I have signed up to receive fabric, pattern and instructions from Amitie Textiles in Australia every month for the next 12 months to make a Mystery Quilt designed by Jen Kingwell. Happy New Year to me! This BOM actually began a few months ago and that is why it is dated 2014 instead of 2015. Here is my first mailing:
Mailing #1
I have no idea what the finished quilt will look like, because it’s a mystery! I don’t even know what size the quilt will be although I do think Amitie Textiles would tell me if I asked – I just didn’t think to ask when I signed up. What I do know is that I LOVE Jen Kingwell’s designs and crazy choice of fabrics.
Gypsy Wife by Jen Kingwell
Green Tea and Sweet Beans by Jen Kingwell
These are the two designs that I think I have seen countless renditions of. Aren’t they beautiful? I love the combination of piecing and appliqué. This mystery quilt I am embarking on was described as being hand and machine pieced and appliquéd. I have done a lot of sewing of all kinds, but hand piecing is probably what I have done the very least of and that’s what this first mailing entailed.
Templates made and traced onto fabric.
Luckily I watch my friend, Anne, sew this way frequently and so I did have some idea what I needed to do. I used template plastic to make my templates and traced these onto my fabrics with a pencil. I knew that a piece of sandpaper would make this process easier as it holds the fabric in place as you do the tracing. (Anne has a fancy sandpaper board for this purpose – but I just used a single piece of sandpaper that my husband had).
I sewed the middle circle first
The outer ring was next
What a pain! Curved piecing is not easy to do. Of course I know this about machine piecing but I thought hand piecing would be easier. It’s not.
But I muddled through and came up with these:
And then I finally got them joined together to make this:
I’m actually pretty happy with myself. It isn’t perfect, but it’s not bad. I had to do a lot of easing to get the outer circle to fit onto the inner circle. I figure this means that I cut the templates too big, or didn’t compensate for the transfer onto the fabric or both. I will definitely take that into consideration if there is more hand piecing coming my way.
I’m anxiously awaiting the next mailing!
I Finally Have Time 
OMG, Linda. When I saw the pix of the finished block you sent me, I assumed you pieced around the center, not that you sewed each and then inserted the center. WOW!
I don’t think that I could have done this any other way. If so, I’d like to know how!
How nice it’s gong to be to watch this quilt grow! Jen Kingwell does indeed have a wonderfully refreshing color sense and her patterns are one of a kind. Please bring your beautiful circle to the DCMQG meeting so I can drool over it in person!
I would love for you to see it. It’s going to be a really fun project each month.
Oh wow, that looks like it will be a labor of love. Such fun colors/prints.
Carolyn – I still remember the mystery quilt you made and showed at a meeting and how much I loved it. That’s part of the reason I thought this would be fun.
What fun ( and work) this will be. I loved browsing all of kingwell’s quilts. I now must head to Australia , departing on 2/20!
The shop address for Amitie Textiles is: 103A Gardenvale Road, Gardenvale VIC 3185, Australia. I wonder if you will be traveling anywhere near there!
Very interesting project you have underway. I kind of cringed when I saw what you were doing by hand. Shades of my giant paper pieced rose star project only without the paper pieces. I wonder how much harder it is without the paper to give you edges. Did you consider using some paper piecing to make the pieces fit perfectly? I look forward to seeing this next week at the DCMQG meeting. Thanks for sharing as always inspiring to read and see your work. Happy New Year!
I loved seeing your completed piece and I will be interested in each months work. I love to hand piece. It is so portable!
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