Superflowernova

and Sunset Moon Trees

I have a couple of new quilts to share today. Both of these came out of class samples and both measure about 31” square, however there the similarities end.

I have now almost completely retired from in person teaching (two more gigs to go in October and November!) and this year has felt a bit like a farewell tour for me as I tick off my last few commitments before switching to online teaching exclusively.

In July I visited the Romsey Quilt Festival in the South of England to lecture and teach two full day workshops. I really had a wonderful time and felt so welcome and appreciated by all. I will certainly miss these personal interactions when I finally retreat to my studio but I know it’s the right time to make this change for the sake of my work/life balance.

I taught my Supernova class at Romsey. This was created for an online class and a new project to teach my Freehand Foundation Piecing technique. The original quilt incorporates both my Dandelion Clock and Sea Urchin patterns. Unfortunately by the time the Romsey Quilters requested this I had already sold the original quilt.

This meant I needed to reproduce at least one quarter to share with the class so they could see what we were trying to make! I used my new favourite solid fabric, Windham’s Artisan Cotton. The colour palette I chose for the Liminal Space Medallion for the Love Patchwork and Quilting BOM is still really doing it for me aesthetically and as I had enough leftovers I used this for the class sample.

In preparation and during the class I made a start on another quarter through my step models. I was halfway towards a new version of the quilt. But I really do hate to repeat myself. I find it almost physically painful to do this.

And then I remembered this mini quilt I made last year.

It was created due to the same problem. I had a quarter block step model left over from the appliqué garland pattern from my first book, New Patchwork and Quilting Basics. And I couldn’t bear to stitch another 3 to finish the pattern. So instead I created a ‘Dream Flower’ version of the design and two new machine stitched quarters using my Freehand Foundation Piecing technique.

I had really liked this experiment and wanted to try more of these garland quarter mash-ups. So I decided to hand stitch two Dream Flower type garland quarters in the same fabric to match the Supernova quarters. I then mixed in some machine improv curves to finish. This left me with a lot of leftover curves which I couldn’t help putting together to create this extra block. I’m not sure what to do with this one yet but I do love creating with leftovers!

I love how dynamic the bright colours and shapes look against the black background! But then how to quilt it… I had added the tiniest bit of embroidery to the appliqué - on the leaf stem and at the top of the turquoise flowers and I was in two minds whether to add more. But then I thought I would need to add this to the Supernova quarters too so maybe I should hand quilt the whole thing with the Aurifil 8wt cotton?

After a suggestion from Lynne (we always seek advice on these matters from our Thread House WhatsApp group) I decided to go for a machine matchstick on my Handi Quilter MoxieXL. I used a variegated black and white Aurifil 40/3 cotton. In the photo above you can see the SewTites magnets which I use to ‘baste’ the layers to the frame. They make the whole thing so much easier and quicker!

I decided to call this Superflowernova but every time I say it my brain starts singing ‘Supercalifragilistic…’ from Mary Poppins!

The second quilt featured today was created for the Moon Trees online class which was my most recent one for The Thread House Academy. I taught the technique using a range of different sized blocks and wanted to show how I had built up my Moon Trees quilt with all these different sized units and no planning from the start.

This is the result. It’s obviously a mini version of the original as I didn’t have time to hand sew a whole new full sized quilt. I wanted try a different colour palette so used warm shades of orange, red and yellow with some blue, turquoise and greys. The colours remind me of a sunset hence the name.

I decided to expand on my ‘kissing leaf’ FMQ pattern for this one. I used this earlier this year to quilt my Monthly Trees Temperature Quilt but this time I added another leaf shape with a sort of five pointed sycamore leaf. I’m so enjoying finishing these smaller quilts on my MoxieXL at the moment and need to finish something else quick so I can get back to the joyful quilting part!

This class is still available to buy now if you fancy having a go yourself. In fact so is my Supernova class.

And speaking of our Academy we have just launched our next class. We are bringing back our very popular Masterclass series for this year’s programme of classes.

After a two year break we are again using our ‘extra month’ to take a deep dive into a crucial quilting subject. And we are starting off with Half Square Triangles.

I’m not a huge fan of these but was happy to give improv piecing a try. I’ll be showing you how to create this dynamic modern block complete with wonky star and sawtooth border. And we will make HST fun (and possible!)!

Lynne and Karen both covering the traditional and FPP methods with new block designs and you get all three lessons with this one single class which goes live on September 1st. All our classes are pre-recorded videos with captioned subtitles that come with LIFETIME ACCESS so you can watch them at your convenience and keep them to watch again later. Click on the button below to head to our store where you can find out more info about all our offerings.

One more piece of news to share. I am this week’s guest on Sam Hunter’s RevCraftBiz podcast. It’s a long and wide ranging chat about my life as an artist and an entrepreneur.

I am very proud to have been earning my living solely as a self employed person since I was 21 and I loved getting a chance to talk about my approach to the business side of things.

We also discuss temperature quilts, the 100 Day Projects I’ve done and much more! It was such a joy to record and I hope you enjoy listening to it. Just click on the button below or search for it wherever you listen to podcasts.