Have you sat down to start a new quilt, fabric all chosen and pressed, tools and equipment all set up and ready to go, then you read the instructions and you have to cut a million WOF strips? Well not a million maybe, but enough to for your heart to sink. Well, I wanted to share the quick and accurate method I used for cutting over thirty 1" strips to make my new version of my Mosaic Garden Quilt, kit coming soon.
By using the full width of your quilter's ruler and moving that instead of the fabric every time, you're able to cut a lot quicker, believe me! You can see my full tutorial here.
The quilt above is just waiting to get quilted - I have something special planned for this baby, so watch this space.
Amy over at Amy's Creative Side is holding her annual Blogger's Quilt Festival, this online event is a great opportunity for quilters to enter their favourite creations of the past 12 months in this virtual competition, and for us to be inspired by and vote for these truly stunning quilts. I have decided to enter my Blueberry Park Lone Star wall hanging which was featured in Quilt Now magazine a few months ago.
This was probably the start of my love affair with English paper-piecing, and these fabrics by Karen Lewis just bring the star alive! Please go and visit Amy's post, enjoy and be inspired.
I know I said I'd be away this week, I got my dates wrong, so there will now not be a blog next week!
Linking up with Let's Bee Social, Midweek Makers and Needle & Thread Thursday
When designing and making up my quilt and cushion kits I buy small amounts of fabric, which makes these creations limited editions. If you see a kit at a show or online, it's unlikely that it'll still be available in six months time. And I like this, it means not only do I have to move onto to a new design and new fabrics, but I also get to sew and quilt a new product, what's bad about that (apart from time!) However, it also means that if I run out of just one fabric in the range and I don't want to re-order, I am left with the remaining fabrics I can no longer use. So to make room for new fabrics, I thought I'd have a Bolt End Sale! Click here to see the collection, they are based on £15p/m with a huge discount of 25% off. Enjoy!
Meanwhile, I've been making great progress on my English paper-pieced block-of-the-month design, hoping to be released early next year. I've been having some great feedback from fellow quilters, and I can't wait to start sewing the blocks together using the quilt-as-you-go method.
This BOM will feature Alison Glass's Sun Prints fabrics with that gorgeous Linen-look grey from Makower for the background squares. Each month you will receive the fabric and paper templates you need for the EPP, together with the grey background square to appliqué the shape onto, and of course full instructions for each block, including the quilting. If you might be interested in this program, which at the moment looks at being around £30 per month, though this could change slightly, sign up to my Newsletter and keep up to date with progress and news on its future release.
This week I also had an exciting meeting with a like-minded sewist who has been dreaming of setting up some kind of sewing hub in the centre of Middlesbrough where we live. While she's more into dressmaking, and I quilting, we thought it would be great to join forces to offer workshops and classes, and to also provide a large workspace with sewing machines and tables for groups and individuals to use. This is obviously all in the planning stages, and we have lots of ideas, I would just appreciate some feedback from you... do you go to somewhere similar near you? What do you like about it? If you live in the Teesside area, would you come along? Any thoughts below would be greatly appreciated, thank you.
More exciting news - I was chuffed to be asked by Popular Patchwork to write their Patchwork Of My Life column in October's issue which is out now.
We're taking a much needed break next week, off to our favourite land of the Netherlands for some great food, walking, and maybe even cycling, so I'll see you in a couple of week's time. Meanwhile, don't forget to check out these great Linky Parties - Let's Bee Social, Midweek Makers and Needle & Thread Thursday.
We had a great time at the Great Northern Quilt Show last weekend, it was so nice to meet many of my newsletter subscribers who had lovely things to say about their free monthly patterns. It's always nice to put faces to names of regular customers. Thank you for your kind words!
Below is a little video of my stand, if the quality is a little suspect, click on the settings symbol (the washer-type circle) at the bottom of video and you should be able to click on HD which should improve it. You can also turn up the sound though my little commentary seems a bit drowned out.
As you can see above, I have a new All Squared Up Quilt Kit, this one is in Riley Blake's gorgeous Happy Day fabrics, together with some Makower Spots.
This popular quilt kit is great for beginners, and comes with all the fabric strips, borders, binding and thread you need to complete the top, plus of course full instructions. It is priced at £45.00 and there is also a fabric pack available for my pieced backing included in the instructions.
Don't forget this month's free Pre-Cut Party pattern is out, just subscribe to my Newsletter to get this strippy table runner PDF straight to your inbox, plus access to previous free patterns! There's also a code for 20% of the kit below.
I'm currently taking part in a great tag on Instagram, the #GreatBritishQuilter which runs all month. There are so many amazing quilters in the UK, why not pop along and say Hi!
Linking up with Let's Bee Social, Midweek Makers and Needle & Thread Thursday
