoyed looking at, and this week I have sewn exploratory blocks, not to make the whole quilt, but just to see how I feel now that I have had a go!
This first one is from a quilt in the Tokyo Quilt show this year. You can see it here. Bad skirt blog also has a tutorial, but I just based my blocks on a 2in grid, so it is slightly bigger!
I also liked this variation, as I shuffled the bits around before sewing it together!
The other block I have seen a lot of lately is the Union Jack! I even saw some sewing patterns for sale for this at Quilt Market!
I made mine from 'Lily's Quilts' website tutorial here.
Thanks Girls for the great tutorials!
And last but not least, take a look at this exhibition in the US if you are remotely drawn to hexagon quilts. Many of you know I sew mine really large, I mean with big shapes to make them grow fast, but I still love looking at the intricate ones!
Click here, and scroll down to see all of the quilts!
Have a good weekend!
