LE: Month by Month, Part 5

 

Well, what a week for Love Entwined, it's been one good event after another for this this quilt this month! As I type this Month by Month installment, I'm still over the moon for Narelle Birchall who won 3 awards at the Sydney Quilt Show for her extraordinary Love Entwined. And the best bit? The LE quilt explosion has only just started warming up. There are thousands of LE's out there and I can't wait to see more of them in the years ahead. What a lovely start to July.

Now, time for covering part 5. Last month I went over what starting the vases looks like from a technique point of view and I also listed lots of links full of information and lovely pics to help you decide how to fashion your own. With the 4 vases, each of the four months is relevant, so don't forget to re-visit the Part 4 link for inspiration and techniques. 

The vases are so special, and you have so much scope to fine tune them to your own style. They're a focal point for the eyes and they're surrounding the main centre, so you can make each unique and standout in its own corner, or style them to all harmonize. The fabric choices you make here can really impact your borders to come. That's why the colours are so important. A few well placed blender tones introduced in the centre now will allow you to reintroduce those colours later in the quilt. 

For me, I chopped and changed my vase flowers multiple times, I just couldn't settle. And each new idea worked in it's own way, but I couldn't stop fiddling until it 'felt' right. LE has that effect on it's makers, you can play around for hours before the quilt lets you know what works. You can read all about how I got through the always difficult fabric auditions in my posts related to Part 5 linked below. 

An InLinkz Link-up

Love Entwined is an extraordinary historic quilt pattern with it's own dedicated Group over on Facebook. You can purchase the pattern outright, or sign up to a monthly subscription that delivers a 'Part' to your email in-box each month for just $9.95. If you're interested in this once in a lifetime heirloom quilt, there's never been a better time to start. We've gone before you and have the blog posts, pics and experience to show you how we did it. Also, with an encouraging online group making LE themselves, there's always someone to connect with and chat to about this quilt.

What's stopping you?

Click here to buy the pattern as a complete download

 or as an ongoing BOM

WOW: What a Week!

WOW = WIPs On Wednesdays

I'm still all in a swoon about Narelle's Love Entwined looking so magnificent at the Sydney Quilt Show this year. I love all my quilts but it's a extra special feeling when they start showing up at Quilt Shows around the world and looking beautiful. I know there'll be a Love Entwined hanging at Houston this year too and I can tell you, I'm over the moon about it.

A few people have asked me if I'll release another free BOM after Hazel (which is nearly finished) and I'm happy to tell you that yes, I certainly will - so stay tuned. I'll announce the next free BOM when Hazel is completely done and dusted. Once again, I will be showing you what the completed quilt looks like because lots of members told me it was too hard to plan for a mystery, and I can appreciate that. So it will be a full reveal.

Thank you to everyone who supported me and purchased either Goldi, Bed of Roses (or both!) in the last 48 hours. I have a lot of patterns which I have decided to release and will be offering them for sale as and when I draft them for PDF patterning. Due to some loyal copyists out there, I'm no longer showing my design process here on my blog. This is because I design numerous quilts at once and it can be months before I get around to completing something I started months before - plenty of time for someone to take my idea, run with it and pose it as their own. So I'll only be showing them when they're ready for sale. And the next one? It's lovely, I can't wait to show it off..

What's Your WOW?

An InLinkz Link-up

Narelle's 'Love Entwined' wins Viewer's Choice!

Narelle Birchall, Love Entwined

I'm thrilled to bits to hear this morning that Narelle's Love Entwined has won Viewer's Choice at the Sydney Quilt Show! It is an extraordinary piece of work with a breathtaking standard and intensity of workmanship. I know, I've been lucky enough to see it in real life.

Not only was Narelle the first person to finish Love Entwined, she finished it to an excelled standard of beauty and dedication and really did the pattern proud. Can you tell I love it?

Judging is a fickle thing, so it's all the more wonderful when quilters get to cast their own vote for their own quilt of choice - and it's no surprise to me that Narelle won Viewer's Choice. Frankly, I would have been amazed if she hadn't.

See more pics of Narelle's amazing quilt over in the Love Entwined Gallery by clicking here now.  

An InLinkz Link-up

New Patterns: Goldi & Bed of Roses

Bed of Roses (finished size:66 x 66 inches)

So many patterns, so little time. When will I find the time to squeeze in this romantic beauty? Oh, I don't know but I have a feeling I will - somehow. I simply have to - those rose heads are calling me and I have no excuses because this quilt simplifies all those fabric indecisions - you only need to pick 4 fabrics and your quilt to ready to make.

I love limited colour schemes at the moment, they sooth my quilting conscience because they allow me to actually start without buying any additional prints!

I designed a series of quilts on this layout and in this size and have been lucky enough to see them made in real life by friends who were after 'quicker' wedding quilts to give as gifts and these two really satisfy without being overly committal time wise but still having every inch of charm and handmade beauty that you expect from treasured pieces.

I am madly in love with the white background because it would suit my current living room as a throw where I take my tea in the afternoons - and I love that white brightness against the wood and leather of my room -it brightens the room and matches my teacups- in fact I can already imagine it looking like an extension of my tea service, and I just love that idea so much that I can't pass it up. But, you know me - I did play. And look what happened when I made it in gold and browns. How warm and cozy does this look??

Goldi was designed to show off my gorgeous gold fabrics - which have been stacking up but difficult to work into other designs, so this one's all about the golds and warms browns with some splashes of red and pink to make the whole thing shimmer.

Goldi (finished size:66 x 66 inches)

The flowers in Goldi have a more naive feel and I love them all the more for it - they're large enough to show off those lovely print fabrics you're hesitant about cutting into. Is it just me, or are there some fabulous fabrics that just don't work once you've started cutting into them? I had that scenario on my own design board a few weeks ago and it encouraged me to make bigger designs, spatially, to give those types of fabrics a chance to breathe. These flower heads allow you to see glimpses of those gorgeous fabrics without the fabrics completely taking over the design. I think it's a difficult balance sometimes and Goldi strikes just the right chord with my eye.

For me, gold is the only way to go with Goldi, but I bet you're still as curious as I was to wonder what it would look like in lights? Like this:

I'm so happy to be releasing two new pattern today, it's always a special feeling to throw open my design folio and share my work with other quilters. To celebrate the release of Goldi and Bed of Roses, I'm offering both patterns for just $4.80 (USD) for 48 hours only. After that, they'll go into my online shop for $19.95.

WOW: Time for a New Pattern!

WOW = WIPs On Wednesdays

I'm loving these fabrics together, they really strike a chord with me 

I'm going to use them together in my new quilt design

I'm PDF-ing my latest pattern this morning. It's completely gorgeous (if I do say so myself!) and I hope to show it off straight after WOW this week, so be sure to pop back and have a look for yourself! This is all completely a spur of the moment thing, but it's such a straightforward quilt that I can get the pattern done in one day, so I've decided, why not?

I designed the quilt in question as a wedding gift for a friend who was looking for that special kind of quilt you only recognize when you set your eyes on it. I let her have a look at my latest designs and she picked this one out. Well, it was a good choice, she went ahead to make it up and I saw it for the first time on the weekend. What can I say? I was really impressed with how effective it looks, so I've decided to release it. 

There are many patterns in my folio that are ready for release ...but I haven't released them because I haven't had time to make them. I kind of feel that I should make all the quilts I design. This is an impossible task in just one lifetime, so I try to prioritize, but it's hard. So, I'm torn about seeing them made up..or just letting them sit on my shelf. Now, I've finally decided that I am at an age where I need to just put them out - so stay tuned and be sure to check back on Friday :) 

What's Your WOW?

An InLinkz Link-up

LE: Month by Month: Part 4

After all the preparation and fabric decisions of Parts 1-3, I couldn't wait to start the vases - and they were a real delight to make. You have the choice of finding the right fabric for your vase, then whether of not you'd like to embroider or applique your stems. Lastly, is the pleasure of the flowers themselves. Will your central lily be a white one? Or perhaps a pink or yellow one? Maybe you'll change the flowers completely? Finally in Part 4, you can play and create and even shape the design to bend to your own floral tastes - if that's what suits you.

I had a lot of fun auditioning fabrics for my vase and seriously considered fussy cutting huge rose printed blooms before sticking with the pattern and using printed fabrics to create texture rather than replace the actual applique pieces.

In the archive below, you'll find details of my embroidery stitch choice, how I auditioned my vase fabric and how I created my pieces. It's also time to consider what method you'll use to create your berries. There were some ingenious suggestions at the time - from using washers, to balls of wadding, to using a hole on plastic and creating stitched 'balls'. Whichever you opt for, it's going to be extraordinary, with LE, everything always is - the quilt simply demands it!

An InLinkz Link-up

Love Entwined is an extraordinary historic quilt pattern with it's own dedicated Group over on Facebook. You can purchase the pattern outright, or sign up to a monthly subscription that delivers a 'Part' to your email in-box each month for just $9.95. If you're interested in this once in a lifetime heirloom quilt, there's never been a better time to start. We've gone before you and have the blog posts, pics and experience to show you how we did it. Also, with an encouraging online group making LE themselves, there's always someone to connect with and chat to about this quilt.

What's stopping you?

Click here to buy the pattern as a complete download

 or as an ongoing BOM

WOW: Getting Busy With The Next BOM

WOW = WIPs On Wednesdays

What a week! Sweet 2016 Part 5 was released yesterday and so was Hazel and Little Hazel Part 5 and Oma's Blues went on to Part 6. That's 3 BOMs moving along in one week, what an effort! I love releasing BOMs, it really gives me such a thrill to share what I know and watch others enjoy and play around with my designs, I feel so lucky to be connected to so many thousand creative quilters and sewers out there - you never fail to impress and inspire me.

As you can see, I've been busy and my floor is a mess-but it's a good mess and I'm glad that I can shut the door of my sewing room and act like nothing's happened when it's time to go and prepare dinner. Thank goodness for creative space!

What's Your WOW?

An InLinkz Link-up