LUSTING OVER LECIEN

Sorry for the recent radio silence.  Feel free to blame it on one of two things.  Either I was so busy working on my increasingly high pile of deadlines, or my ability to sit and type was affected by the pain that has assaulted my sinuses these last few days.  I think I’m finally over the worst of it, so hopefully I’ll be back to normal soon.  In my absence, lots of exciting things have been happening! The letterbox has been flapping around like crazy as lots of new fabric was delivered for me to play with and I’m excited to share some of it with you now.

As I became more active on social media during the early part of my foray into quilting, the name Lecien popped up on various posts and pictures.  The fabric depicted was mostly floral, with lots of pastels colours and ditsy prints that appealed to the more traditional quilter.  A few weeks before the most recent Quilt Market, I stumbled across Lecien’s Instagram account and began following them.  I learnt a lot about the history of this Japanese company from their website, and yet, something on Instagram was different.  The fabric they were positing peeks of wasn’t the fabric I’d come to associate them with.  These were bright, graphic and modern and appealed to my style of quilting. Over the course of Quilt Market I grew to love their most recent collections more and more as they shared pictures of gorgeous quilts made with these fresh, modern fabrics. I was sold.  I had to have some!

Imagine my delight then when I received an e-mail from Lecien’s American representative to ask if I’d be interested in receiving some of their fabrics to use in my future projects.  I was overjoyed and immediately replied YES!  Those of you who follow me on Instagram will already now how excited I was when a boxful of fabric arrived.  I was like a child in a sweet shop as I rummaged through all the goodies they’d sent.

The collection that caught my eye online is called L’s Modern and comprises of a rainbow of stunning blenders and small-scale prints split into two colourways, warm and cool, and a ‘Spring’ collection also split into warm and cool colours.  As well as yardage, the collection is offered in a range of precuts, from 5″ charm packs, 10″ origami squares and 2.5″ strips called sushi rolls, I know, adorable, right?  The potential for this collection is limitless, and I can see so many ways to incorporate these prints, either small or large pieces, into my patchwork. The colors are zesty, the designs bold.  Whilst impossible to choose a favourite, I love the dumbbell print and the squares-in-squares which, in the cool colourway, are printed with metallic ink.  So on trend right now! The text print is awesome too, and I am a sucker for a good text print.  There are a number of prints, especially in the Spring collection, that would make great bindings and so many would work with other fabric collections.  If brights aren’t your thing, then there are numerous other collections to look our for.  I was also sent some Quilter’s Basics in the woodland colourway which is a little more subdued but just as versatile.  Some of the greens I can see finding their way into future Vegetable Patch quilts.

This loveliness is looking right at home amongst the ever-increasing stash and I can’t wait to get some of my deadlines out of the way and start sewing.  Now, I feel lucky to be the recipient of such awesome fabric and I want to share some of it with all of you!  I have a L’s Modern Spring sushi roll in the cool colourway up for grabs.  Much like a jelly roll, there are 42 2.5″ by width of fabric strips to play with, perfect for so many blocks and patterns.

If you fancy getting your hands on it, simply leave a comment on this post.  If you’re not yet following the blog, please do so and let me know in your comment.  For an extra entry, head over to Instagram and follow me there.  Leave an extra comment on this post to let me know if you do.  I’ll draw a winner in a week.

EDIT – Congratulations Brooke K!  You are the randomly chosen winner of the giveaway.  I’ll be in touch via e-mail shortly to find out your shipping information.  Thanks to everyone for playing along.

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BLOGGER’S QUILT FESTIVAL – TOTEM POLE QUILT

For the first time, I’m going to enter a second quilt into the Blogger’s Quilt Festival.  I’ve always admired the quilts in the ROYGBIV category but never had one to share.  Well, that all changed this year with my contribution to the Rainbow Mini Quilt Swap I participated in.

Of all the quilts I’ve made recently, my Totem Pole Quilt has been the most fun.  I had a great time choosing fabrics from my scraps to piece the pattern, which I designed myself. You can read all about this quilt in the original post here.  You know you’re on to a winner when the repetition of piecing paper pieced blocks doesn’t get to you.  I can honestly say that each of these blocks was a joy to make and I’m looking forward to experimenting with a second version some time soon.

You must all know the drill by now, so go forth and browse this and all the other festival categories.  If you’re so inclined, I’d appreciate any votes you want to put my way.  Thank you!

NO GIRLS ALLOWED QUILT BEE – SEPTEMBER

With the last month of the first No Girls Allowed Quilt Bee fast approaching, I thought it was high time that I caught up on these blog posts.  In my defense I’m only two months behind, and October is mine.  So that just leaves September, and the amazingly creative Mr Giuseppe Ribaudo.  G is one of the nicest people you could ever (virtually) meet.  His Instagram feed is a thing of beauty and if you aren’t already following him, leave here and go take care of that first.  He can be found as giucy_giuce.  Go on, I’ll wait…

Ready?  So, as I said, he is such a talent and his quilting output is a thing of enviable beauty.  I only hope that as I travel my quilting journey I’ll match the smallest part of his awesomeness!

For his month, G requested complete and total scrappy chaos!  We were tasked with making any blocks, any size; one behemoth, or several smaller; squares, rectangles or triangles were all fair game.  The only real request was that the blocks were in colour order and any background was neutral or low volume, so as to achieve a scrappy, tea-stained looked.  I was in my element and couldn’t wait to get started!

I had no end of scraps to rummage through, and began but pulling a few from each section of the colour wheel; solids, prints and some amazing wood grain that I jump at the change to use.  Then I just got down and dirty with the sewing machine, sewing this to that with a vague plan forming in my improv-induced creative coma.  It was great fun!

These blocks were so addictive, I could have easily carried on making them all day.  I made the first two, yet my appetite for rainbow piecing wasn’t quite sated, so I made one more.  The rectangular one is long, finishing at around 24″.  I so excited to see how G fits all these pieces together.  From what I’ve seen of the other blocks this is going to be one awesome quilt.  This last photo is a homage to G and includes not only my feet but one paw of a certain pug.  He loves getting in on the bee action too!

I was surprised my how resourceful ones stash can actually be.  When I saw the block instructions called for tea-stained fabrics, I was thinking “am I gonna have to do a spot of home dying here?”.  Surprisingly, I had a lot more neutrals than I thought.  The lesson learnt?  You don’t always have to run to the fabric shop…sometimes you can walk!

October is my month of the bee and I can’t wait to see what all these amazingly talented guys come up with for me.  I’ll be sharing the details of what I’ve requested soon but for now, I’m off to work of my November blocks.  Remember to follow along on Instagram with the #NGAQB hashtag.  Sandy, Mr January, has just had his top long arm quilted and the results are stunning!  Go forth and drool!

Thanks for visitng!