Life has become very busy!

There are many reasons why I haven't blogged in a while, honest! Having recovered from our 'camping expedition' and a lovely sunny weekend in Amsterdam, we are now back in the north-east staying with family while we look for our own place. Meanwhile, as I have my sewing machine, I have been sew happy, pun intended!

I made this reindeer cushion for a dear (sorry) friend's birthday, I obviously couldn't share it until I have given it to her, but she was very pleased with it. Inspired by my Icelandic adventures, I chain stitched these two reindeer onto a linen base, then used one of my treasured 1930s prints for the border, which I quilted. I also used the same fabric on the back with ties - quite pleased with these as this was my first attempt.

I've also been spending more time watching my backlog of Craftsy classes. As I've said before, I cannot recommend this site enough, the classes are so comprehensive, yet easy to follow, and the tutors are inspirational and a joy to listen to. This mini quilt starts with Carol Doak's 'Mastering Foundation Paper Piecing' - I was over the moon when I finally cracked this technique and look forward to creating my own designs.

Then I moved on Leah Day's 'Free Motion Quilting a Sampler' - Leah's class is amazing, full of so many quilting designs, and she encourages you to just have a go, practice, and enjoy! My most recent class has been Jacquie Gering's 'Creative Quilting With Your Walking Foot'. Again, another inspirational class, Jacquie was one of the speakers on the series of lectures from the last Quilt Con in America - free to watch on Craftsy - and she was so emotional, she really touched my heart with her passion for modern quilting. These two classes helped me plot and quilt my first mini quilt.

My most recent quilt is this novelty nine-patch cot quilt. When I worked at Doughty's I developed a couple of fabric packs, including this charm pack from Nancy Halvorsen's Mischief and Curiosity's ranges and I've designed this quilt for the Festival of Quilts in August. The instructions will be available on my website soon.

 

This is such a quick peicing method, you start with nine-patches, which you then cut into four, and re-arrange. Magic! The quilting is my first attempt at Jaquie Gering's pencil quilting, the lines are half an inch apart, and are really affective.