Tommy the Turtle. Pattern Released!

Today Tommy the Turtle was released into the wild!

My husband and I both have a quilt to curl up under on the couch and chair, and recently our toddler son has decided to remove these blankets when we are using them and curl up under them himself and a lot of the time he won't share with us. As a result, I decided he needed his own quilt for the lounge. 

He loves Turtles and I tried to find a pattern with a turtle. No such luck so I cranked out the crayons and drew one - which my son then pointed to said "Tur-Tol" and promptly drew over top of it with his own crayon. It didn't matter - he was happy and I had enough to work with. When he went to have his afternoon nap, I fired up EQ8 and started working with my sketch to turn it into a 12" Foundation Pieced Pattern which I have called Tommy the Turtle. 

My plan was to make a Bale of Tommy Turtles crawling on the sand or swimming in the sea, with one facing a different direction to the others. 

So far though - I got sidetracked and have only made one and it is another Work in Progress:

I recognized quite quickly that there is a bit of a gap in the quilt pattern market here. Lots of quilt patterns and no easily discoverable Foundation Pieced Turtle Patterns? My suspicions were confirmed from the response I got when I posted my planned pattern on Instagram asking for testers. I got more people than I needed to test and felt really bad about having to turn a few of them away. 

Here are some of the great turtles that were made by my testers:

This version was sewn by Lisa Lee from Coffee and Fabric. Lisa made Tommy a Tula Turtle and I think he looks great with those bold greens! This was also the first time that Lisa had tested a pattern. Lisa has started her own quilty-blog and has been sharing her adventures. Totally worth reading and following Lisa on Instagram!

I hadn't thought of using Brown for the Shell until I saw this version by Kait from @beautifulthingsinacrappyshed. Kait made her turtle for her son, who also loves turtles. I cannot thank her enough.  Kait has also recently made my Wally Whale Pattern. You can find more of her work on Instagram.

Another version that I thought was just Beautiful was this lovely Green and Purple Tommy Turtle. Vickie got lots of positive feedback from her followers on Instagram for her version, and you can see why with such a pretty turtle! Follow Vickie on Instagram here

Donna wanted to make her version for her Grandson who loves Turtles. She had a very affectionate helper who became more of a hindrance at times...

 

So I will keep working on my Turtle Quilt for my sone and in the meantime, you can make one too! The Tommy the Turtle pattern is now available to purchase in my Etsy store.

Happy Piecing!
RJ

The Chicken's have come home to roost!

During April as part of the Kohatu Patterns Farm Animal Quilt Along, we created some awesome looking Chooks for our quilts. I couldn't decide on a favourite this month, as they all looked great!

I loved the yellow chicken which Julia created below. She's a bit scrappy and yet also has a bit of a subtle look against the white background:

 Truus made her chicken a beautiful spotty Brown:

 My chicken was a bit of Yellow mixed with some Orange Solids:

and Donna also made a Brown Hen, but with a little more contrast: 

The Chicken Pattern is in my Etsy store now and is already proving to be quite a popular pattern.

The next animal we are tackling is a Billy-Goat, and so far he is proving to be quite gorgeous! I'm looking forward to seeing what my lovely Quilt-Along buddies come up with for next month's Goat Pattern too!

Happy Piecing!
RJ

Perfect Easter Quilt Block! Kerry from Sew-Ichigo tells us about their Hatching Chick Pattern!

Hi, I'm Kerry and RJ kindly invited me to write a guest post for Kohatu Patterns - I love it when the quilting community reaches out like that!

I co-run a foundation paper piecing pattern company called Sew-Ichigo with Penny.  We met as sewing bloggers back in the days of Flickr groups and were drawn together through a mutual love of paper piecing and retro kitchenware!  Penny is based in the USA and I am in the UK and we started Sew-Ichigo in 2012 focusing on graphic, quirky, cute designs.  We sell our PDFs on Payhip and Etsy and we're currently working on updating all our patterns including this Hatching Chick, a quick FPP sew in three sections, perfect for Easter!

This block has some simple embroidery to create the chick's eyes and here are some of my top tips...
Firstly, leave the paper pattern in place, it helps with placement.  Next, take a double thread of embroidery floss- I 've used Aurifil 12wt.  Thread the two ends through the eye of the needle and leave the loop at the end of the thread.

Next, push the point of the needle from the right side to the wrong side through the centre of the eye- don't pull the loop through, hold it on the right side.  

Now push the needle tip through the eye to the right side- just a small space from where you first came up  (there should be a small stitch on the wrong side).  Pass the tip of the needle through the loop- this anchors the thread in place without a knot on the back!

With your thread firmly in place, make your embroidery knot.  I used a Colonial knot but a French Knot would work too. 

One eye is complete.  Your thread is now on the wrong side.  You could take your thread over to work the other eye, but this will leave some dark thread floating on the back which may show through your fabric.  To avoid this, I worked each eye separately and tidied the thread ends away.  The easiest way to do this is to pass the needle through to the beak seam allowance (orange fabric below) as this has other layers underneath it and the black won't show on the right side.   Repeat for the other eye. 

Thank you for the invitation RJ! 

You can find Kerry and Penny on Instagram @sewichigo, @verykerryberry, @sewtakeahike and find lots of tips and tricks for FPP at the Sew-ichigo blog.  

Farm Animal Quilt Along - March Edition!

Here Piggy Piggy Piggy! During March our Farm Animal Block for the Quilt-Along was a pig, and what a lovely fellow he is! There were some neat looking pigs, but one of my favourites was definitely the one that Truus sewed with such a scrappy look and great contrasting background colours.  

Truus' pig got over 680 likes on Instagram, with comments that he looked like a number of famous pigs from books and films.

Julia from Julia McTeer Quilting had a more classic look for her pig with different shades of pink, mostly solids. Julia is a very talented Quilter who has made quite a number of my patterns previously and sells her quilts on Etsy.

Donna also went for a scrappy look, with a more subdued background and some fantastic pink prints.

Finally - here's mine! I choose to go with a yellow theme again to go with my yellow duck from last month. Halfway through I started questioning my choice, wondering if I had gone mad with Yellow Scraps, but as I progressed, I got more and more comfortable with it and in the end, I think he turned out pretty good.

Everyone enjoyed making their pigs this month and I'm looking forward to next months Chickens arriving soon!

The Pig Pattern is available now in the Etsy and Payhip Stores.

Happy Piecing Everyone!
RJ

Lion Brave is available!

He's all finished! You can now purchase your own copy of the Lion Brave Pattern from the Etsy Store and the Payhip Store.

 I love how amazing he looks, I have nicknamed mine Leo, and I think he is my favourite creation thus far! This stunning quilt is being donated to the local Lion's club in the near future and will be auctioned for a good cause but for now, I have him laid out in my sewing room because I just love looking at him!

I'd like to thank Sandra at Wise Owl Quilting for stitching him on her long arm. He was stitched edge to edge in a pattern called 'Hot Rod'.

Thanks also, to my lovely Pattern Testers, especially Melissa Latter who provided some fantastic feedback on the pattern and ways to make it easier for you!

The Lion Brave Pattern is available here and is on sale until the end of March 2019!

Happy Piecing!

RJ