Design Challenge : December's Featured Blogger

We're excited to bring you another project in our Design Challenge Series, in which we ask a blogger to come up with a tutorial using 6 FQs.  Check out the previous posts here.  

This month, we welcome Jess from SewCraftyJess.  She was kind enough to answer some questions for us.

Hi everyone!  My name is Jessica and I blog over at SewCraftyJess.  By day I work as an audiologist, treating hearing and balance disorders, and by night I huddle down in my sewing room and stitch away!  I live outside of Pittsburgh with my husband who is very supportive and tolerant of my sewing and quilting obsession, and more importantly turns a blind eye to my compulsion to buy pretty fabric.  We have two fur-babies, a 5 year old black Lab named Zoey, and a 3 1/2 year old yellow Lab named Bella. 


I've been sewing for just about three years, after receiving a sewing machine for Christmas.  After taking an intro to sewing, and then a quilting class at Joann's I was hooked!  I really enjoy the moments I can steal each day to be creative, whether it be sewing, sketching quilt ideas, or writing patterns.

Where do you find inspiration for your sewing/quilting projects?

I really think you can find inspiration in just about anything in every day life!  Sometimes its tile work on the floor that sparks an idea or color palate for a quilt, or like my most recent quilt pattern that's in the works, this fun interlocking patchwork design was inspired by a lamp shade design I had seen somewhere!  I am constantly cleaning out my purse and finding random scraps of paper with quilty scribbles on them.

Photo courtesy of Jess Kelly

What is your favorite color combination?

I am constantly drawn to turquoise and aqua.  It is by far the color that I have the most of in my stash, and always find myself purchasing at least one new print on each fabric shopping trip.  I'm currently digging aqua, yellow and light/medium grey, I just love how soft and pretty these colors are together.

Photo courtesy of Jess Kelly

What is your favorite sewing supply/room organizational tip?

I won't even begin to pretend that my sewing room is in pristine order with nothing out of place, but I do my best to corral the mess as best as possible.  I find that the trickiest part for me, is making the best use of the limited space I have available.  It killed me seeing all that wasted space under my ironing board that is a permanent fixture down in my sewing room, so I created my own ironing board, with storage shelves underneath.  This is a huge space saver, and also helped to organize my overwhelming amount of scraps that seem to multiply on a daily basis.  I find I use my scraps more, as they are nicely organized and sorted by color.  You can read more about how I did this here.  

Photo courtesy of Jess Kelly

What is on your "quilt bucket list?"

I'd love to make a king size quilt for our bed!  The largest size quilt I've made to date is a queen size (my Swoon), which is on a bed in one of our spare rooms, but I really want to make a quilt that we can snuggle with on a regular basis.  Perhaps this will be my goal for 2013.

Thanks so much for joining us this month, Jess!

For her project, Jess selected this awesome bundle of Christmas prints - and just wait until you see her project with these tomorrow!

Bundles are available here and will be on sale through Saturday, 12/15/12.

Stop by tomorrow to see Jess's project tutorial.

Happy Sewing!  :-)