New Kits and my Next Big Show

Where has this month gone, where has this year gone come to that? I can't believe it's nearly Christmas again! It's been all go at Sewmotion HQ lately where I have taken delivery of the beautiful new collection of quilting cottons from Liberty of London, Summer House. I have the Purple and the Pink colourways, and started off with a making up a couple of strip sets (aka jelly rolls), aren't they pretty! You can see my whole collection of quilting fabric pre-cuts here.

I then decided to make up a new Diamond Star Cushion using a couple of these fabrics, and I especially love how the fussy-cut centre star has come out. I do love this cushion design, and with enough fabric to make one of three different layouts, this kit really does make a lovely hand sewing project. You can find out more about my cushion kits here.

My latest project in these fabrics is my All Squared Up quilt kit - this design has always been a firm favourite, and was originally designed as the next step in skill level after my Beginner's Quilt kits. However, it has proved popular with both beginners and the more experienced quilter as it shows off the fabrics so well, and these Summer House prints are no exception! 

I have hand-cut all the 2.5" strips in both the Liberty prints and the grey background, as well as the borders and binding, though you will still have some cutting to do to piece the blocks. The kit also comes with thread and full instructions. I have added my favourite pieced backing to this quilt - I do love a pieced backing, not only can you use the fabrics used on the front, but you also get two quilts in one! This backing set is also available on the website.

I am also busy preparing for my first Knitting & Stitching show which takes place at Harrogate's Convention Centre next week. The four-day event is huge and attracts all types of crafters as well as quilting, so it should be a really interesting show. You can find out more by clicking here.

Before all of that busyness however, we are celebrating my lovely Justin's 50th birthday with a weekend in Newcastle, which promises amazing food, sampling his favourite IPAs and a visit to the amazing Biscuit Factory gallery. 

Wishing you all a happy, warm and creative week, linking up with Midweek Makers and Needle & Thread Thursday

New EPP Cushion Kits & Matilda's Own Wadding

It's so nice to be back to normal after the madness of Sale week, I really need to start making some new stock! So I've started with these two new EPP cushion kits - a few of my customers often buy two identical kits as they want a matching set for their sofa, then I thought, well they don't need to be identical, just in matching fabrics, so these new releases are both in Makower's gorgeous Bloom fabrics.

The first is a variation on my Wreath design and uses curved English paper-piecing to make this beautiful ring. You then appliqué it onto your background square, add borders and then hand quilt big-stitch style. The second cushion is another take on my Diamond Star cushion design, which again looks very striking on that dark grey background. Both kits include all the fabric, pre-cut papers, embroidery thread and full instructions, you just need a square of wadding and backing. You can see my full collection of cushion kits here.

I've had quite a few new fabrics arrive lately which I'm just desperate to start working with, I've added some new fat quarter bundles to the shop including Makower's Woodland and Dashwood Studios' Nesting Birds, but I'm keeping Quantum to myself for a little while longer... I have so many plans for this beautiful range, I just love the masculinity of it and can see some great 'man' quilt kits on the horizon!

I have recently added a couple of new items to the shop, including this luscious wadding I came across a few months ago. Matilda's Own 80/20 wadding is sooo soft, easy to quilt, both machine and hand, and comes in at 94" wide, a little wider than your normal wadding, and as we all know, that 4" can make all the difference! Click here to find out more.

My second new stock item is something I now use religiously in all my EPP work - Mary Ellen's Best Press. Once I have pieced all my shapes, and BEFORE taking the papers out, I spray my work with this gentle fabric starch and press. Not only does this flatten out the odd lump, but it also helps maintain those sharp folded edges to help with the needle-turn appliqué. Find out more here.

If you're an avid reader of the wonderful Love Patchwork & Quilting mag, you'll find my lovely set of cushions in the latest issue - this curved EPP project uses larger shapes making them a great introduction to this technique, and who could resist those gorgeous Dovestone fabrics from Dashwood! This is a fantastic bumper issue with projects from Kate Webber, Yvonne Fuchs, Karen Lewis and Lynne Goldsworthy - what amazing company I'm keeping!

Wishing you all an amazing creative week.

Linking up with Let's Bee Social, Midweek Makers and Needle & Thread Thursday

The Final Part of my Curved EPP Tutorial and New Cushion Kits

The fourth and final part of my YouTube video series on curved English paper-piecing takes you through hand-quilting the flower ring using decorative big stitches. I love this method of quilting, the hand movement is so therapeutic and it really is quite quick!

You can see the latest instalment below, and of you have missed the first three parts covering the fussy-cutting, glue-basting, piecing and appliqué, you can visit the Sewmotion Channel here.

I have also now released a couple of cushion kits to accompany this series, the first is in the Red Rose Garibaldi fabric as featured in the film, and the second is from Liberty of London's Cottage Garden collection - I just couldn't resist fussy-cutting those cute little houses!

I am aware that as this glue-basting technique becomes more popular, it's highly likely that customers may already own a glue pen, and also have their favourite brand of thread they like to use, so I have decided not to include these in the new kits, which takes the price down to £14.00 and also gives the customer the choice. So each of the kits include the fabrics you need to make the flower, plus binding strips, a fat quarter of background fabric, a square of template plastic, templates to cut out and full instructions. What's more, if you subscribe to my Newsletter, you can get 10% off these new kits for the following week - sign up for free here.

With a few big quilt shows coming up, I'm starting to develop some smaller kits that are quicker for me to make up as well as more affordable for the customer wanting to dabble in curved EPP, the first of which is this cute mug rug - this is a my first mug rug, and I loved making it!! I think this may be the first of many :)

Linking up with;
Let's Bee Social at Sew Fresh Quilts
Midweek Makers at Quilt Fabrication
Needle & Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation

A new Overlapping Cushion Kit - & a surprise birthday trip

This curved EPP nonsense really has taken over my life, I went to finish my latest cushion on the machine this week and realised how long it had been since I sat there! So next month's free pattern is definitely going to be a machine-sewn quilt, honest!

For now however... I couldn't resist making a second version of my Overlapping Cushion kit, this time using these gorgeous rich prints from the Coonawarra Red collection by Helen Stubbings.

This block is actually one that features in my Curve Motion Medallion BOM quilt, I loved it so much I needed to use to in other projects. Thanks to glue-basting, these curved shapes come together quite easily, and surprisingly quickly. They are then appliquéd onto a linen-look cotton from Sevenberry's Japanese collection making this a very sumptuous cushion indeed. What's more I've now added a Sewline gluepen and cotton thread for piecing to both of the kits, so you can get stuck in as soon as you open the box! These kits are £29.00 each, and if you subscribe to the Newsletter you can get 15% off before the end of the month.

As I mentioned last week, Justin was whisking me away for my birthday, I knew not where... well after a couple of red herring turns towards the Newcastle ferry terminal and the airport (!) we kept going north to the beautiful town of Alnwick, home to Alnwick Castle where they filmed the Harry Potter films. Unfortunately the castle was closed until March, but that's just an excuse to return!

Alnwick Castle

We walked around the town on the Friday, and popped into the famous Barter Books. This wonderful second-hand bookshop is situated inside a glorious old Victoria train station, complete with miniature trains running on tracks over our heads and a cosy fire-lit cafe in the old waiting room. Needless to say, we spent a few hours in here. 

Barter Books, Alnwick

Justin had then booked us a gorgeous cream tea at our hotel, The White Swan, followed by a lovely evening meal in their Olympic dining room, so called because its whole interior including the beautifully carved wooden panels, mirrors and ceiling were originally part of the Olympic ship, sister to the Titanic. Apparently the owner of the hotel went to the auction after the ship had been decommissioned, and decided he wanted to buy this whole room, then came home and built the hotel's dining room to accommodate his new purchase. The room is certainly very impressive!  

The Olympic Dining room, The White Swan, Alnwick

On the Saturday it sadly rained... all day! So we went on a little driving tour up to Berwick, crossed the border into Scotland - again, we plan to return in better weather - then heading back down we stopped at Bamburgh Castle, crossed over the causeway onto Holy Island, finally stopping at Seahouses for the best fish and chips I've had in a while.

Berwick Viaduct and Bamburgh Castle

That evening we went to The Plough, a beautifully restored coaching inn dating back to 1896, where they serve food from their renowned Jolly Fisherman Craster menu - I had the Bouillabaisse which was just amazing! 

On Sunday the sun was back, and on Stitchscape's Diane's recommendation we stopped at Alnmouth bay on our way home, and wasn't disappointed, what a beautiful beach for a morning walk, thanks Di! 

The stunning Alnmouth Bay

So if you're ever in the northeast of England, head a little further up past Newcastle and explore the wonders of Northumberland, you won't be disappointed, even in the rain!

Linking up with:
Let's Bee Social at Sew Fresh Quilts
Midweek Makers at QuiltFabrication
Needle & Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation

So many new projects!

Both Christmas and my next quilt show at Duxford seem to have crept up on me, which means I'm having a mad week trying to get stock made up and getting kits together for Christmas gift shoppers. After having such a great success with my Pincushion Kits, I decided I should make a new EPP cushion kit using one of my new blocks from my Block of the Month design, the overlapping circles. Now I've worked out how to make this ring lay flat, I'm loving the design and couldn't resist making a rainbow version with Alison Glass's Diving Board prints, and what else to back it onto but Robert Kaufman's Essex Linen...

I've also been trying to get ahead for next month's free Pre-Cut party pattern, and finally made a quilt from my gorgeous 1930s feedsack prints. This one uses my layer cake roll of twenty-one 10" squares. To get this quilt pattern for free in November, you can sign up to the Newsletter here, there will also be a subscriber-only discount off the kit, coming soon.

My third project this week is a new version of my Quick & Easy/Beginner's Quilt Kit, using Makower's gorgeous Into The Woods fabrics - these blues are so beautiful! Hopefully the sun will be shining tomorrow for some 'finished' pics for the kit, then this too will be available. These simple quilt kits make great gifts for someone wanting to learn to quilt as the square are all pre-cut, they can just get stuck in and start sewing! You can see the other versions I have for sale here.

I will be at the Autumn Quilt Festival in Duxford next week, this show is held at the Imperial War Museum at Duxford Airfield in amongst the full size aircraft hanging from the rafters - one of the most interesting quilt venues of the year! The show runs from Friday 27th to Sunday 29th October, 10am - 4.30pm (4pm on Sunday).