Sewing for Pleasure 2016

Yep, it’s March already, and the first big craft show of the year. As you may have realised by now, even though I no longer actually work for Doughty’s in Hereford, I am what they like to call an ‘associate’ – basically someone who they can bring back for shows without having to close their shops due to lack of staff!

So starting with set-up on Wednesday, I’ve been lifting, folding, shelving, smiling, cutting and bagging fabric for five days solid at the NEC, and man do I ache?! Something tells me I need to do some more exercise before Festival of Quilts in August!

Pain aside, I did have a great time, working with some wonderful people and sharing the common joys of fabric addiction with our customers. The only gripe I had were the roadworks on the M5 (geat timing) and the general bedlam at the NEC with four or five shows going on at the same time. I did enjoy seeing the odd superhero wondering around for ComicCon though.

As ever at these shows, I rarely get a chance to look around, but I did manage to take a couple of pics on my way to the loo. One that did catch my eye after seeing an MC Escher exhibition earlier in the year was this beautiful piece by a member of the Royal School of Needlework. One day I will get round to designing a quilt inspired by this tessellation….

Another exhibition was Images of Egypt, part of a private collection owned by Sandra Hardy, who as an enthusiastic Egyptologist has been collecting handmade ceremonial textiles and decorative artefacts for many years now. In 1998 Sandra introduced the quilting world to the amazing work of the tentmakers, who have now inspired many to include beautiful symmetrical applique designs in their own creations.

During my uni days, I remember trips to the V&A Museum in London, where I would sketch out the decorative Moorish and Islamic mosaic designs thinking these would make great quilt blocks…

Meanwhile, back in Sewmotion world… we have another Hexy Cushion Kit on the horizon, available after Easter. I thought I would make a softer version in more neutral colours which I’m sure would fit into many modern day interiors, grey is absolutely everywhere right? And this gorgeous dusky pink is so elegant.

As with all the kits in the collection, you get all the fabric, paper pieces and thread, plus glue pen and instructions to make up the top, you just need the cushion backing and pad. These kits make great portable holiday projects, and come together pretty quickly.

We’ve also just taken delivery of some Dot & Dash fabrics from Riley Blake, and I’ve been playing with Kona co-ordinates – this strip set and charm pack with also be available soon. In fact, why not sign up to our monthly Newsletter to hear about all our latest product releases and recieve discount codes for the following month.

We're going on a much needed Easter break to see our dear friends in Hamburg, so please forgive me, but after tomorrow orders will not be posted until Wednesday 30th March. Happy Easter to you all!

My first movie!

I must have a hundred different ideas floating around my head at the moment, what with more samples for John Louden (more about that next week), my new Hexy Cushion Kits to get into the world, and the patterns, kits and designs begging to be put to paper, my brain can get pretty overwhelmed! So this week, as it was my birthday, I decided to learn something new just to add to the madness!

Here is my first attempt at filmmaking! Haha! Not the best quality I know – I used an old digi-camera I’d forgotten we owned, and an even older version of iMovie. Still, I’m quite pleased with how it turned out, though that tune now drives me insane after hearing it so many times!

In my first film venture, I wanted to share my favourite technique for glue-basting shapes for English paper-piecing, a method that features in our new Hexy Cushion Kits – great gifts for Mother’s Day (6^th March) – click below for more details.

There’s still time to enter our free GIVEAWAY – for a chance to win a Hexy Cushion Kit of your very own – you’ll be addicted to EPP in no time – leave a comment below telling me which craft you find the most addictive – entries close at midnight, Friday 5^th March, and a winner will be chosen at random.

The Hexy Cushion Kit

I am happy to finally introduce the newest additions to Sewmotion’s collection of pre-cut kits – the Hexy Cushion Kit. There have been glimpses of these two cushions on Twitter and Instagram over the last month, but I now have the kit together and available to buy. Yay!

These craft kits are a great introduction to the wonderful world of hand-sewn patchwork. English paper-piecing is a traditional skill that harks back to the very beginning of the history of quilting, where quilters would sit for hours cutting out their shapes, then thread basting them onto papers before sewing them together. They would then unpick all that basting before the quilting even began! Phew!

Thankfully, these days new techniques and clever short cuts make this method a lot quicker than it used to be... not that you have to rush it of course, this is a project you can take with you wherever you go - a long car journey, to your quilt group, or even on holiday, anywhere where you can relax and enjoy this slow(ish) and therapeutic craft.

Each of these kits are £20 with (with free UK postage!) and include:
* 10 fabric strips - four in Robert Kaufman's Essex Linen, four in Kona Pomegranate & two in Kona Heliotrope (this includes two binding strips)
* 80 paper hexagons
* one Sewline Glue Pen
* one grey Aurifil 50wt thread for piecing
* one 20" square of wadding
* full, easy-to-follow instructions.

I have included the square of wadding in these kits for those who haven’t yet got a stash of wadding off-cuts, and would need to buy a ridiculous amount just for one cushion. 

However, I haven’t included the panel backing that you need when you come to quilt it as it depends on which method you use. If you choose to machine quilt, I suggest using a square of calico as your backing, however if you choose to hand-quilt, I would use a square of butter muslin or something equally as thin so you can stitch easily without putting too much pressure on the needle, or your fingers!

I have also left it up to you as to which backing you would like, though I do have a tutorial on inserting a zip here. For the invisible zip method I used one piece 7” x 16½” and one piece 14” x 16½”, with a 18” zip. I trimmed any excess fabric before attaching the binding which I did in exactly the same way as I would on a quilt, you can learn more about this in my Beginner’s Quilt – The Binding tutorial.    

I'm really excited about these new kits, and what better way to spread my excitement than to host a Giveaway! So if you would like to delve into the joyful and highly addictive world of English paper-piecing, or if you're like me and just can't get enough, simply enter by leaving a comment below telling me which craft you find the most addictive.
For an extra chance to win, you can subscribe to our newsletter to hear all about our latest products and special offers. 
As it's my birthday week, I've decided to extend this Giveaway offer - a winner will now be picked at random at midnight on Friday 5th February!

This week I'm linking up with Lorna's Let's Bee Social over at Sew Fresh Quilts, and Crazy Mom's Quilt's Finish It Up Friday


If for any reason you are unable to comment on here, you can leave a comment and enter on my Facebook page.

The Tricky Issue of a Zip

Over the years I’ve become addicted to making cushions. They come together much faster than quilts, and they're also a good way of trying out a new technique. However, one thing I’ve never really enjoyed is inserting the zip at the end - I’ve spent a few happy hours designing, sewing and quilting my cushion front… only to then have to finish it off with a backing and a closing of some sort, which I find so tedious!! 

Recently however, I have come across two fantastic tutorials that have made my life easier and that give my cushions a more professional finish. The first is by blogger Veni Vidi Vicky, I love this method and have used it on my T-T-Teesssider and Geometric cushions. I particularly like how the coloured zip adds extra interest and becomes a part of the design rather than been hidden away. 

Vicky’s blog is full of gorgeous projects and great tutorials, though sadly she doesn’t seem to have written anything for a while. Anyway, you can click here for her very clear tutorial on how to insert a zip into a fully quilted pillow. 

For my latest couple of cushions, which will hopefully be available as kits soon, I wanted to try something different, and started looking at how to insert a covered zip. Thanks to our wonderfully generous online sewing community, I soon found this gem from S.O.T.A.K Handmade. Svetlana is another of my favourite bloggers with amazing taste in fabrics, many of which feature in her free tutorials, including beautiful quilts, cute little pouches, and funky coasters. She also shares her method of installing a zipper in a pillow cover – I found this method so quick and easy and finished off my Hexy cushions in no time at all. I will show you more about these cushions soon, but don't you just love the difference between machine quilting and hand quilting? I used Aurifil of course, with a 50wt in the machine, and a lovely 12wt for the hand sewing which was new to me and worked really well!

So if you’re looking for a smart finish to your cushions or pillows, check out these lovely ladies for easy-to-follow tutorials, as well as some gorgeous inspiration. 

Elsewhere in the quilting world… 

I just had to share this free Arrows Quilt pattern from Emmajané of Stitch and Pieces, featured on The Village Haberdashery’s blog, The Daily Stitch, this week. Not only is this a gorgeous quilt, but the planning and mental arithmetic that has gone into working this baby out is amazing! I thought my Bargello was bad enough, but looking at the cutting instructions and the layout plan, I imagine this took many hours to come together, so offering the quilt pattern for free is incredibly generous, thank you Emmajané!  

Doughty’s latest special offer features one of my favourite ranges, the linen-look cottons. As you may know, I use these versatile fabrics quite a lot in my projects and handmade gift items, and find them to not only add extra strength to pencil cases and purses, but they also add lovely texture to quilted cushions and hand-embroidered panels. I stocked up on some cute elephants, and just couldn’t resist these cute polka dots!

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This week I'm linking up with Let's Bee Social over at Sew Fresh Quilts, come and say hello!