WIP: SMITTEN PATCHWORK

Have you ever been so obsessed with a project that you find yourself thinking about it at all times of the day? That’s how I find myself with Smitten. Smitten is a quilt pattern by Lucy Kingwell (daughter of Jen Kingwell). I picked the pattern up and met the fabulously cool Lucy while I was in Melbourne in March.

When I purchased the pattern I hadn’t really given much thought to what fabrics I’d use or how I’d construct it. (I’d assumed that it was all English Paper Pieced (EPP).) Turns out the pattern is all about how to hand sew the quilt top together… uh oh. I’m not known for my hand stitching… in fact, if anything I’d be known for how bad my hand stitching is. But I purchased the pattern any way because I loved it so. 

While roaming and fondling the fabric in Amitie I found this fabulous combo van fabric that was pink, black and white and I fell in love with it. I knew standing there looking at it that it would form the basis of my version of Smitten. I wouldn’t self identify as loving pink, but pink forms a big chunk of my stash and I’ve always had a weak spot for pink, black and white.

In the past week I’ve managed to get some rare spare time to do some “selfish sewing”. I’ve been busy working on so many projects and swaps that it feels like forever since I did something that was just for me and didn’t have any time pressures associated with it. I’ve really missed having fun. Playing and learning; it’s good for the soul.

I knew the minute my work schedule cleared what I was going to do; Smitten. I went through and started pulling all the black and white fabrics I had on hand and then weeding through the pinks in my collection to find the perfect shades to include. The only rule with this quilt is that the only colours are going to be pink, black and white. (There may be one exception to this, but we’ll see…)

I’d seen on Instagram that Chrissy (of Sew Lux) was running a Smitten Quilt-along where she was giving monthly tutorials on how to machine piece the quilt and I knew I had to give it a go.

I wasn’t sure where to start and as I was sifting through the piles I happened upon some Star Wars poplin that I’d purchased from Spotlight just to have in the stash on the off chance I’d make something for one of the boys. I couldn’t resist. I got the templates out (I’m using Marti Michell Set H acrylic templates) and started having some fun trying to work out the best way to use the fabric. I wasn’t sure how it was going to come together, but I knew I was going to have fun trying.

I made my first block and it was love. Love I tell ya! I followed the tutorial and it was so simple to do and I was so dang happy with myself for being able to do it. Y-seams scare me no more.

The only thing that I do differently to the tutorial is to press my seams open (and I don’t glue baste). I find they’re much easier to match and manipulate when it comes to doing the y-seam and they lay really flat when they’re done. (You can see the back of my Han Solo block above.) I haven’t trimmed any of these blocks once they’re done, this is how they’re finishing up and I’m so stoked to see them working so nicely. If you’d like a tutorial on how I use the open seams to make a block let me know and I’ll whip something up. 

I’d started with making the smaller blocks first because I couldn’t really decide on a large scale print to use for the middle of the larger blocks (and to be quite frank, all the pieces and y-seams were scaring me a little before I made my first block). After the success of the smaller blocks I couldn’t wait to try one of the bigger blocks so I made myself decide on a print and fabric combination and went for it. I’m so happy I did – I love it.

I’m having so much fun with the fussy cutting possibilities of this quilt and finding fabrics that will give me the balance of colour and variety that I’m hoping for when the quilt all comes together. I’m finding it a little hard to not be able to see the full quilt and be able to pick the colour placement for it in advance, so I’m thinking that a lot of the filler blocks are where I’m going to have to work to strike the right balance.

I’m really excited about this quilt and I can’t wait to see where it takes me and what fun I can have with it. I’m really digging on black and white and I’m starting to see it trend more and more in my work and I’m ok with that. Quilting should be fun and this is what quilting fun looks like for me.