To longarm or not to longarm

I've come to a crossroads on my quilting journey recently. I've enjoyed designing quilts and working with some amazing fabric houses and designers, and also magazines but I want to do more. Unfortunately like many other quilters I have a full time job and wish I had more time to be creative. As a result I outsource my overall quilting to my very trusted longarmer. I'd love to complete the whole quilting process myself but between working, a young family, designing and those tight magazine deadlines I just haven't had the time. I have quilted a few quilts myself on my domestic machine when I can but life just seems to be getting busier and busier.


About 6 months ago I investigated a 2nd hand Gammill Statler (fully computerised) machine and was amazed at what these machines can do - from simple edge to edge to more advanced custom quilting and for someone like me who likes to design the ability to design my own quilting designs. I loved how you can see the design on the quilt before you start. At the time I didn't have the space for this machine so had to let it pass, but once our new home is built at the end of the year the skies the limit!!




Photo Courtesy of Gammill.com

Next I went to the Stitches and Craft last month and got my hands on the new Handi Quilter Simply Sixteen. I was nervous as I'm the first to put my hand up and say I am not a free motion quilter but I must say it was super light weight and easy to use. I loved the stitch regulator on the cruise setting that adjusted the speed to my hand movements on the quilt top. I also like the fact that the size of the frame is very manageable especially when you have limited space and that regardless of its size the machine is still capable to quilt any size quilt top. My only concern is I'm not a free motion quilter and don't really have the time or patience to learn those intricate designs.




Handi Quilter Simply Sixteen

I've spoken to my trusted quilting friends with longarms who have been amazing with all the information provided including turning longarming into a business if I so desire. The quilting community is always fabulous at sharing experiences.


So I'm at the point now where I would truly like to invest in a longarm and need to think about what is the best option machine for me. No decisions made yet so watch this space...


Till next time...happy sewing
Jenny xxx

Memory Quilts - A Special Story

A while back I made some friends some quilts made from their children's baby clothes and posted them on social media and was inundated with orders. These quilts are so precious and hold wonderful memories but are very labour intensive and very fiddly. I decided after making a few custom orders that it was not my true passion and so did not take any more orders of this type of quilt until now.

Every now and again life surprises you and pulls you in a direction that you just need to go. I was recently contacted by a lovely lady who was desperate for two quilts for her niece and nephew made out of her late husbands clothes who had unfortunately left this world way too early. She had gone to a local craft fair and asked at every counter for someone to help her but no one could. Finally as she was leaving upset and devastated a women approached her after hearing her story and gave her my business card. From there I got a phone call and after I heard this sad story and heard her heartache I just had to make these for her. Her husband's name was Jack so I knew this one was meant for me!!

So in between lots of quilting deadlines I am now almost there. It was very hard for her to part with any clothes so I have had to work with the colours and styles I was given but I know she will be happy with the end result. I decided to back them with a super soft grey flannel and some extra wide binding.

The first quilt is for her nephew so I tried to keep the quilt masculine with the clothing cut rather large with a simple block design. I quilted it in a checked design to match the shirts I was working with and am really happy with the result.

The second quilt is still a work in progress. Given the clothing was quite masculine and the owner wanted a pink overall background I tried to soften it up with some applique hearts - it was a lovely idea at the time but I'm still slowly working my way through appliqueing each and every one of them.

I plan to just straight line quilt this one across the quilt and let the hearts speak for themselves.

What are you working on this week?

Till next time... happy sewing...
Jenny

Magazines Galore - Part 2

So this is post number 2 of my magazine completed quilts I wanted to share. If you missed my first post check it out here.

I have three more quilts I'd like to share which includes one of my favourite quilts so far (that is if you are allowed to have favourites).

Firstly is my "Desert Trekking Quilt" published in Quilters Companion. This was made with the Arizona fabric range by April Rhodes for Art Gallery Fabrics and also Art Gallery fabrics matching solids. I enjoyed working on this quilt using classic patchwork shapes and joining them together to form unusual rectangular blocks. I quilted this one myself on my trusted Janome too.

Desert Trekking by Jenny Woodward

Next is my all time favourite quilt "Arctic Blue". This appeared in Homespun Magazine in January 2016. For this one I jumped out of my comfort zone of using fat quarter bundles and sourced predominately blue fabric from various quilt shops and online, and experimented also with low volume fabric. Something I have been wanting to do for a long time. I used a classic log cabin block with a contemporary layout and I love how it turned out.

Artic Blue by Jenny Woodward

Finally we have "Pretty Plus" made from Skopelos fabric range by Katarina Roccella for Art Gallery Fabrics. This one featured in Down Under Quilts and was such a fun quilt to make.

Pretty Plus by Jenny Woodward

So that's where I'm at right now with published quilts. I have one more coming out in Handmade shortly and will be published later this year in UK's Love Patchwork & Quilting magazine which I am super excited about.

Till next time....happy sewing....

xx Jenny

Paperie Fabrics - Giveaway

A Sponsored Giveaway.

If you haven't already realised I have a real fondness for the texture and feel of Art Gallery Fabrics so what better way to share my love but to share some of this gorgeous fabric with you.

Together with the Fat Quarter shop I am giving away a Fat Quarter Bundle of Paperie fabrics by Amy Sinibaldi for Art Gallery fabrics to one lucky reader. This is such a sweet collection with romantic shades of pink, subtle greys and a hint of royal blue, and part of the Art Gallery Limited Edition range. Amy’s love for books, not only for the stories, the wonderful words, and the faraway places, but in the look of the book themselves, was her inspiration for this Limited Edition collection.

GIVEAWAY DETAILS:

The Paperie Fat Quarter Bundle includes 9 fat quarters and one half yard cut.

 

To be in the draw please leave a comment on this blog post. Only one comment per person/per email address. International entries welcome! 

 

The draw will take place at 9pm (Australia EDT) on Sunday 13 March 2016, at which time comments to this post will be closed. The winner will be announced by edit to this blog post, and will also be contacted by email.

 

Good luck !!

 

Till next time....happy sewing....

Jenny xxx

 

Thank you for all of your entries!

---------------------------------

ENTRY HAS NOW CLOSED.

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The lucky winner of the Paperie bundle is:

Mara has been contacted by email.

 

 

Magazines Galore - Part 1

Over the past year I have really enjoyed working with a number of our fantastic Australian editors. I have had the privilege of having many of my quilts feature in prominent Australian magazines and feel trying blessed to be able to have the opportunity to feed my creative side.


Featured in this post is a number of the quilts I can now show you finished. The most difficult thing about working with magazines is all the secret sewing I can't share with everyone so I wanted to make sure I show you all the completed products. So this isn't the biggest post you've ever seen I've decided to break it up into 2 posts. I hope you like what you see.


My first quilt "Cascades" was made for Down Under Quilts using the Linen Cupboard range from our very own Emma Jean Jansen. This quilt utilised triangles (lots and lots) and some complementary geometric quilting by my gorgeous longarmer.




Cascades by Jenny Woodward

The next quilt "Tribal Dance" featured in Patchwork and Stitching magazines using the Etno fabric range by the lovely Pat Bravo. I love working with Pat's ranges as a long time quilter herself she really does design ranges that work so well together.

Tribal Dance by Jenny Woodward

Lastly we have "Beginnings" which was part of Handmade's 2015 Yearbook utilising Indelible fabric range by Katarina Roccella for Art Gallery Fabrics. This is a fat quarter friendly quilt and is such a simple but effective design to make a lovely large quilt with no waste. Within this range there is a gorgeous monochrome fabric featuring stags and doilies that makes the perfect backing. I think I need to get myself another bolt.


Beginnings by Jenny Woodward

With all this quilt designing and making and after many enquiries I am now making my patterns available for sale and I've been very humbled by the demand already so thank you. Current patterns are available for download from Crafsty here and hopefully soon you will also see them on sale in some of your favourite quilting shops.

Till next time....happy sewing....
xx Jenny

 

 

Arizona - an Aztec styled quilt

I while ago I bought a bundle of Arizona fabric by April Rhodes. The bundle included matching Art Gallery solids from the Pure Elements range which made a nice set of 14 fat quarters. I haven't used matching solids in my quilts before rather I tend to use a white background to my blocks so I wanted to explore a design that would incorporate both the solids and fabrics together.

I was fortunate enough to share my design with Quilter's Companion magazine who will be featuring my quilt later in the year so I can only share with you a couple of progress shots for the time being.

I incorporated some flying geese blocks and some square in a square blocks and decided to use a quilt as you go method as the blocks are quite large to make the quilting more manageable on my domestic machine.

I bought some matching Aurifil cotton mako' threads in the 40 weight which is a little heavier than the standard 50 weight thread but shows off the quilting stitches nicely. I love that there is just so many colours to chose from making it so easy to match the fabric you are working on perfectly.

I did some shadow quilting around the geese and squares in the quilt to create texture.

I really liked the feel of quilting with the aurifil threads which I hadn't used before.

I am loving the way the quilt is coming together it has a real Aztec feel to it and I can't wait to finish it off with a final border using the Nocturnal solid from the Pure Elements Art Gallery range.

The quilt will be Queen sized and I will be keeping this one for me for my spare bed and I'm sure it will make it's way on the couch now the nights are getting colder here.

Linking up at Freshly Pieced for WiP Wednesday!

Till next time....happy sewing....

xx Jenny

Etno Fabrics - Collaboration with Pat Bravo

As a typical quilter I love fabric but every now and again I see a fabric range I have to have. When I first stumbled across Pat Bravo's new range "Etno" whilst trolling through my Instagram feed I knew this was one of my must haves.

I was fortunately enough to be able to work with Pat and using Etno fabrics design and make a quilt for an upcoming issue of Patchwork and Stitching magazine here in Australia. When the fabric arrived it definitely didn't disappoint.

With a very tight timeframe I went about hurriedly cutting and sewing blocks together. I chose a traditional quilt block called fox and geese and mixed it up a little. The block I made is put together with 2 different sized half square triangles and some white squares. I wanted to keep some of the fabric in larger pieces to really showcase each of the designs.

Ironically this is the first time I've ever designed a quilt on point and with the cornerstones and sashing it took a little bit of quilt math to work out the finished product. The quilt was then sent to Donna, my trusted longarmer who worked her magic as always and I must say I loved the finished result.

With the left over fabric I made up my signature scrappy binding that contrasted with the white in the quilt background perfectly finishing it off.

I backed this quilt with a fabric called "Flight" from the Waterfront Park Collection by Violet Craft for Michael Miller Fabrics.

Packed in an express post satchel and shipped off promptly I can wait to see the final photos in Patchwork and Stitching Magazine due out in May.

I'm linking up with these fun places today Crazy Mum Quilts, Confessions of a Fabric Addict and Thank Goodness It's Finished Friday.

 

Till next time....happy sewing....

 

xx Jenny

The Linen Cupboard Quilt

I love the opportunity of supporting local quilters and designers so when I saw Emma Jean-Jansen's new range "The Linen Cupboard" I knew I needed to create a funky quilt with it. Check out my previous blog showing the wonderful diversity of fabrics in the range here.

I set about designing and constructing a quilt with this lovely range. I was given a brief of creating a quilt with a Hexie theme so decided to simplify the process by using equilateral triangles to form the hexies.

 

 

In keeping with the triangle theme I had my wonderful longarmer, Donna quilt this one with a design called tangled triangles.

Given all the contrasting colours in the quilt I decided to bind with a trusty old favourite, black and white stripe.

I must admit binding is now becoming my favourite part of the quilt making process. I enjoy hand sewing in front of the television and I think it's also because it is a sense of overall achievement when you know the quilt is almost done.

The final quilt will be available to see in full and make yourself soon, as it will be published in Down Under Quilts magazine in Australia in May. Unfortunately I have only been able to show you a few sneak peaks here.

I'm linking up with these fun places today Crazy Mum Quilts, Confessions of a Fabric Addict and Thank Goodness It's Finished Friday.

 

Till next time....happy sewing....

 

xx Jenny

Out to Sea

Today I wanted to share with you a nautical inspired quilt made from the beautiful Michael Miller Littles collection. The fabric is super sweet with anchors, boats and lifesavers and also includes some great complementary dots and stripes.

I had fun making this one up adding 3 sailboat blocks as a feature in the centre.

The quilt is cot sized and would make the perfect edition to any little boys room.

In keeping with the nautical theme the quilt was quilted with an all over wave design by my longarmer, Donna.

I backed this one with Britten Nummer fabric from Ikea. It is 150cm wide so is perfect backing for cot quilts and requires no joining.

This quilt was featured in Patchwork & Stitching nautical inspired edition.

If you would like to purchase this quilt it is available in my shop here.

 

I'm linking up with these fun places today Confessions of a Fabric Addict and Thank Goodness It's Finished Friday.

 

Till next time....happy sewing....

 

xx Jenny

Pathways - A Table Runner in progress

I'm excited once again to be working on another little project for Fat Quarterly magazine this month - the brief was simple make something with curves.

 

I have always been worried about curves and have tended to shy away from them so when this opportunity came up I grabbed it. I ordered myself a drunkards path ruler and away I went.

I must say I was really surprised at how easily and quickly these blocks came together and it has inspired me to start my own King bed quilt for my bed at home. I will make sure I blog some progress shots of that too.

I was sent the fabric which had amazing green and blue tones so decided to team it up with some charcoal shot cotton I had in my stash and I was very please with the result.

Some simple but effective straighline quilting 2cm appart and I can wait to show you the completed runner out in Fat Quarterly soon.

Till next time....happy sewing....

xx Jenny

The Friendship Patch

A few months ago I was asked if I would like to provide Down Under Quilts magazine with a Christmas inspired quilt. I had already made a cute little advent calendar wall hanging for Love Sewing Australia here so I wanted something simple yet effective.

I decided I would make a quick and easy quilt using traditional quilt blocks (friendship patch block and four patch block) and classic red and white colours but not use Christmas fabrics. See the fabrics I used here. I figured that this way the quilt could be utilised all year round and not packed away in the cupboard after the festive season ends.

The result was my Friendship Patch quilt seen here on the cover of Down Under Quilts Christmas edition.

I'm very proud of this one as I love simple clean lines and it's a quick yet effective quilt and fits perfectly on a single bed. It would look fantastic in a red and white inspired little girls room (pity I only have boys).

The quilt was quilted by my longarmer, Donna with an all over stars design. I even made a few extra blocks to feature on the back of the quilt.

This quilt is currently available for sale at my shop here.

I'm linking up with these fun places today Crazy Mum Quilts, Confessions of a Fabric Addict and Thank Goodness It's Finished Friday.

 

Till next time....happy sewing....

 

xx Jenny