Friday 15 June 2012

Sushi!

If you've been following me for a while, you may remember some peeks of the Sushi quilt I made (pattern testing for Sonja of Artisania). Well, the pattern is now done and available in Sonja's pattern shop, and I can reveal my quilt in full at last :o)

If you haven't seen her work before, Sonja is an absolute master of paper pieced pattern designs. She designs some really, really cool stuff (example: a quilt entirely made of paper pieced Converse shoes? yes please!) I went into this pattern as a total paper piecing novice - as in I had done zero paper piecing before this. I was a little dubious about my ability to do it, but shouldn't have been. Sonja's tutorials and instructions are brilliant, and made the whole process so clear and easy.

Probably my favorite part of my quilt is the teapot. I used a lot of Melody Miller fabrics in the quilt top, and love how they give it a bit of texture.



I also love the udon bowl and tea cup. It's a bit hard to see the quilting in these shots but I only quilted the background and left the paper pieced bits unquilted. And yes, that is my (awful) handstitching around the white rice (and on several of the sushi pieces).


 I used my new favorite (and super easy) FMQ motif - echo shells. Takes a bit longer than stippling, but I love the texture it gives, and it is nearly as quick as stippling - and it's easy to do in and around tricky shapes.  I normally use organic bamboo batting (similar weight and drape to cotton batting), but I knew this quilt was destined to be a wall quilt as opposed to a bed quilt, so I used a piece of polyester batting someone had given me. The loft is much, much higher than what I'm used to and it works really well in this quilt. The quilting has given the background a wonderful puffy texture, and the sushi, teapot and bowl kind of 'pop' out from the background.

The quilt in all it's glory:


The inner border is quilted 1/4" away from both edges, the pieced border is unquilted, and then the outer border is quilted 1/4" away from the inside edge - so all the borders are a bit puffy too. The pieced border is almost exclusively Melody Miller fabrics (apart from the pearl bracelet and the empire weave). 


 I really, really enjoyed making this quilt - it was a fun, low stress project and it's destined to be a wall quilt in our kitchen.

x Jess


20 comments:

Alyce @ Blossom Heart Quilts said...

Sweeeeet!! It looks awesome, congrats!! I'm a total novice at paper piecing too, so I'm very glad to hear it's totally doable :) Added it to my shopping list!!

Catherine said...

what an amazing quilt/wall hanging. And I love the echo quilting, it really finishes it off

Deborah said...

This is amazing! What beautiful art!

Unknown said...

That looks fantastic!

Jennifer said...

this looks fabulous! great work!

Jo C. said...

I love this..ever since you first posted i've been coveting this pattern. Just went to her shop to buy and it's not up yet for purchase. Waaaaa! Your quilt is gorgeous!

Carla said...

It's darling : )

melody miller said...

It's just lovely!

sukie said...

Love the sushi quilt!

Rosa said...

Your quilt is gorgeous.I love!!

Lisa Sipes said...

This is awesome and your quilting choice is FANTASTIC!!! I love this quilt! Yaaaaay Jess!

Di said...

Amazing, simply amazing! Di x

Jennie P. said...

Wow, Jess! It is simply beautiful. Love it, spectacular quilting job!

Sana Saroti said...

I want sushi!!!! Right now!!!!! That looks great!

Katy Cameron said...

Such a cool pattern, and what you made with it is awesome, especially your 'salmon' fabric!

Danny Heyen said...

You are so talented, girlie! I think this turned out great! I'm scared of paper piecing a bit. I've done a little and it wasn't terrible, but I'm in a phase right now where I want everything to flow organically and paper piecing is too precise!

Heather D. said...

This quilt is seriously awesome! I love it.

Jess @ Scrappy n Happy said...

It looks fantastic!

Fabraholic said...

Awesome!

Nicky said...

Now that's my kind off sushi! Love the FMQ pattern and batting certainly makes your motifs pop out!