We have a winner!! I'm so happy to announce that the winner of this gorgeous fabric bundle and two tickets to this year's Festival of Quilts is... Eileen Gilmour! Huge congratulations Eileen, I will be contacting you via email.
Meanwhile, I've been working on another couple of Curved EPP Hoop Art Kits - can you tell I'm getting addicted! The first one features fussy-cut foliage in prints from Laundry Basket Quilts' Blue Sky collection, while the second is much more vibrant in hot Sundance fabrics from Makower. These kits are slightly larger at 10" but you need less fabric than the 8" designs so the price is the same at £20. Click here to find out more including what's included in each kit. If you're looking for a portable holiday project or you'd just like to try out this curved EPP technique, these kits are a great place to start.
I've also been working on a couple of new projects, a secret baby quilt for an upcoming issue of Love Patchwork & Quilting, and a new version of my EPP Flower Cushion, this time in a lovely bright floral Liberty print.
We're off to sunny (and very hot) Kefalonia next week, so there won't be a blog for the next couple of Thursdays, see you on my return just in time for Quilts UK in Malvern! Linking up with Let's Bee Social, Midweek Makers and Needle & Thread Thursday.
As I sit at my desk every day it's hard not to be distracted by the comings and goings outside - my window looks down on our small but pretty garden which is currently home to families of blackbirds, sparrows, the occasional blue tit, and even a lovely couple of collared doves. What's more, the other day I saw a bee, which can only mean one thing, spring has finally arrived in the Northeast of England! So to celebrate the brighter days and warmer weather, I'm hosting a Giveaway, yay!
This competition is open to all of my Newsletter subscribers, so for a chance of winning this gorgeous bundle of Liberty of London Cottage Garden fat quarters, together with two tickets to this year's Festival of Quilts, all you have to do is subscribe to my Newsletter. Not only will you hear all the latest product news and subscriber-only offers, you will also receive a FREE PATTERN every month straight to your inbox.
Better still, if you tell a friend and they sign up, then email me to let me know who referred them, you get an additional entry into the draw - happy days! Closing date is midnight on Tuesday 24th April and the winner will be announced in next week's Newsletter, out on the following Thursday, good luck everyone, and get sharing!
Elsewhere at Sewmotion HQ - have you had a go at my Curved EPP Flower Cushion yet? It really is a lovely hand project to take on the go - you can catch the four-part series of video tutorials here. Once you have made the beautiful cushion front, what better way of finishing than with a nice and tidy zippered back? I have added a full tutorial on adding a zip to this cushion which you can see here. Talking of EPP Flowers - I have uploaded two brand new Hoop Art kits to the Sewmotion shop. As you may have gathered by now, I'm totally addicted to this method of EPP and I'm loving applying it to all sort of projects. These EPP Flower kits come with all the fabric you need, including the fat quarter of background fabric, a 8" wooden hoop, template plastic and wadding, an embroidery floss, templates to cut out and full instructions. Click here to find out more about each kit.
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 :)
After a lovely long Easter weekend that included our 14th wedding anniversary, I seem to have hit the ground running with so much to get done! As today is the first Thursday of the month, it must be Pre-Cut Party Time! For the uninitiated, my Pre-Cut Party involves my Newsletter subscribers receiving a free pattern every month, based on the treasured quilting pre-cut.
This month I have returned to a fave, the 2.5" fabric strip, otherwise known as the jelly roll. I actually came across an old quilt top I made years ago and remember having so much trouble with working out the layout, though I really don't know why, the blocks are just offset in vertical rows... I have a feeling I designed the original going horizontally - haha! The things you learn! This bright quilt reminds me of the summer (which seems so far off looking at my rain-drenched window) and is made in Michael Miller's Flora Pop fabrics together with a lovely white-on-white print. If you would like this free pattern, and many more in the future you can subscribe here. You will also hear about latest products and subscriber-only offers. I decided to have this quilt longarm quilted again by the wonderful North Star Quilting who are only up the road in Hartlepool, so if you're local to the northeast why not check out their website, they currently have 10% off edge-to-edge quilting!
Alongside this pattern, I also have the kit in Flora Pop in which I have kindly cut all the 2.5" strips for you so you can get sewing straight away! The kit also includes borders, binding, thread and full instructions. What's more if you subscribe to my Newsletter, you can get 20% off the kit. This week also sees the third instalment of my video tutorial series on how to make this pretty curved English paper-pieced cushion. In Part Three I show you how to appliqué the flower ring onto the background fabric.
