Hop, Skip, & Jump! A bloghop to showcase Jamie Fingal's new fabric line called "Hopscotch"

Welcome to Hopscotch:  a playful tone-on-tone blender line!  This collection of 83 fabrics features hand-drawn imagery chosen from Jamie Fingal's sketchbooks.  Images such as dots, various geometrics, flowers, and whimsical loop-de-loops.  It's all here!  The large collection is a veritable rainbow of colors and will be the perfect blender to reach for in any of your projects. 

The line is launching at Spring Quilt Market in St. Louis, MO in May, and will be arriving into your favorite quilt shops in August of 2017.

Jamie, as many of you know, is a close friend and the other half of Dinner At Eight Artists.  We enjoy collaborating on a variety of things and when she asked if I was interested in creating a small quilt using her new line I was very excited to work with it.  I selected these:

and oops I guess I didn't get the bright orange in this shot but you will see it...

Lately, I have been doing mostly improvisational work that is "free-cut" with a rotary cutter (meaning no rulers) and I thought it might be interesting to see if I could generate an abstracted botanical piece.

Here's the basic idea:  First, I cut several pieces of fabric into large rectangles.  Next, using my rotary cutter and beginning at the TOP of the cut I made a curved arc into the cloth.  Now, people who use rotary cutters tend to cringe at the idea of pulling to rotary blade toward themselves but the truth is that, when free-cutting, one tends to have more control over the cut.  It feels more like drawing with a  pencil or painting with a brush.  That's how I like to think of it.  I'm being a nerd to admit this but it completely thrills me that I have a gestural "mark" as this cut seam.  Is that weird?  Probably.

The first cut

Next, I overlay the cut fabric onto the piece I intend to sew it onto.  The fabrics must overlap at the seam.  

Once cut, I turn the fabrics, top side is the concave edge, and stitch.

The seam is pressed to the convex arc.  It just "feels right"

Taking the piece back to the cutting mat I repeat the process.

This is basically the idea:  building shapes, taking care to always sew with a 1/4" seam allowance.

Here is an almost-finished "tulip".

Eh, why leave it alone?!  I want to add some more to it, plus I need to join it

to another large section of the construction.

Here is the back of part of the tulip.

I love looking at the back side of an improv (well, really, ANY sort of construction!) piece 

as sometimes it seems to tell more of the story about its making.

This just bugs me.  First, I'm not fond of the tulip on the right because of the two leaves.  

I ask myself what I was thinking!  It looks trite.  It is going to go under the knife again....

I wanted a couple of abstract "buds".  

So I lopped off one of my leaves on the red tulip and moved it to the right edge.

Here are two large pieces, overlaid before they are cut for a new seam.

And here it is after the seam is sewn.

I opted to quilt the surface with light gray, black, white, and two fluorescent thread colors

in order to "ghost" a couple more buds into the piece.

Here is the finished piece.  I opted to do a facing on the quilt.

The finished size is 18 inches square.

Please be sure to stop by all these artists' blogs to see what they created using Hopscotch.  Have fun, and thanks so much for stopping by!
hop, skip, jump blog hop
4-24 Jamie Fingal https://jamiefingaldesigns.blogspot.com/
4-25 Cindy Cooksey https://cookseyville.blogspot.com/
4-26 Sue Bleiweiss  https://suebleiweiss.blog/
4-27 Lyric Kinard  https://lyrickinard.blogspot.com/ 
4-28 Susan Brubaker Knapp  https://wwwbluemoonriver.blogspot.com/
5-1 You Are Here!! https://leslietuckerjenison.blogspot.com/
5-2 Deborah Boschert https://deborahsjournal.blogspot.com/
5-3 Libby Williamson https://libbywilliamsondesigns.blogspot.com/

Let's Go To The Birds With Jamie Fingal's New Fabric Line from Hoffman Fabrics!

I was delighted when my dear friend and "Dinner At Eight" partner-in-crime told me she was designing a fabric line with a "bird" theme.  I looked forward to see it and I am not disappointed!  I am a life-long "bird geek".  I grew up in a house where there were feeders outside each window & binoculars placed in strategic locations in the house for optimum viewing of birds.
I still have this habit.  Few things give me as much joy as observing birds and cultivating a habitat for them in my garden.

Jamie's new line of fabric from Hoffman is a delight for the senses.  The deep, rich colors suggest a bit of fall might be in the air, but it is not simply a fall-themed palette.  I love the addition of a few stripes, a bird journal, the bird houses, and her fun bunting in the mix.

For my project I decided to be quite free-wheeling:  I cut pieces of fabric "freehand" with my rotary cutter.  In other words, no measuring and straight edges from a ruler.  Why?  Just because!  I love the look of the more organic appearance that comes as a result of this method of cutting.

First, I cut squares from many of the fabrics, and then some strips.  The strips were pieced around the square(ish) shapes.

Using Mistyfuse I fused some small pieces, then cut bird and leaf shapes with my Sizzix  dies.  I like how they add some additional depth and movement to the blocks!

cutting the "squares"

Pre-fused fabric is run through the Sizzix Big Shot die-cutter.

the results:  two bird forms and several sizes of leaves.

The "branches" were free-cut with scissors

Since it is close to Valentine's Day I thought adding a heart was in order...

But I wanted it to look a bit like an apple...

I love the wonderful shapes and colors in the fabric.

I like that I can see the shapes of Jamie's sketch-doodles in the fabric!

It is such fun to free-motion quilt using the shapes as a guide.

I used the dual-feed feature on my Bernina 750 QE to do some of the straight quilting.

I like the wonky feel of these free-cut blocks!

I am using a double-layer of wool-blend felt from National Nonwovens as my batting.

It is great for wall-hangings because it holds a nice flat shape.

To finish the (somewhat uneven) edges I opted for a border of black and white ribbon trim.

It looks a bit like film negative edge, which seems perfect for this study in birds!

Thanks so much for stopping by, and please leave a comment here to become eligible for prizes.  We are going to do a give away for a bundle of the 'Autumn is for Birds' fabric.  Hoffman Fabrics has been very generous in providing the prize!  Don't forget to check out the other stops on this multi-day hop.  

Jamie shares a link to her Twisted Sister blog talking about how the 'Autumn is for Birds' fabric line was made:  http://www.jamiefingaldesigns.com/2015/01/autumn-is-for-birds.html

Hoffman Fabrics link http://www.hoffmanfabrics.com/

The giveaway is for a bundle of the 'Autumn is for Birds' fabric.   Hoffman Fabrics has been very generous in providing the fabrics!

Feb 16 - You. Are. Here.

Feb 17 - Lisa Chin

Feb 18 - Cheryl Sleboda

Feb 19 - Stacy Hurt

Feb 20 - Candy Glendening 

Feb 21 - Sue Bleiweiss

Feb 22 - Jamie Fingal