Weekend Sewing with Quilts, Cats and 6 Crafty Links

Well, hello there and welcome to another weekend update at Bonjour Quilts. I’ve lots of fun things to share so sit back, relax, and enjoy!

What I’m Sewing…

I finished up my collaborative project with the Fat Quarter Shop with some wavy line quilting and a machine binding.

I like to use a zigzag stitch when machine binding, but this time I wasn’t sure I had enough teal thread left on my reel. So I made the decision to use a straight stitch, as it requires less thread. However it also requires a lot more accuracy to catch the binding on the back. (I don’t need that sort of pressure in my life anymore, hence the default to zigzag stitch!)

To give myself a better chance at catching that binding at the back I glue basted it down before I sewed. It holds the binding in exactly the right spot to make sure my stitching from the front catches the binding in the back.

Once I’d finished that project I moved on to working out some larger-quilt calculations for my next quilt pattern. I had some company for a while (he was sunning his buns on the warm hard drive).

It became harder to get the work done when his sister, Lulu, turned up. She tried to push her way onto the warm seat but Tigger was having none of it. She settled on my calculation pages instead, sigh.

I also found some time to play around in my stash and pulled this fabric combination. The duo of chartreuse (or acid lime) and cobalt blue is fun and modern. It was inspired by the print with blue bear in the foreground.

Around the Interwebs…

Some awesome freebies for you today! Here’s a gorgeous Bear Paw-based quilt pattern by Then Came June. And here’s a super cute strawberry pincushion pattern by Craftapalooza.

I was very excited to see Anna Maria Horner’s announcement of something new coming. If you love her work as much as I do you can sign up to hear more about her new endeavour, Anna Maria Textiles, right here.

This colourful mixed-media embroidery is happiness for your wall.

An oldie but a goodie – Sam at Hunter’s Design Studio shares her Top 10 Sewing Room Hacks. Maybe some of these will work for you too?

In a bit of a rut (sewing or generally)? This short, sensible article might be of interest.

Reader Quilts…

I always love to see quilts you’ve made from Bonjour Quilts patterns so please keep sending them in! Either email (Kirsty at BonjourQuilts dotcom), or tag me on Facebook or Instagram.

Sabine has a Halloween birthday so she made herself a Halloween Easy Disappearing Nine-Patch quilt. I love how she’s included some patches from her backing fabric in the quilt top.

Sabine’s backing-as-binding is perfect as well:

Diane sewed this beautiful version of the Scrappy Lattice quilt pattern in red, white and blue. I love the diamond border she designed, and the 3 blue squares she included top/bottom of the outermost border:

And I love her hand quilting:

Here’s another option for Scrappy Lattice, this time using a restrained colour palette of blues as seen here in Meredith’s version. (Some of Meredith’s blocks are HSTs – a great way to use up some orphan patchwork blocks. It also adds some interesting extra lines/shadows to the quilt.)

Here’s a yellow palette version that I made a few years ago. I ended up using it as a backing for a Lollies quilt, see it sewn into a quilt here.

If you don’t have a ton of scraps in a single colour then colour blocking is your friend, as seen in Karen’s lovely version below:

And of course, you could use ALL the colours and go rainbow like Gabrielle:

Another fun option is to go with dark sashing fabric such as Kalynn’s black and red beauty here:

And Cynthia’s version shows that even if you have a lot of patterned fabric, you can still create a coherent scrap quilt that doesn’t make your eyes hurt. She has expertly pulled together all manner of aqua, teal and turquoise fabrics, many with spots of additional colour, and created a beautiful stained-glass effect.

Jenn’s elegant version uses a spotted chambray fabric for sashing, and it looks really classy:

And here’s Cheryl’s version, which cleverly uses scraps both in the blocks and the sashing, to great effect (this one also gives me stained glass visions). The cross block sashing is coordinated diagonally, which I love.

It always delights me how much you are able to take these patterns and make them your own! Please keep sending in your photos as everyone loves to see them. People regularly comment that this section is their favourite part of the newsletter. (Well, this and the cats. Lucky I don’t have a big ego!)

If you’d like to try your hand at a Scrappy Lattice quilt using your scrap pile or FQs, you can find the pattern here in the shop. It has 5 quilt sizes and 2 block size options so there is sure to be one that will suit your stash. It’s such a good feeling to make a lovely quilt from stash/scraps!

Cats’ Corner

Wow, that was a lot of quilts! Here’s a palette cleanser to clear your mind before you head off into your weekend.

It’s been quite chilly in the mornings (it’s winter here in Australia), but mild and sunny during the days. My poinsettias are giving me great Christmas in July vibes.

The cats pretty much spend the day following the sun as it moves across the house. Although they will abandon the sun for a warm lap, hard drive or lap top, if the mood strikes them (open lap tops with important documents open on them are particularly enticing).

Have a great weekend!

Well, that was a big update! I hope you found something to entertain or inspire you here today. I’m looking forward to a bit of sewing over the rest of the weekend and my wish is that you get to do the same. Until next time,

Kirsty x

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