Friday 19 April 2019

Glitter - and the Peacock Party

Some of you will remember my Glitter quilt.


It's a pattern designed by Jen Kingwell from Amitie Textiles in Australia.  I took the Glitter class with Jen at our Christchurch Symposium in October 2017, and I promised Jen I'd have the quilt finished before the next Symposium in Auckland in October 2019.


I finished hand piecing all the blocks before Christmas 2018, but as at 1 April I hadn't started joining them up yet.  You might think that's a 5 minute job, but I want to hand piece them together too.  I know some people have hand pieced the blocks and machine pieced the rows, but I quite enjoy the hand piecing and find it does give greater control when matching points and corners.


My motivation for starting to join the blocks was the announcement that Jen is launching a new Block of the Month called Dear Jen.  The beauty of this one is that the patterns will be send as PDFs via email - so no extra shipping charges for those of us outside of Australia.  Of course that sounding tempting, so I sewed 2 blocks of my Glitter quilt together, and signed up for the Dear Jen Block of the Month. (not sponsored at all - just sharing the love.)


I got two whole rows together and then wondered about how to press the seams.  Jen had shown us how to turn the seams and press hand pieced blocks, but that wasn't going to work when the blocks met each other.  The kind people in the Jen Kingwell Designs Facebook group told me to press one row one way, and the next row the opposite way.  I did that and it worked a treat.


Just 6 more rows to go now.  152 blocks in total.  Gulp!


Now it's time for the Peacock Party.  Feel free to link up a recent post - where it's sewing or a trip away, we all like to see what other people have been up to.  Thanks for joining in.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!
Click here to enter

12 comments:

Elaine said...

Your Glitter quilt is beautiful! I have enjoyed watching this one progress, will you hand quilt it too?

Frédérique - Quilting Patchwork Appliqué said...

Such a beautiful Glitter quilt! Love the colors, and the hand work! Seams are perfect

Cathy said...

I love the Glitter quilt! I'm inspired by your hand piecing.

I made Glitter but machine pieced my blocks and then hand quilted it. I've had it on my couch all winter and have used it lots of times.

FlourishingPalms said...

Oh Wendy... this is such a beautiful quilt! I've always admired the Glitter pattern, which is why I bought the book! But, it's not as easy to make as might look. You bought the cutting templates, correct? Hand-piecing is certainly the best way to achieve precise points, and you're pulling it all together beautifully! I admire you for your commitment to getting it done by October! No doubt you plan to hand quilt it as well. Thanks for sharing the details of this lovely green project.

Karen - Quilts...etc. said...

great job! I do not hand piece quilt tops as much as I used to - I used to do all of mine that way! pressing sure does matter!

Michelle said...

What an unusual pattern. I love it! Also love your color choices. Will enjoy watching as this lovely quilt comes together.

Thank you for hosting!

Susan said...

Lovely Glitter blocks Wendy! I love all the greens. I admire the tenacity in hand piecing all those blocks together! I’ll watch your progress too, with Dear Jen. It reminds me of my Chuck Nohara quilt.

Marly said...

What a lovely green "Glitter"! And then completely hand-pieced! I've seen several of these quilts, but always with all colours of the rainbow; this is the first time I've seen such a limited colour selection. You've got all the fabrics though! Your stash must be enormous!
I've been trying to get hold of the templates for this for ages, but now have an address for a stockist, so should be able to make a start very soon. Of course copying the templates from the book would have been quicker!

Created by Kathi said...

I love love love your Glitter quilt! I am ready to have all my ancillary projects done and be to just a hand quilting project and start something new... Hopefully that will be my May... Thanks for the info on Jen Kingwell's quilt along she is doing... looks like fun :)
I love your weekly Peacock Party and hope you reach your goal with completing this one! I bet you do!!!
Kathi

Chopin - A Passionate Quilter said...

Such beautiful hand stitching and a beautiful quilt! Lots and Lots of hours in this quilt! Well done! I assume you will hand quilt it!

Janice said...

I love your quilt. I love gray with just about any color. It makes such a great neutral. I also saw your Peacock Party link up. How often do you do this? It caught my eye because my maiden name is Peacock and I would love to participate.

Julie Fukuda said...

That is going quite well. My hand piecing certainly makes the points meet better and it also helms when arranging the seams on the back. Looking forward to what's next.