Looking Forward by Jen Kingwell...

Hi all,

Jen here from sunny Torquay, Australia.  

While I wasn't at Fall Market in Houston, I can never seem to avoid the Quilt Market rush. Not only is it my design company’s biggest time of the year with our new products launching but it also means a new Moda range!  This market I will be presenting Remix.  I've re-colored some of my favorite prints from prior collections, and I'm in the midst of making the quilt for a Mystery Block of the Month to be published in Quiltmania magazine.  

It's also busy with Looking Forward on it's way to shops.  This collection is my take on prints from the 50s and 60s – eras in textile design that I love so much!

Looking Forward has a more controlled colour palette than my ranges from the past making it the perfect one to mix in with other collections. I am a long-time scrap quilt enthusiast so I encourage makers to get creative and add their own personal touch! My recommendations would be Regent Street Lawns, my previous ranges for Moda, including Beach Road, and any others in your much-loved stash!

As always, I have included a range of Lollies with Looking Forward.

Lollies are a panelled fabric which feature 8 different prints per design… adding 32 extra prints to the range in total! I love the Lollies as they really assist with adding the scrappy influence I adore so much.

This range offers a great combination of florals, geometrics and stripes. Geometric prints are probably my favourites. They add punch to projects and this range offers a great selection of geometric prints from the subtle in design to the bolder.

My range projects for Looking Forward are Shooting Star and Rising Sun – both new additions to my Template Tempter range. They are also blocks featured in my latest quilt Delilah.

Shooting Star is a fantastic repeat block project which can be hand sewn or machine pieced, depending on your preference. The Tempter set includes ¼” seam allowance, perfect for rotary cutting!  

I have colour-blocked this project to assist the design, giving this Shooting Star a real zing!

The Rising Sun project is a "hack" - a different layout - on the original Tempter set which encourages users to play around with these templates and come up with new and exciting combinations.

This project is my favourite! It looks scrappy and full of fun. It’s busy in the right kind of way!  Again, it can be finished by hand or by machine and the templates include the necessary ¼” seam allowance!

Of course, hand is still my preference. I love sitting down with a hot cup of coffee, putting needle to fabric and allowing everything slow down. I find my rhythm and watch the birds go by. It’s relaxing and good for my mind, which is always going a mile a minute!

Remix and hand-piecing.

This block is for the 2019 Quiltmania Mystery quilt, a quilt I named Marshal.  The reason - the meaning of the word is "to assemble and arrange (a group of people) in order... "the general marshaled his troops"
The synonyms are: gather, gather together, assemble, collect, muster, mass, amass, call together, draw up, line up, align, array, organize, group, set/put in order, set/put into position, arrange, position, order, rank, mobilize, rally, round up; triage.  This quilt will be made by people from different countries, different beliefs, different all sorts of things but as we make this quilt we are all similar.

I hope you love my new range Looking Forward and are inspired to get scrappy!

Xoxo

Jen

All images used with permission of Jen Kingwell.