I'm slowly but surely getting through my packing up for next month's (eek!) Festival of Quilts, I'm so pleased that I outsourced my printing, the boxes look much more professional with the sticky labels. So much so, I've decided to host a Giveaway, which includes the last of my free tickets to the show.
For your chance to win your choice of my Overlapping Circles Cushion kit, plus two tickets to this year's Festival of Quilts, pop along to Sewmotion's Instragram page, follow me, like the post and tell me which cushion you would choose if you were the lucky winner. You can then tag some friends for more chances to win. Good luck everyone!!
Meanwhile, I've finally finished my Rainbow Rings quilt - full reveal coming soon, but here's a little taster of the big-stitch hand quilting, the texture is amazing - I love it!!
Linking up with Let's Bee Social and Needle & Thread Thursday
Following on from last week's positive vibes, I'm getting excited for the biggest show of my life, the Festival of Quilts which is only a couple of weeks' away now, eek! I'm well into the kit building as you can see above, and the printing I out-sourced to a local firm came back yesterday. So the for the next few days you'll find me folding, packing and sticking these and many more kits and trying to fit them into the tower of banana boxes my father-in-law kindly found for me.
And then it's on to the strip, charm pack and fat quarter bundles - phew! It's going to be a busy few weeks, and in the hottest summer we've had for years! Haha! If you're coming along to this year's Festival of Quilts in August, I will be on Stand F16 so pop by and say hello. As well as all these quilt, cushion and EPP kits, I've also had many more patterns printed up, some of which will come with the relevant pre-cut papers. These will also be available on the website after the show.
Meanwhile, I wanted to share this adorable quilt, again made by Gillian who has been busy! Gillian made this cute four-patch quilt from my Let's Play fat quarter bundle - I love the mix of four-patch blocks with the larger squares that really show off the fabrics, and that stripped backing takes pieced backings to another level - this really is two quilts in one! Thanks for sharing Gillian.
Right, let the packing commence...
Linking up with Let's Bee Social, Midweek Makers and Needle & Thread Thursday
Is it me or does there seem to be a positive vibe in the air? Maybe it's the great weather or England's young footballers in Russia... But with the world going through so many upheavals and constant change, I find it difficult to hear the good things in life, one of the many reasons I no longer read our national press! But I went on Facebook the other morning to find so many happy stories to brighten my week. A friend who had had a pretty serious fall and broken her neck was well on the mend and able to look behind her for the first time since the accident. Another friend had completed her first triathlon at the young age of 69 while another had just completed a charity cycle ride from London to Cologne. These people are all amazing!
These achievements also reminded me of a wonderful lady I meet sometimes at my local quilt group. She's a friend of a friend really, and comes whenever we have a fabric sale. After introducing me to Mable, my friend then said, "guess how old she is... 90!!" I couldn't believe it, she looked amazing, if that's what quilting does for your longevity, then I'm all in! That was 3 years ago, and Mable's still going strong, in fact she told me that she's just tried English paper-piecing for the first time! Now this really made my day and just goes to show, it's never too late to try something new, be it running, swimming, cycling or EPP :)
Talking of EPP, my latest addition to my EPP Cushion Kit collection is now available in the Sewmotion Shop. This Diamond Star Cushion kit is a great hand sewing project using English paper-pieced diamonds to create this striking star design in Makower's Bloom fabrics. And of course, not only does the kit include all the fabric you need to complete the front, including binding, there's also a Sewline glue pen, an Aurifil thread, and a whole pack of pre-cut papers!! No more cutting your own, yay!
So if you're looking for a holiday project, why not treat yourself to some relaxing mindful stitching with an EPP kit - you can see the whole collection here.
A lovely customer contacted me a while ago to ask if I could make up one of my quilt kits, but in different fabrics, and I said, of course I can! So we went for the Novelty Nine Patch cot quilt in Happy Day fabrics, and I have to say, Gillian's quilt is so pretty, and the backing is perfect - I love how she used the block left over from the front for a label.
I'm sure this quilt will bring years of love and joy to its recipient. Thanks so much for sharing Gillian. You can see the original kit for this quilt using Let's Play fabrics here, or this design is actually one of my free patterns on the website, which you can see here.
Wishing you all a happy sewing week.
Linking up with Let's Bee Social, Midweek Makers and Needle & Thread Thursday.
As those familiar with Sewmotion will know, I send out a free pattern every month to my Newsletter subscribers, many of which are based on my love of the fabric pre-cut, while some are designed to bust the stash, including all those "it might be useful one day" scraps. And this is where July's pattern comes in - the EPP Flower Mug Rug!
I may have mentioned before how curved English paper-piecing has taken over my life, everything from my Purse and Hoop Art kits to my mammoth Curve Motion Medallion BOM - though I think I prefer the smaller projects, and they're also a great way to introduce people to this wonderful technique.
I've also made up three versions of this Mug Rug kit, all from Liberty of London's Cottage Garden prints, there's the Pastel, the Blue and the Pink kits, all of which include the fabric pieces, wadding, pre-cut paper templates (Yay!) and full instructions, you'll just need a Sewline Glue Pen and thread. Click here for more details on the kits - did I also mention, that if you sign up to the Newsletter, you get 15% these kits until 11th July, so why not sign up now.
Through all this, I'm still in my mad rush towards the Festival of Quilts, how did it become July already! New kits making their debut at the show (though I am hoping to get them uploaded online too) include this EPP Diamond Star Cushion in Makower's Bloom prints, I love those bluey greys! And I've decided to make a longer version of my Christmas Table Runner in Makower's Silent Trees fabrics, a great project for showing off those beautiful feature prints in the collection. Ahh, more kits to cut up and pack!
Linking up with Let's Bee Social, Midweek Makers and Needle & Thread Thursday
