Sewing World January 2018 - Make a cosy new quilt for the new year!

The latest issue of Sewing World magazine is out and on sale now.

There a heaps of great patterns and projects to get you inspired for some new year sewing along with the start of their Capsule Wardrobe collection which is brilliant! My offering this month is a sumptuously cosy Tilda Harvest rag quilt. Perfect if you need a quick fix of snuggly and warm for the early months of the year and it really is an easy quilt to make if you are new to quilt making. The instructions in the magazine will take you through it step by step.

Available in all good retailers (find your copy by searching here) or you can order single copies on line here.

Find Sewing World on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Tilda Autumn 2016 Ranges Blog Hop

Hello and welcome to my stop on the Tilda Autumn 2016 ranges blog hop!

I must admit that in my early days of sewing I dismissed Tilda ranges as 'not my cup of tea' with regards to the prints available, I felt they were rather washed out for my palette which disappointed me hugely because the fabric base used by Tilda is absolutely wonderful. No fear on that account now however, with every range released Tilda keeps getting better and better in my estimation. I love the richer saturated colours that are coming through, I also love how the different ranges work so well together. This allows me to keep that busy, crazy, wide mix of prints that I love in my work but with the reassurance that they will all work together! Both new lines Cabbage Rose and Memory Lane are perfect examples of this.

Cabbage lane has yummy zesty oranges, something that really excited me when I first saw this range. Paired with the classic Tilda teals and florals it makes for a really exciting twist on a classic quilt.

Whilst Cabbage Rose is certainly zesting up the usual Tilda colour palette, Memory Lane is perhaps staying more true to the traditional Tilda look, but with the richness turned up! I love the strength of colour in these prints and I know I have to start work on a Tilda quilt as soon at the wip's are more under control!

The new Memory Lane and Cabbage Rose ranges are out to buy now at Stitch Craft Create, being limited edition they won't hang around! But it is not just fabric that is available, Tilda unique style has extended to quilt labels, fabric covered buttons, ribbons, adhesive tape, fabric sheets and even co-ordinating thread. There are beautiful quilt kits using the new ranges, this Cabbage Rose one with its mix of traditional piecing and appliqué is my absolute favourite.

You can also see the samples that I made for the people over at Stitch Craft Create which are available as kits in the new ranges too!

Tilda Reversible Oversize Tote Bag Kit

Tilda Easy Peasy Quilt Kit

Getting to work with the new ranges was an absolute dream, the fabric handles so well that it is so easy to work with, perfect for needle turn appliqué and intricate patchwork. After making the samples I had some scraps left and couldn't bear not to put them to use, so I whizzed up a small bag.

Using up all the trimmings it is surprising what you can create! Just the offcuts from trimming selvedges off my FQ's before cutting a quilt gave me the two panels on the bag, big enough to make lovely roomy pockets.

And of course I had to use one the gorgeous bold florals as the main fabric, this one is Flower Cloud in Dark Slate from Memory Lane.

 A lovely slubby linen proved to be the perfect match for the lining and a couple of readymade bag handles finished it off!

If you want to get your hands on a FQ bundle and a sweet little Tilda friend then pop over to the Stitch Craft Create Facebook page to enter.

Follow the rest of the blog hop here:

1st August – Stitch Craft Create
2nd August – Stitch Craft Create
3rd August – Vicky Myers Creations
4th August – Strawberry Patch Ramblings
5th August – Charm About You

8th August – Crafting Not Cleaning
9th August – Popular Patchwork
10th August – Dinki Dots
11th August – Little Black Duck
12th August – Tea and a Sewing Machine

15th August – A Saucy Stitch
16th August – Very Berry Handmade

Keepsake Quilting comes to the UK!

Keepsake Quilting, the largest quilting catalogue in the USA, has been running since 1987 and today offers an unparalleled range of quilting fabrics, kits, books, patterns and haberdashery items. To meet the demands of customers in the UK, they are bringing Keepsake Quilting to the UK!

I am delighted to have worked with Keepsake Quilting to produce a Modern Solids Quilt which is now available through their website to order as a kit. Some of you may have already received the Keepsake Quilting catalogue through the post and spotted it.

I love the styling they have done with the quilt and it was great to work with the new range of Freespirit Designer Solids. Of course having the wonderful Elizabeth Dackson for company on the opposite page with her stunning Sparkling Diamonds quilt is lovely too!

The Keepsake Quilting website and catalogue are bursting with gorgeous quilt kits, its hard to pick but my favourites of the moment have to be the Honor Roll Flying Geese Kit and the Bumblecomb Quilt Kit

But its not just kits, there is fabric galore and oodles of quilt and project patterns. including this free Queen Charming Pattern download that is just perfect for Layer Cakes.

They also have some great fabrics from Tula Pink, Joel Dewberry and Heather Bailey in the sale! Of course I want you all to hurry over there and grab a bargain (if only to stop me spending all my money!) But what I really would love is if you brought my quilt kit ;-)

My Small World QAL (& Giveaway Winner!)

Following on from last weeks bloghop for 50 Fat Quarter Makes: Fifty Sewing Projects Made Using Fat Quarters I have a winner for the girls twirly skirt bundle!

Using random number generator, there were 23 comments (24 actually but the 24th was spouting spamming nonsense about about my post being helpful and insightful, thats gotta be spam!)

And the winner is comment number 10 who was SewLittleToSay! Congratulations! I will be in touch for your address!

Thank you to everyone that entered and for all the lovely comments about the book. Don't forget you can buy 50 Fat Quarter Makes in all good bookshops, or here on the publishers website where you can also buy an e-book version for your tablet or iPad. And of course you buy from Amazon!

You can also find a video tutorial for the gathered skirt, Satchel bag and nesting bowls in my new '3 projects in 30 minutes' film course over on Craft Daily. In the video I will take you through step by step how to make each project so its great if you feel you need a little extra help! While you are there why not take a look at the other video tutorials Craft Daily has to offer, there is something for everyone!

When I have had any downtime recently (which isn't often as you may have guessed!) I have been mostly working on a new project, My Small World Quilt.

Image from VeryKerryBerry.blogspot.co.uk

The quilt is a design by the talented Jen Kingwell published in the Spring Special 2015 edition of Quiltmania magazine. The QAL is being hosted by VeryKerryBerry amongst others and full details of the posts and support available can be found here on her blog.

I LOVE Jen's style and have had it on my 'to make' list for an age to make one of her quilt designs. However until now I never seemed to find the time. I think I saw them as long term large scale projects, with the challenge of lots of new skills in the different piecing techniques. So, it kept on being bumped to the bottom of the list despite my passion for the quilts

Step up 'My Small World'. It just fits the bill and my life so perfectly, the time I have to 'selfish sew' and my family and ethos. The size (at 33"x52") means it is a manageable project to take on, the new skills I need to hone will be practiced on a smaller scale so somehow feel more achievable. The size also means I can use the ample stash of scraps I have, with no need to buy more fabric which is always a bonus in my mind, not least because I can dive in and sew whenever the opportunity arises without waiting for supplies.

low volume stash explosion!

My Small World also struck a cord with my emotional connection I often seem to develop for quilts. The children have loved looking over the pictures and finding new hidden treasures in the quilt each time they look, I really enjoy it when the quilt and the making becomes a real family activity. Our world IS small. We live in the rural countryside, with everything being fairly close. School is a mile up the lane, I work from home only occasionally travelling to teach. I like life this way, it suits us well and we are all happy and secure.

This quilt just seems to reflect that so well. Whilst my life is lived in a small world my connections are huge, thanks to social media I am connecting with likeminded people from all over the world everyday.

 

It seems that this quilt has struck a cord with many people, although perhaps not everyone will read as much into it as I! What can I say, having come from a family virtually devoid of heirlooms I seem hell bent on creating as many as I can for my children and their children and more generations to come. And so ingraining meaningfulness in them from the very first stitches makes them all the more special straight away, compensating for not having decades of family heritage in them.

So far I have completed part 1 of the quilt. I am thoroughly enjoying playing with my scraps, the challenge of the needle turn appliqué was equal parts frustration, agony and delight! So much so that I decided to hand piece the curved section in the bottom left corner over machine piecing it.

Some of my point are pretty horrendous, the seams don't match in places. But it doesn't matter. This is a quilt made for enjoying the process and the using, for showing favourite fabrics and inventing  stories to go into it.

I will keep you updated with my progress!

50 Fat Quarter Makes { bloghop }

50 Fat Quarter Makes: Fifty Sewing Projects Made Using Fat Quarters is the brand new sewing book from the crafty publishing geniuses at F & W Media. Edited by Ame Verso and featuring 50 projects from 11 contributors from all over the bloggerverse and sewing-sphere including moi!

I can't tell you how excited I was to work with some of my most favourite designers such as Jessie Fincham, Jo Avery and Kaye Prince to name a few from the impressive line up. I have heard that the book was in the top 1000 of ALL books on Amazon just a week after its release, super proud moment here at Strawberry Patch!!!

One of the things I most love about this title is that is JUST uses fat quarters as the basis for all of the projects. There are so many of us that are guilty of buying up fat quarters like kids in a penny sweet shop, then they sit in the stash as we have no idea what to do with them! Well, this book will solve that problem. Jam packed with 50 projects, ranging from using just 1 fat quarter right up to 10.

In the book you can find 5 projects from me including an adorable little girls twirly skirt, a satchel bag that would make a great gift outfit when paired with the skirt, a versatile set of nesting bowls, a snuggly soft playmat and a chevron quilt that would make a great first patchwork quilt project. 

All the materials for my projects came from the wonderful Stitch Craft Create, they have such a great selection of fabrics and supplies its really hard not to find something you want!!

I had a great time choosing the fabrics for my projects, of course Tula Pink was bound to feature, I love her bright saturated prints in these nesting bowls. So quick and simple to make, perfect for gifting filled with goodies!

If you fancy a go at patchwork for the first time this simple baby playmat is backed with super snuggly plush fleece and is hand tied so no awkward quilting to overcome! Using just 6 fat quarters its a great introduction to making a quilt. 

Or if you are feeling a little more adventurous, grab 10 fat quarters and make yourself a chevron quilt! Using fabric value to make the design stand out, its a really fun way of experimenting and learning about fabric and how to use it, just be sure to pick 5 darker/heavily saturated prints and 5 light and low volume prints to really make your chevron shout!

I have to say this was my favourite project to make for the book and I am itching to make another chevron quilt, this time from my stash, the piecing is so quick and simple and its a great way to learn how to construct a half square triangle unit if you haven't made one before, the large scale means you will have a quilt in no time with a minimum of piecing.

You can buy 50 Fat Quarter Makes in all good bookshops, or here on the publishers website where you can also buy an e-book version for your tablet or iPad. And of course you buy from Amazon!

You can also find a video tutorial for the gathered skirt, Satchel bag and nesting bowls in my new '3 projects in 30 minutes' film course over on Craft Daily. In the video I will take you through step by step how to make each project so its great if you feel you need a little extra help! While you are there why not take a look at the other video tutorials Craft Daily has to offer, there is something for everyone!

Here is the full schedule for the rest of the blog hop:

Monday 1st June - Jo Avery -  myBearpaw 
Tuesday 2nd June - Liz Betts - BetsyBetts
Wednesday 3rd June - Ali Burdon - VeryBerryHandmade
Thursday 4th June - Jesse Fincham - MessyJesse
Friday 5th June - Louise Horler - SewScrumptious
Monday 8th June - Kevin Kosbab - Feeddog
Tuesday 9th June - Emily Levey - StrawberryPatchRamblings
Wednesday 10th June - Cynthia Shaffer
Thursday 11th June - Kaye Prince - MissPrint
Friday 12th June - Ame Verso - StitchCraftCreate

And I did promise you a little giveaway last week! So I have dived into my stash and come up with a sweet little bundle of goodies for you. There are two pretty fat quarters and enough elastic for you to make your own twirly girls skirt. Of course if you don't have a little girl then you can make whatever you wish with these sweet fat quarters!

All you have to do to enter is be a follower of my blog and comment below to say how you follow. You can have an extra entry for following me on Instagram, Facebook and twitter. One extra entry per type of social media and be sure to leave me an extra comment to say where you follow me for your extra entry!

Please remember if you are a no-reply commenter to leave an email address in the comments so that I can contact you if you are the winner.

I will close the giveaway in a weeks time on June 16 and use a random number generator to draw a winner, good luck!

Squeezing fun in between the chores

I should really be working, but then I have been working all day so I thought i'd squeeze out 5 minutes of the bank holiday to share something fun I found time for last weekend.




This is as close to a mess as I get in my studio, eek! It was tidied away moments after but I just had to document the rare 'creative mess'! Tell me everyone else also uses prized quilts as design walls?!

I took a lovely vintage cloth storybook panel my youngest was gifted for her naming day and turned it into something that I hope will be much treasured.




It was designed and laid out in such a way as to cut up and sewn into a book, very clever. But the poor panel had bee siting untouched in my cupboard for almost 4 years so I made the decision to turn it into a story quilt rather than a cloth book, as I felt she was a little too old now.

A departure from my usual palette of colours, I stuck with the pastels and vintage prints that complimented the story panels, there a pieces of their baby bedding in there along with a little of their toddler clothing, My daughter is delighted and can't wait for it to be finished - success!!

I have also resisted reading the story whilst I've been sewing, I am saving that treat for when we can both snuggle under it and read together when its finished!

Simple Makes for Grand Gestures

Both my girls are leaving their schools this week, it has been a week of tears and emotion!

It felt only right that I should make gifts for both of the girls to give. Seeing as Eloise's teacher was having her first baby and that she has ferried my daughter around to countless out of school sports events when I was busy and couldn't make it I felt a special gift was required, a quilt.

Then I got to thinking, while I was making one baby quilt surely it wouldn't take much longer to make a second. And so it was decided rather than making a whole mountain of gifts for the army of preschool helpers Juliette will be leaving, the pre-school would also get a quilt gift. One to put on the sofa in the quiet corner, for sleepy new little children in September and those not moving unto big school.

It seemed just the perfect excuse to break out my rainbow charms that I have been saving for probably a good two years now (does anyone remember those charm swaps I organised - they were all the rage in 2012 ha!) I added a few more from my stash to make up the numbers.



A little late night organising along with some quick chain piecing later and I was quilting before I knew it.



Volia, two simple but lovingly made cheerful quilts, to leave behind happiness where my children once were.



I'm off to find the tissues again, and stock up for the smallest one's last day tomorrow too!

Quilt Stats:

Small cascading rainbow quilt:

42 rainbow 5" charm squares
27"x31" aprox
Pieced wadding, but mostly 70/30 eco blend
Ikea Numbers Duvet backing
Citron sketch binding
Quilted in crosshatch through the squares, Gutermann 12wt cotton in variegated rainbow

Large cascading rainbow quilt:

56 rainbow 5" charm squares
31"x36" aprox
Pieced wadding, but mostly 70/30 eco blend
Unkown Pirate Map backing
Scrappy rainbow binding
Echo quilted 1/4" either side of charm squares with Gutermann 40wt in pale blue

Sneaking in under the wire

I had planned to write this post last week, stuff happened yada yada blah blah blah, you don't want to read a load of waffle. Neither do I want to type it. Not when I have the most stunning of stunning quilts to share with you.

Of course you may think, she's being rather conceited about her own quilt, but its not my skill that has added anything to this quilt, nay a mere child could have prit-sticked this quilt together and it would still be a looker. All because of the fabric and one lady, Heather Ross.

HR hoarders the world over will know exactly where I am coming from. If you love this fabric I really think you can do no wrong with it. Which is why I decided to make this quilt as simple as I could, by having no plan other than using as much of my precious stash as I could in the most economical way so as not to waste any of 'my precious'.

 

These fabrics have been secreted away, slowly added to by little splurges here and there and furtive swaps with good friends that at times felt akin to a drug deal, such was the rarity of the goods I was trying to get my hands on.

I took each piece of HR fabric, trimmed it to be square if it was not, removing only the bare minimum and then set to work framing each piece with random sized strips of other favourite designers until I reached a 12" block. Perhaps that is why I love this quilt so much. It might be simple with no plan other than to use my very favourite fabrics of all. It was painful at times to cut into fabrics held onto for so long. But the pain is worth the immense pleasure I now have of seeing them all together all the time, not hidden in a shoe box for 'one day'.



It seemed only fitting to finish this one off with some hand quilting action! Size finished is 72"x84" and I used a new to me wadding, eco cloud, a 70/30 blend from The Fabric Guild and I really liked it.



I have decided to make this quilt my very first entry into the Bloggers Quilt Fesitval because just perhaps if I love it someone else may too! So I have entered it into the large quilt category and i'm looking forward to joining in!

clearing a backlog

I have a problem, its a common complaint, with constant minor irritating symptoms, its called WIP.

I hate WIP, which for a quilter is quite a difficulty! I've been swamped under with work recently (not complaining) and very had little time to sew (much complaining). So with the bank holiday looming and a heck of a lot of planning and paperwork working done for a few days at least I am going to be pulling my finger out and cracking on with as much as I can!

First up is my Heather Ross quilt. I am so excited to get this done and be able to use it. After years spent collecting, stashing, swapping, secreting away in special hidden places, and ahem, begging, I am not prepared to wait any longer to use this quilt.




So I loaded it onto the frame last night and I have started to hand quilt it.




With very large crosses through each of the 12" blocks, I am calling it naive quilting, because honestly it just sound better than 'quilted in a hurried slapdash manner so I could use it quicker'. But also because I want a nice soft drapey squishy quilt when its all done.



So with a little masking tape to keep me straightish and a huge ball of cotton perle I shall have this quilt done by the end of the bank holiday! There is also the small matter of binding it, the second sleeve I want to knit to finish my cardigan on the needles and a little treat that's going to keep me busy tomorrow!

Hope you all have a productive and happy bank holiday weekend, I'll see you on the other side! Who knows I may actually find time to take real photos with a real camera instead of using grainy instagram ones!

Aneela Anthology Spiderwebs - A Finish

I started this quilt last year, well actually thanks to the accountability of instgram I know that I made just two blocks back in January 2013. I can't really say why I stopped at two, I was all excited, rushing out to buy a whole load of white solid yardage to make up the quilt. But then they sat on my wall, taunting me all year. They are pretty time consuming with all those little strips, and if I am honest I think I was finding it hard to cut up the last of my scraps!

Until I went on retreat in March with the best sewing friends a girl could ask for, Jo did a pretty good job at blogging about it (I was too exhausted from all the stitching when I came back!). I packed up all my precut and premarked white squares and a shoe box full of Aneela scraps along with my sewing machine and several bags of snacks and treats! We didn't leave the cottage for the whole weekend and stitched until our eyes were sore!

 

In the space of two days I managed to make enough blocks to get a fair sized quilt and put the top together too. All that remained when I got home was to quilt it, in a simple loopy fmq, and bind it. It is much smaller than I would usually make, but I had started to run out of scraps and it is still big enough to go across the bottom of a single bed nicely.

I really have loved every single line that Aneela has done so it is wonderful to have them all together in this quilt. It is backed with a vintage pink floral sheet that used to belong to my Nan, which makes it extra special. I started the quilt so long ago that Hello Petal has since been released so that's not included in the quilt. I guess I will have to make another one then!

 

If you are interested in making your own spiderweb quilt, I used the great tutorial by Heather over at House of A La Mode

I'll leave you with a thank you to my daughter who helped me take these photos (because I have a migraine AGAIN!) and a huge hug and a thank you to anyone who sent me any Aneela scraps all those moons ago to make my Aneela Sampler quilt, this quilt only exists because I couldn't bare to waste a single precious scrap of it! Thank you xxxxx