A Hint of Summer from John Louden

Once a year I am asked to design and make a collection of quilt samples for fabric company John Louden & Co. Based in Leeds, this third generation family company sells a huge selection of apparel and craft fabric throughout the UK and Europe. In the quilting world, they’re probably currently best known for their gorgeous Scandi Christmas range which includes cute reindeer and penguins and festive stars and hearts in red or blue on a soft calico base.

Even though Christmas is thankfully way off, I thought a wall hanging would show off these Scandi designs well and that large baubles would make the most of the featured animals in each of the fabrics, and of course they just had to be hexagon baubles! Each one is attached with Bondaweb, then machine appliquéd and quilted with blanket stitch.

The other fabric collections I had to work from were far more summery, in particular this Summer Pastels range, from which I made a lap quilt/wall hanging and a table runner. 

The A Summer Bouquet lap quilt is based on a favourite technique of mine, the stitch-and-flip method used to make snowball or half-snowball blocks. I particularly like how the two plain blues used in the corner triangles seem to pop out. The A Wave to Summer table runner was made using a wedge ruler, and rather than going round in a circle, every ten wedges I flipped the next one to make them go in the other direction, hence creating a wave-like design.

The next range, the lovely Trailing Vine collection, has some directional issues! This one took some thinking about, and after a while I came up with this four-pointed star that I thought, with some careful fabric placement, could emphasise the directional nature of the vines. This range actually comes in nine colours in both negative and positive colourways, but I decided to stick to purple, pink, green and grey to create this foundation-pieced Star Jumps lap quilt. I then had some fun with free-motion quilting in the negative spaces.

 

The final collection, and possibly my favourite, is Pretty Posies which comes in four colours, again in both negative and positive colourways. I decided to take the blue and red, together with the same blue and red from Trailing Vine and make this very Americana looking table runner. Not only are the colours reminiscent of the American flag, but I think the small squares in this half Trip Around The World pattern evoke memories of old hand-pieced quilts made by the pilgrims on their search for a better life.

 

Each of these patterns and fabric collections will be available at your nearest Louden stockist, for more information, contact John Louden.

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This week I'm linking up with Sew Fresh Quilt's Let's Bee Social and Needle And Thread Thursday over at My Quilt Infatuation - come and be inspired!

Update from Sewmotion HQ

It’s amazing how productive you can be after a holiday! Which is just as well as I have so much on my to-do list right now. I know it may be a little too early for some, but for us makers Christmas is not too far away at all, so last week was spent building up some stock for the coming season. It was so nice to spend three days just sewing with no keyboard in sight!

I’ve been looking forward to using these Riley Blake fabrics (centre pic), a Doughty’s buy at Festival, and I think these new pencil cases/make-up cases are so cute! I used shower-proof fabric for the linings that make them easy to wipe clean, and also adds some body to the case. So we have this new collection, as well as some others made from ‘the stash’, and of course I had to make some small pouches to go with them. I’m planning to make some larger pouches in matching fabrics and selling them as sets, these would make lovely gifts don’t you think?!

Some items that have been selling well lately are my novelty pencil cases, so I thought I would make some more, this time a little larger so they will hold all the ‘stuff’ for school, as well as some large purses. These will hold cash, cards and keys – ideal for the young at heart.

A friend has been saying for a while that I should personalise my items, so I decided to try out my embroidery stitches on the machine, and came up with these lovely name labels, so sweet. These are now an added option in my Folksy shop.

Having spent three days sewing, it was then time to photograph and upload everything – wow, this took sooo long! I’m starting to realise that because I do some many different things, sewing, writing, photography, website stuff, that I tend to forget how to do things and need to re-teach myself regularly. So when it came to taking the pics and then writing the blurb on Folksy, my muscle memory took some time to kick in. Three days later (!) I now have some lovely fresh items on Folksy… though Etsy will have to wait a while I'm afraid.

Having got all this finished last week, I was glad to start something new on Monday, and I finally got round to making up some jelly rolls from my Kona stash. 

It has always been my intention to use these gorgeous cottons in luscious colours to design and make up some quilt kits from pre-cuts, mainly 2½” fabrics strips and charm squares. The first is a 20-stripper in a lovely rainbow colour scheme – I think the two greys sit in so well.

This second strip set is actually made up of 21 strips, and will hopefully be my first kit for this quilt...

I designed this one ages ago, I think I was actually sitting on a beach in Thailand at the time… useless at relaxing! Anyway, my brain hurt trying to work out the measurements, so I knew this one had to be made first before writing the instructions, which is the plan for the rest of today. I am hoping to get some pre-cuts for sale in my shop soon and will let you know when.

Before all that though, I managed to squeeze in another puppy dog for the Dog Gone Cute QAL over at Sew Fresh Quilts.

I think I’ve cracked the fabrics now, that grey background sets off the white really well, and I love this Louden Flitsy range. I think it may well be a wall hanging with three dogs, and the words Dog Gone Cute in there somewhere. I’m enjoying following someone else’s pattern for a change, and Lorna’s is very easy to follow, though I do find I have to concentrate more than usual with the piecing, but that’s just me. To join in this quilt-along, pop over to Sew Fresh Quilts where Lorna is sharing the instructions for the puppy blocks over the next few weeks. There will then be a Blog Hop in October, which includes me (!) – I’ll let you know more about that nearer the time.  

For more quilty love and inspiration pop over to Lorna's Let's Bee Social and WIP Wednesday over on Freshly Pieced.

Lovely HSTs and another published quilt!

I recently came across this method for constructing Half-square triangles (HSTs) by the wonderful Lynne Goldsworthy of Lily's Quilts, and wondered if I could adapt it for bigger sizes. After playing around with Illustrator and my quilter's ruler, I worked out the measurements needed, then had a play with some fabric, and couldn't believe how easy this method is. And what's more you don't have to trim down all those squares at the end - how many hours I have wasted?!! Because this is more or less foundation piecing, your sewing is so accurate that your squares come out the size they should be, unlike the two-squares-together method, which can come out a little wonky. 

Admittedly this method only works if you want a lot of identical HSTs, which many patterns do call for, but would not work for scraps or charm squares, we’ll have to stick to trimming down for those I’m afraid.



Anyway, I was so happy with this find, that I have written a little tutorial here to share the love, together with full-size templates for 2”, 2½”, 3”, 3½”, 4” and  4½” finished HSTs, and a handy table to work out how many HSTs you'll get from different cuts.

When writing PDF patterns and templates, I always print them out just to make sure they fit on the page at 100%, then realised that not everyone works on a Mac, or has Acrobat Reader, so I have also written a how-to guide on printing at full scale.

On another subject altogether, I was, and still am actually, feeling quite chuffed with myself this weekend. I have a quilt featured in July’s edition of British Patchwork & Quilting, and its none other than my mammoth Bargello quilt I designed and made for John Louden & Co! This was a bit of a mathematical nightmare to be honest, but I’m so pleased the mag used my graphics as well as the table to show which row goes where. All that head rubbing and muttering was worth it!

This quilt is made from John Louden’s range of Tie-Dyed effect fat quarters, which create this beautiful colour spectrum, just what we in such a dark and dank June! Did I miss summer??

I also have a very nice mention in P&Q's News and Views section - big smile!!

Update: Just in case you were wondering what on earth I was going to do with all those HSTs.... 

I’m linking up with Tips & Tutorials Tuesday over on Late Night Quilter, Let's Bee Social on Sew Fresh Quilts, and finally Freshly Pieced's WIP Wednesday - come and visit for lots more inspirational ideas and general quilt loving. 

Thank you for visiting, your comments are always welcome.

Every Scrap is Sacred!

I have dedicated this week to developing my quilt kits. These have been in the back of my mind for years, even before working for Doughty’s! Now that I have a few patterns under my belt, I feel it's time to move on to pre-cut kits. I do love a pre-cut, and having spent time helping customers choose colours for their projects, I know that not everyone is confident when it comes to colour co-ordination. Enter the pre-cut - where the hard work of matching fabrics is all done for you and you can get on with the sewing!

After much deliberation, I have settled on what fabric I want to use, and am now working on getting some of the million ideas that go around my brain daily onto paper! As I am determined to actually try out all my patterns before publishing them, I like to practice with my own stash first before cutting into anything new and ‘special’. Today however, I really have outdone myself! 

A few months ago I ran a quilt workshop for Doughty’s on my Whirlwind of Colour quilt – one of my designs for John Louden. Before the class I had to pre cut some jelly rolls using my Sizzix Big Shot Pro and their four-strip die… a very nice bit of kit! Anyway, I tend to cut a metre of fabric at a time, so the only wastage are thin strips cut from the folded edges and I put these in a bag with a half-hearted idea of doing something with them one day... sad I know!

Now, as I was sitting with my sketchbook the other night, half an eye on the TV, something stirred at the back of my brain, and out popped this…. Something to do with all those strips!

I knew some of the block would have to be foundation-pieced, but felt to have the whole centre strip done like this would drive me mad when it came to taking the papers out. So I decided to try something I’ve not done before – string piecing, or stitch-and-flip I think some call it. I made up a couple of panels using muslin as a foundation. I then drew up the foundation block, worked out the measurements for the white strips and grey triangles, and made up four gorgeous looking blocks, don’t you love them!!!

I think I’ll border it in white, or maybe grey, I’m not sure… but definitely with more strips for the binding. Just goes to show, every scrap is worth keeping! Oh dear, what have I said!?! 

There will be a pattern for this very soon, once I've turned it into something... so watch this space.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my ramblings, thanks for stopping by – your comments are always welcome. Today, I’m linking up with Let’s Bee Social over at Sew Fresh Quilts, and Freshly Pieced’s WIP Wednesday.

Sunday Stash #7

On a recent visit back to Doughty’s in Hereford, I spotted these beauties and couldn’t resist a purchase or two! These retro floral prints are from John Louden, are 60” wide and 100% cotton – perfect for quilting, backings for small quilts, and for pretty little dresses. I know I’m a little biased, for Louden’s really are coming out with some lovely designs at the moment.

I’ve only bought half metres for now just to have a play with, but will definitely be back for more, the birdies are so cute!

For my first project, I went for my favourite colours – why am I always drawn to blue and red?? 

I wanted to make a simple quilt, (which will hopefully become a pattern available to buy soon,) and I’ve always loved the effect made by the Snowball block, and what’s more, its so simple to put together! So, this weekend, among many other projects, I intend to make up lots of these blocks, and then play around with the layout to see what happens. Don’t you just love how different placements can give you so many looks?! 

On about ‘other projects’, I thought I’d share a sneaky peak of another quilt I’ve been working on, and guess what… its hexies again!! This really is becoming an obsession, or maybe I just love to drive the maths side of my brain crazy! I can’t wait to quilt this…

Finally, just a reminder that I have a new pattern available to buy – Hazy Hexies – again this one taxed my brain with foundation piecing templates and layout diagrams. This is definitely one for the more accomplished quilter, but its so fun to make, and if you need a refresher, my online tutorials will help you along the way. I do think this quilt would look great in solid colours, why not give it a go? For full details, check out my Folksy shop.

Thank you for stopping by, your comments are always welcome. For even more inspiration, please go and have a peak at some great blogs over on Molli Sparkles’ Sunday Stash. Have a great quilty week everyone.