Tula Pink Confetti Quilt

Two of my favorite things, beautiful Tula Pink fabric and a striking quilt pattern. Add in a dash of unicorns and mythical sea creatures in Tula’s signature bright colors, and you’ve got me hooked.  (tulapink.com/pinkerville) .

For patterns, Jemima Flendt hit it out of the park with the Confetti Quilt – found here https://www.tiedwitharibbon.com/confetti-quilt-pdf-pattern/  . I’ve always loved the look of foundation paper pieced patterns, but I’ve only ever dabbled in FPP. I haven’t been too successful in it. Just ask any of the half finished ones in my sewing room. Derp. So, when I saw this and fell in love, I completely expected to read the pattern detail and see FPP listed. To my delight, it’s not. The pattern is well written, easy to follow, and the results are beautiful. I can easily imagine this looking great in a multitude of collections as well as solids. The only drawback I found was there was a lot of waste, but I’ve saved them all and will work them into some sort of scrappy project. PS Jemima has a plethora of other eye catching beautiful projects. Take a swing by her site – tiedwitharibbon.com .

So the time came to finally cut into all the gorgeous prints in the Pinkerville line, but it was worth it. I think the final push was the fact that I could see just how it would look (Jemima’s site features the Confetti quilt in this TP line).

Here’s some pics of the progress. It’s not finished, but the blocks are all complete. 🙂

Check out more of my work in Insta @charlamacphee .

 

 

 

Jelly Roll Rug

Jelly rolls. Those delicious 2.5 inch rolls of fabric have so many possibilities. I’ve made a few jelly roll quilts, but I was intrigued when jelly roll rugs became the thing to make. So, I bought the pattern from RJ Designs, and made one. And I totally understand why they’re so popular. They’re a great, mindless, peaceful project, that results in something beautiful and useful. What’s not to love?

Meow, a Cat Quilt

What do you do when the feline favoring teenager of the house spots cat fabric in her favorite colours – black, white, and Splash? You order it and make her a cat quilt. 🙂

After finished a Lisa the Unicorn quilt, this easy peasy Misourri Star Quilt Company pattern was a welcome easy finish. Here’s the link https://www.missouriquiltco.com/land/tutorials/pins-paws-cat-quilt/index.html

And here’s the fabric line, super cute and this year’s colour of the year Splash! matches purrfectly. Yes. I did that. Yes. I too rolled my eyes.

The blocks come together quickly and easily. It’s a great quilt for a beginner for sure.

 

 

Red Feather Project

History. We all have one. Full of proud moments, and the occasional, not so proud moment. As a child of the 80’s, growing up in Canada, I was completely naive to our country’s past. I mean, not all of it. But, the dirty secret of how Canada has treated our indigenous people.

For a long time, I was under the impression everything was good. No one had been treated poorly, everyone was on board with creating this nation. That was not the case.

Recently, it’s become more common, and disturbing, knowledge of the way our indigenous people were actually treated. And are still treated by a lot of people.

As a self-admitted, privileged white person, I’m ashamed to admit I knew little, if anything. It’s been an eye opener to say the least.

For our indigenous women and girls, there has been a very dark, dirty secret this country has been turning a blind eye to. Missing Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. A movement to bring to light the fact that women and girls, in Canada, yes Canada, are going and have been going missing and been murdered with not nearly enough justice, for decades.

A quick Google search brought me to a CBC site dedicated to telling the story of each of these souls. Now, as a mom of four daughters, this hit particularly close to home. Over the course of a few weeks, I read each one, watched episodes of Taken, and researched as much as I could. In reality, none of my work really has any impact. At least not beyond bringing myself, and my girls, to a place of understanding. Of knowing. Of acknowledging.

So, when my office called upon employees to donate personally made goods to auction for fundraising, I knew that https://www.cozychloecreations.com/single-post/2018/06/23/The-Red-Feather-Quilt-Project?_amp_ would be perfect.

Maybe, just maybe, I could spread the word, and raise a bit of money for our Christmas charity.

Now, I don’t claim to know everything, or even a lot. But, I do know more than I did.

With @cozychloe’s blessing to use the pattern, I made a lap quilt which was successfully auctioned off.

Lisa the Unicorn – Completed!

My sweet roller coaster girl has a natural girly love of all things unicorn.

Here’s the completed project, much to her, and my, delight.

Lisa the Unicorn

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When  you have a house full of girls, unicorns are unavoidable. Especially this year. I don’t know what it is, but they are EVERY WHERE. Including in my sewing room.

My sweet 7 year old and 4 year old are obsessed. When they saw me scrolling through recent additions to fabric sites, and unicorns flashed by on the screen, there was no way they weren’t going to make sure that came in the mail. So, we had unicorn fabric in hand, what the heck to do with it. I mean , obviously, a quilt. But, which one?

Then, as if we had timed it, Elizabeth Hartman released her Lisa the Unicorn pattern and my path was all set for me.

If you’re familiar with her patterns, you know they’re incredibly well-written and easy to follow. So is this one. The one hurdle I did struggle with, was just HOW MANY PIECES there were. If you use Alphabitties, forget it. You’ll need two packs. I stuck with my trusty post-it notes and started prepping fabric.

One thing about Molly, she has a photographic memory (no joke – try playing a memory game with her), and she loves rainbows and color sequences. So, she insisted the fabrics for the manes be in proper rainbow order. Since I don’t know what day of the week it is, I sure as *&%$ don’t know what the order is when I’m cutting out as many pieces as this pattern requires. But, I did my best and Molly helped me arrange them. I think we did ok. My test block will be a giant pillow for our 4 year old, and she’s tickled to have helped sew some of it.

The top is pieced, basted, and I’ve started quilting it, but it’s been one of the hottest summers on record here, and since I quilt everything at home on my domestic machine, draping a queen sized quilt back with flannel isn’t on the top of my to do list when the humidex is at almost 40C. We’ll get there, just not for another few weeks.

Crystals or Corals? Both.

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When Emma Jean Jansen released her By the Bundle book a few months ago, the “Crystals” pattern jumped out immediately. It looks like a perfect pattern for replicating coral reefs, which would go perfectly with my Coral Queen of the Sea fabric bundle. Surely, I knew my mermaid obsessed girl herd would love it.

I set out cutting and prepping this easy to follow pattern and began work on it at my once yearly guild get away. I was pleased with how much I was able to accomplish in only 2 days, especially since I was also working on my Lisa the Unicorn quilt. Having a house full of girls sure makes for some fun quilt projects.

The pattern is best suited for someone who loves half square triangles, and if you don’t have yourself a Bloc Loc ruler, this is the time to get one. I know this because I did not.

Link for the book : https://www.amazon.ca/Bundle-precuts-patchwork-quarter-friendly-quilts/dp/194065517X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1534265947&sr=8-1&keywords=by+the+bundle

Fabric by Moda : http://www.unitednotions.com/fcc_coral-queen-of-the-sea.pdf

 

Adventures in Hand Sewing – Tula Nova

So, here I am once again. That place I swore I’d never go, doing that thing I swore I’d never do, becoming one of those people I swore I’d never be. I’ll be the first to admit that I get it now. Hand sewing is awesome. English Paper Piecing is now my favorite way to calm my mind, and boy, does having mental illness make that necessary.

I now have my Smitten quilt top done and ready for *gasp* hand quilting. But, if any of you know me personally or via my Instagram, you know I’m a die hard Tula Pink fan. And if you yourself are a fan of hers, then you know that all the happenings with Free Spirit Fabrics causes us all a bit of stress. Especially anyone who had pre-ordered All Stars and De La Luna. What a relief to hear that it’s all been straightened out, and our favorite non-beige artist will continue to make her gorgeous, rich, vibrant, and whimsical fabric lines. Yeah. I just said whimsical. That’s what this stuff does to me.

Already knowing it’s well worth my while to order the Paper Pieces kit for the Nova quilt, I did so and ordered the templates as well. My sewing time is so precious I refuse to waste time and risk huge errors by not using them. Plus, they’re hot pink, so what’s not to love.

Now, not every print is my favorite, some I’m not even fond of, but they all work so well together. To figure out how the heck I was going to set this quilt up, color and print wise, I stalked the #tulanova and #tulanovaquilt hashtags on Instagram.

The templates and paper pieces kit work beautifully and it’s a pleasure to cut, baste, and piece this using the gorgeous fabrics.

Here’s where I’m at so far.

Smitten Top Finished

Feel free to shield your eyes, the following pictures may cause them stress. Less than a year after I decided to tackle my first English Paper Piecing top, it’s finished. I still am a bit surprised at having done it at all, because I swore I was strictly a machine sewing girl. Turns out, there’s a lot of down time in day to day life that I just didn’t want to let go to waste. Especially if I could be making something.

So, in school pick-up lines, drives with the family, and evenings watching tv with the kids, I was able to get more accomplished than I thought I would.

Now, I didn’t have a plan when I started this Smitten. I just knew I had lots of fabric I ogled over, and knew I couldn’t get to use in a complete project on their own. So, it seemed far more possible to make use of them in each hexie for this top. Hence, the assault on the eyes, and why it so desperately needed grounding with a large, plain, black border.

I may even attempt to hand quilt it. Some day.

Smitten Quilt – an Update

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Back in May of 2017, I took my first steps into hand sewing. I had sworn I was a machine quilter only, but seeing posts on Instagram of all the gorgeous fussy cutting in various quilts; La Pas, Smitten, Ice Cream Soda etc.  Although, in my defence, I watched countless videos of how to actually machine sew paper piecing so as to avoid the actual hand sewing, but it always ended up seeming like just as much work. I couldn’t hold off any longer. After all, we were heading into camping season, and it was great to do while the kids ran wild (within eyeshot). Not to mention, there was still almost 6 weeks left of waiting in school pick up lines).

It’s been…a learning experience. That’s for sure. I started hoping to use paper pieces that I cut out myself, only as it turns out, printer paper is not the best for EPP (English paper piecing). So, hubby encouraged me to order the actual (sturdier) pieces from PaperPieces.com . They’re a lot better. Like, a lot.

So, in the car, watching movies with the kids, road trips, sitting on the pool deck during kids swimming lessons, and a lot of times, just to calm my mind, were spent working on the blocks.

Admittedly, this one is essentially an assault on the eyes. I was a little overexcited to jump in and use all of my favorite bits of fabric from scraps, new find, gifts etc. and well…it’s loud. Very loud. There is no rhyme or reason to it, but the kids have loved helping to pick  out prints to go in it, and arranging them endlessly around. It’s also proven to be quite an I-Spy quilt.

I’m finally at the stage of sewing the rows together, then I just have to do the large triangles on the edges, and it’s done. Well, pieced. I’m toying with the idea of hand quilting it (Mom, pull your chin up, I’m serious). Go big or go home, right?