Playing with Tilda Circus

I know I know – it is April.  I mean how does that even happen? I have been busy the past few weeks creating this brand spanking website you see before you and as a result blogging had to take a backseat. I am so glad already I took the leap to WordPress although the stress was real! I had this great idea it would take a couple of hours and I would be good to go – like quilting I constantly underestimate how long it takes me to do things. Anyway now I think everything is so much easier to read and find – I would love for you to have a look around and tell me your thoughts.

Now of course not blogging never equates to not sewing. My machine ran as fast as ever and I was lucky to get some lovely quilts and orders out to customers, all of which I will share in coming days.

But the very first  post I am sharing on my sparkly new blog has to be all about Tilda Circus. I was super lucky to have a fat quarter bundle of this range posted to me a few weeks ago and what can I say except CA-UTE! I loved all the prints in the range but I have to admit my first love was the red circus print – the balancing elephant always makes me smile and I never tire of it. I could see a whole nursery in this print alone – so much fun but still classic, something Tilda does best. And the colours are so versatile, the patterns a good mix of modern and classic meaning you can get so many different looks and easily just one from bundle. I love fabric ranges like that!

The arrival of the range coincided with my deciding to be part of the Sewalong for Sedef from Down Grapevine Lane‘s  latest book Quilt Petite. I have never taken part in a sewalong but as this is the year of trying new things I dove right in. The idea was to make something inspired by Sedef’s patterns and man was it hard to choose! I finally settled on using her reverse rose applique to make a special cushion and then I used her sweet bunny for a coordinating hoop. This was the first time I had ever done free motion applique and I am really keen to give it another try going forward. Seriously though dont look too close at this one lol.

And the cool thing I didnt in any way expect? I won! How lucky was I to be drawn as the round 4 winner and win this amazing pile of goodies donated kindly by Alisha of Ministry of Fabric. I have wasted many hours browsing Alisha’s beautiful store and wishing I had a million dollars. My prize included the new range Bunnies & Cream and I am excited to spend a day playing with it really soon. I can see lots of pretty baby pieces for my shop made using those super cute bunnies.

Now like I have said before I spend a lot of time trawling the net looking at quilt pics as inspiration. It is never until I have fabric selected that I choose a pattern – I find that always makes the biggest difference. It was simply by coincidence that on the day I received pics of the Circus range I stumbled across this image.

I immediately knew this was the quilt i wanted to make but turns out it is not so easy to just find vintage quilt patterns. Luckily I had a lovely lady in a group I am in help me with the cutting pieces and I was away! (side note: I am sure patterns like this exist in the modern quilting world but man oh man no matter how hard I tried I couldnt find one!)

And so my Tilda circus quilt was born! I edged the water wheels using a scrappy border which helped make the quilt larger – she is now the perfect cot size! For quilting I opted to heavily stitch in the white in that gorgeous star shape pattern. It took a LONG time but I love the finished look knowing it will be even better when I wash her. To finish I opted for white binding to keep the pattern the star – I love it!

 

 

 

 

Isnt she so pretty! I love the elephant peeking through too – I can imagine a little one loving all the detail and colours in this one.

Now photos shoot time. A few years ago I was given this amazing red gingham chair that had been imported from the UK. I love it to bits and pieces even though it doesnt go with my home decor at all. Every so often I have thoughts of covering it but the red gingham holds me every single time. In this instance with this quilt – perfection! I took her outside (no easy feat) and started snapping.

 

I love how well the cushion works with the quilt and the wee bunny in the background adds the whimsy. And I am super glad I used white as my background as I was wavering between that and natural linen. I think it is perfect for lifting out the colours and detail in the prints.

Now to decide what to do with this beauty. I think for now she can sit and look pretty in my sewing room. I am so proud of this – it is by far my most detailed quilt to date. I am finally realise that when people ask me what I do I need to call myself a quilter, I was always too scared to in case the title was too big for my experience but I really feel I am getting there with my technique.

Tilda Circus is now available to purchase world wide – how lucky are we the internet exists for fabric shopping adventures!

xxSarah