Journey To Nebula Sew Along With Jaybird Quilts

An exciting announcement on Tula Pink’s ‘Tula Talk’ this week – there’s to be a skill building sew along ahead of the Nebula BOM starting in January 2021 called Journey 2 Nebula.

It’s being run by Julie Herman of Jaybird Quilts, the designer of the Nebula quilt, and features 6 of her smaller patterns such as pillows and table toppers.

Hex N More ruler by Jaybird Quilts

Super Sidekick ruler by Jaybird Quilts

Particular to these patterns are the use of two of Julie’s specialised rulers (although templates are included with the patterns). These are the Hex N More and Super Sidekick and are also the rulers that will be needed for the Nebula BOM itself. I’ve never used anything other than regular quilting rulers before, so I’m looking forward to trying these out and it’ll make a nice change from cutting squares and triangles!

Journey to Nebula patterns by Jaybird Quilts

The full list of patterns is:

1. Seaside – A table runner with pieced diamonds
2. Lucky Charm – A pillow with the appearance of being made from hexies, but is actually half-hexies
3. Jawbreaker – Another pillow pieced with triangles and using strip piecing techniques
4. Rock Candy – A table topper most similar to Nebula of all the projects
5. Candy Dish – Two pillows using the Hex N More ruler
6. Gazebo – Another table topper with half-hexies and triangles

There are also a couple of exclusive patterns that will only available to those signed up to the Journey 2 Nebula, so make sure you are! You can do this on the link to Julie’s page below.

My initial reaction was to make all of the projects in True Colours to complement the Nebula quilt when it’s completed, but I’ve decided against this for two reasons:

1. As I understand it, there’s going to be quite a bit of fabric/scraps left over from making the quilt and I think it would be great to make my favourite of these projects with these once the quilt is finished.
2. Perhaps strangely, I suffer from what I can only describe as ‘fabric fatigue’. That is, that no matter how much I adore a fabric, once I’ve been working with it for sometime (particularly on a large quilt), I’m just over it and want to move on to using different fabrics. I certainly don’t want this to happen before even starting Nebula!

What’s more, True Colors pre-cuts are pretty much impossible to get hold of in the UK at the moment!

Turning to my stash, I can see I have a Stella by Rashida Coleman-Hale for Ruby Star Society jelly roll and also her Pop charm pack, so I’ll be using these for the first couple of projects at least.

My favourite ‘local’ online quilt shop, Lovely Jubbly Fabrics, is putting together a bundle of the 6 patterns which I’ll be at the front of the queue for! This shop is also who I’m doing the Nebula BOM with and the lovely owner, Jade Newman, has said that she’ll get the rulers for the BOM out to us early for Journey to Nebula which is fantastic.

I’m really excited for this sew along as it’ll be a great opportunity to try out the rulers and techniques before embarking on the real deal in January 2021. There’s also a private Facebook group which these who’ve signed up can also join if they wish. This will be a great place to share your makes and see everyone else’s too. There’s an Instagram account @journey2nebula and the hashtag for posts is #journeytonebula.

Here’s a link to the Journey to Nebula post on Julie’s Website: http://www.jaybirdquilts.com/2020/08/journey-to-nebula-skill-builder-series.html

You can also link through to each of the 6 patterns here for the fabric requirements to get planning ahead. I for one can’t wait to get started!