Pixelated Heart quilt

I received an order through my Etsy shop for a custom rainbow pixelated heart quilt. It is going to be given as a wedding gift :) I love knowing what happens to the quilts I make when they go out the door! 

So out came the Sizzix, and what felt like a million charms were cut. 213 to be truthful as I cut another set of two, no way I'd have done that with a rotary cutter and ruler! Him in doors was put on refolding duty as I make such a mess.

As you can see I don't press my fabrics prior to cutting them, 'nuff said about that. 

Popped them up on my design board and played with a colour layout I loved and then added in low volume squares for the background. 

I love sewing the columns together, you can really see the pattern emerging.

Basted with 505 spray because life's too short for pin basting right now.

As it was a custom order I had been asked to add some details, not all are shown in the photos, a little embroidery, some quilting-it was fun.

Then finally the binding, after an interesting chat on IG I think I'll take more photos next time I bind a quilt and explain my slightly cheating method.

And finally a finished quilt.

with a sneaky look at the Nani Iro sofa quilt I've been making myself too :D 

Etno Baby Quilt

This sweet baby quilt was originally whipped up to be a class sample for a beginners quilt making class that I was teaching at Sewing Machine Sales in Whitley bay The classes have gently wound down for the summer and will start up again in the Autumn, so this little quilt has made its way home. 

 

The fabrics are mostly Ento by Pat Bravo with a few complimentary prints thrown in and straight line quilting; simple and effective at letting the fabrics shine. 

It's a great class to teach as we cover all of the basics and students leave with a finished lap/baby quilt. If your local or just fancy popping up to the North East coast and would like to take a class feel free to send me an email for more information.

This quilt is now listed in my Etsy shop and I'm already planning a more Autumnal colour theme for the next class sample! 

Another Low Volume Lovely

I finished this quilt, frankly, yonks ago. December if memory serves, hence the muted winter colours in both the quilt and the photos.

That serpentine quilting stitch adds such a great texture to quilts.

I only have one progress photo of this quilt, I think I took it to check the block layout looked right at a distance; does anyone else do that? I find I can *see* better sometimes in a photo when blocks are too close to similar colours or if a stand out tone has slipped in there by mistake. 

Heres to sharing awful indoor lighting photos! 

I've added this to my Etsy shop it is listed here if you would like any more info about it or if you would like it to come and live at your house.

I have also finished my Florette quilt and a good few others but need to get some photos taken in good light.

I'm trying to catch up adding my finished quilts to the blog this week so sorry for the deluge of posts to come (given my record of blogging this year that made even me laugh!) 

Florette quilt

On the 14th I taught a lovely one day workshop at the shop, Jeni's Florette quilt pattern is a delightful quilt to make & I am totally smitten with it!  

Like the fool I am, I totally forgot to take any photos of the class so instead you get the treat of seeing the one I needed to make once I got home :) 

I knew I wanted a deeper tone to this quilt than a lot of my recent finishes, so I pulled out a whole lot of fabrics and started stacking.

I am quite happy mixing cotton lawn and quilting cotton with linen blends but your milage may vary. It felt like a safe thing to do for the flowers in this pattern as I am using quilting cotton for the sashing and hope it will stabilise the other substrates. 

The pattern its self is very beginner friendly giving options for both 12" and 15" blocks. For my own quilt I chose 15" blocks to show off the larger scale fabrics. On the topic of prints Him in doors has forever spoilt the top left print for me after pointing out it looks like Professor X finding mutants with Cerebo in the X-men movie *sigh* 

My original plan had been to make this quilt 3x4 blocks, to be a throw sized quilt, but once I'd reached that point I still had more fabrics shouting out to be used so figured what the heck and went bigger. 

I felt the need to back it with cotton lawn too for a really soft snuggly quilt. I went with Mystery food in Navy (one for the prints I've used on the front of the quilt) from  Sarah Watts Tokyo Train Ride collection and it feels Ah-mazing! 

With all of the soft textures and muted colours it really would've been rude not to add some perle cotton and hand quilting. 

 Hopefully after a few more seasons of Law and Order & The Originals   (highly recommended for Vampire and Werewolf teen drama) I'll have a finished quilt to show you! 


I thought I'd share some photos form my 5th beginners class at the shop (which I did remember to take photos of!) These classes have been going since November and are always great fun. We cover the basics of patchwork and quilting with the ladies getting to take home a project at the end of the class. This time we were making cushion covers from a 9 patch block with straight line machine quilting.

Perfect point matching first time! 

and a final photo of the students with their almost finished cushions, I believe hand stitching the binding down that evening with a glass of wine was on the cards for a few ladies! 

My next project is to sew up A Summer sampler quilt As we are hoping to offer this as a class over the summer holidays and someone needs to make a class sample :D 

Easter Holidays, Etsy, Four Winds quilt and a sulky cat.

We're only 8 days in to April but thanks to some time off from my day job I've managed to get some sewing done. I've been posting on Instagram rather a lot over the holidays but thought I'd best get back to my blog and share some pics here too. 

So here are some photos of my month so far, I hope you enjoy the peek.

 Easter days at the beach, we've been heading out for a walk a day over the holidays & the beach is my favourite place to go.

Three customer quilts just needing binding Eeek! I had a large customer order come through at the end of Feb, they are due out the door by this weekend. I. Can. Not. Face. Binding. Them.

Four Winds quilt inspired by Jaimes cotton & steel version & too big to fit on my design wall! This has been my "get away" project, the one I have been planning in-between the Etsy order :) 

Due to all of the time out walking and sewing I think Issabella was wanting some extra attention so she climbed in my scrap basket, she isn't normally allowed in my sewing room so I think this may have been a touch of kitty revenge!

Modern building blocks by Moda is now a brick short!

I will admit it, I jumped on the Moda Modern Building Blocks pattern like a pattern crazed, fabric hoarder when it came onto my quilty radar (months after everyone else had bought and started making theirs!) 

Lovely blog readers I paid £14 for a pattern, made one block out of it and stalled.

I do love the idea of this pattern so much and have loved watching all the progress photos popping up allover the internet. 

My problem has been...I really don't get on with that kelly green fabric!

 It has been a total revelation that one colour, in a project, can put my sewing mojo on hold to the point that I have to stop and re-evaluate the whole thing. So executive decisions were made, Issabella was consulted, and I have chosen to make the block into a "stand alone" baby quilt. To be fair its big enough, 36" square makes for a good sized baby/lap quilt so all hasn't been lost. It even managed a mix of machine & hand quilting And a funky backing fabric, I can't remember its name but I'm pretty sure its by Jay McCarroll. (I just know my bolt of britten nummer is in a huff)

So I'm now left wondering where I should place Modern building blocks on my list of "Must make quilts" It's quite a large list. so large in fact I'm thinking of giving it its own page on the blog...

Scrappy postage stamp quilt

This quilt started, unbeknownst to me, when my Sizzix arrived. I had ordered the dies I thought I would get the most use out of a 2.5" square and a 4.5" square (The collection has since grown!) and merrily and mostly without a clue what I was going to make with them started chopping up my scrap bin into useful shapes.

While the scrap cull was happening Heather of .House. of A La Mode popped a # up on instagram #scrappypostagestampQAL

The rest as they say was history, and several cups of tea.


Finished quilt details 
*It measures 43" x 43"
*Each square is 1.75" because I goofed up my 1/4" seam on the first few blocks and couldn't face unpicking!
*I backed it in Nummer by Ikea as I could't face piecing a backing together after I'd made the top (quilting truth)

It is now sitting happily in my shop waiting to go to it's new home.

If you would like to know what I'm making a little more frequently than my sporadic blogging allows I do tend to post to instagram a couple of times a week. 

New-ish year New focus

Well a whole lot of things have happened since Novembers post, not least of which was Him in Doors popped the question! I am now a fiancé, sounds rather grown up doesn't it! We've been pootling along merrily for years, with the odd sarcastic comment thrown in by me about my unwedded status when he finally took me out for a meal sans daughter and asked me to marry him, needless to say I did accept :D 

(I should've guessed something was up when the stars aligned to have a child free evening out together!) 

Now back to your scheduled program of sewing and quilting!

I made another picnic quilt, this one is a long time gone to it's new home but I love the fabrics in it and still wanted to share it here :) I whipped it together with mostly Tula Pink & Violet craft fabrics in a sort of rainbow. I had fun muddling up the squares to get the colours to flow from one to another, almost like watercolour paints.

It's true what "They" say starch sprays, which ever type you use, make for an easier and more accurate time piecing patchwork.

I did my usual straight line quilting on either side of the seam, I like that it allows the fabrics to shine while helping to frame them nicely.

I love All Of The Colours!!! 

I thought this photo was quite sweet as depending on which way the quilt is folded you can pick out different colours.

Quilt on holiday! 

Full frontal (Oooh-Err!) 

I decided to get a little more organised this year *Him in Doors stop laughing!* and actually make the time to try out new projects that have caught my eye. So we've had a bit of an overhaul (That obviously involved me buying half of paper chase in the process) 

Todo lists at the ready and a reboot of my diet with another Whole30  I'm ever so slightly hopeful that this year will have more focus on streamlining and working smarter rather than harder to get to where I want to be.