A Springtime Hexy Kit

Do I feel spring in the air?? Though this morning's weather mentioned snow, so maybe this bright sunshine is just fooling me. What better way to coax springtime from under winter's shadow than to make a bright and cheerful new cushion... such as our new Hexy Cushion Kit in fabrics from Michael Miller's gorgeous Sea Holly collection.

As with our other Hexy kits, this one contains all the fabric strips, pre-cut papers, glue pen, thread and wadding you need to complete the top, plus full instructions to help you every step of the way. There are also handy links to our online tutorials for even more help. You will just need thread for quilting, and then a cushion back and pad. These kits are great portable projects for your hollibobs or a long car journey - EPP definitely kills the time on a long flight!
These kits are available in our Sewmotion, Folksy and Etsy shops, priced at £22 with free UK shipping.

Elsewhere in the quilting world...

It seems I'm not the only one feeling spring-like, The Village Haberdashery have some beautiful new ranges in stock including organic collection Park Life by Elizabeth Olwen for Cloud9 Fabrics - aren't these gorgeous!! Not only would these make amazing quilts, but also the cutest little dresses!

Meanwhile over in Hereford, Doughty's have just revealed their latest collections from Lewis & Irene, this first one is Bunny Garden and you can't get any more Springtime than cute bunnies, ditsy florals and pretty butterflies in a gorgeous modern colour palette.

Another new arrival from Lewis & Irene is The Botanist collection, an elegant range featuring delicately drawn plants, butterflies and insects.

I do recommend subscribing to Doughty's Newsletter to be kept up to date with their ever-growing fabric collections, as well as following them on Facebook where they share these gorgeous pics of their new arrivals.

Talking of Newsletters, if you would like to be hear about Sewmotion's latest news, products and special subscriber offers, you can sign up below to recieve our monthly email. If you would like to follow my weekly blogs, you can follow me by email or Bloglovin in the right-hand column.

If you're looking for more quilting fun and inspiration, why not pop over to Sew Fresh Quilt's Let's Bee Social linky party and say hello.

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!

Don't forget, as well as these weekly blogs, we also send out a monthly Newsletter. Subscribe here to hear news of our latest products, pattern releases and special offers. 

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

Dog Gone Cute Voting is Open

I'm off to the Dublin Quilt Show in a couple of hours, but just wanted to let you know that participants of the wonderful Dog Gone Cute QAL over on Sew Fresh Quilts, have been invited to link up their beautiful creations, with the chance of winning some great prizes.

Remember these little babies?? If not, you can read all about my wall hanging here.

You get three votes in total and a week to place them, so why not pop over and spread some puppy love.

A Week of Little Finishes

So now it’s nearly November, I guess I’m allowed to mention the C word… yes, Christmas will be upon us before we know it! Having missed the festive boat last year with Christmas Fairs, I’ve managed to get in nice and early and book myself a wooden cabin at the Stockton Sparkles Christmas Market. This is a four-day event on the last weekend of November, yep… FOUR DAYS!!! Ahhh!! What have I done!!?

As you can imagine my lists of products to design, make and finish increase daily, I’m even pushing myself to do some bunting to decorate the cabin – I do not enjoy making bunting!

 
This week I have been adding to my novelty pencil case collection, these come together quite quickly, so always very satisfying. I especially like the dotty ones, I may have to make more of those…

We also had a family party this week, our great niece turned one, so I thought I’d look back at my past Love Patchwork & Quilting mags to find a cute present. One of her only words so far is "Dog", which she shouts at anything that moves, so I thought this adorable sausage dog would be perfect. Unfortunately in my haste to get him finished, I forgot to take a decent shot.

I would like to end this blog with news of someone else’s finish. A few months ago I had a lovely phone call from a Doughty’s customer who I used to talk to regularly. She had bought this cute Winnie the Pooh fabric and wanted some ideas for a quilt to make for her granddaughter. I looked up the fabric online and thought it would be ideal for some fussy cutting, sewn into simple framed squares using co-ordinating fabrics. I wrote down a few measurements and suggestions and posted them off. To my delight, I recently received a lovely letter and picture of this gorgeous quilt. Iris also included some swatches of the co-ordinates used to give me a better idea. Isn’t this so lovely!? I hope you can see the quilt well enough here, I was so chuffed to have been of help! Well, I suppose you can take the girl out of Doughty’s…

Linking up with Finish It Up Friday over at Crazy Mom Quilts and Sew Fresh Quilt's Let's Bee Social - come and say hello!

New Beginner's Quilt Kits

Would you like to learn to quilt? Or do you know someone who has always wanted to make a patchwork quilt? My Beginner’s Quilt is a free online class that takes you through the three stages of making a quilt – the piecing, the quilting and finally the binding.

The Piecing chapter tells you what you will need, with links to other tutorials that explain what it all means – what on earth is a Fat Quarter? How do I use a rotary cutter? Once you have your squares cut, I explain how to chain-piece (speedy sewing) these together, and then how to match up your seams when sewing the rows to each other. Add some borders, and you will have completed your first quilt top.

The Quilting chapter takes you through the special equipment that I find useful when quilting – the walking foot, and some very strange looking gloves! I then show you how to baste your quilt sandwich, and then how to stitch-in-the-ditch – a quilting technique that will hold your backing, wadding and top all together.

The Binding chapter is the final stage of any quilt, and I show you how to cut and sew your binding strips, and then how to attach them to your quilt top. This is the best bit as when you’re done, you will have completed your first handmade quilt! Time to sit back and look very happy with yourself!

To accompany this free series, I have designed two pre-cut quilt kits, ideal if you haven’t as yet bought the rotary cutter, ruler and mat. 

The 6½” squares, border and binding strips are all cut for you, so you can jump straight onto your sewing machine and get started. The kits also include full instructions and thread for piecing.

Both kits are based on two gorgeous Riley Blake ranges, the first one is very pink and features the Fancy Free range with an added pink and blue Kona Solid.

The second kit features the Giraffe Crossing range, again with a couple of Kona Solids – this quilt would make a great baby play mat or a child’s cuddle blanket, with a colourway suiting both girls and boys – a great gift for a mum-to-be don’t you think.

These would be a great gift for yourself or a loved one who has always wanted to learn about this wonderfully creative and highly addictive craft.

Both kits are available in my shop at sewmotion which I am adding stock to all the time. My full collection of handmade homewares and gifts can be seen in my Folksy shop.

For more quilting fun and inspiration pop over to Sew Fresh Quilt's Let's Bee Social and say hello.

Dog Gone Cute Blog Hop

I have been pretty bad with my Dog Gone Cute QAL this month, and do promise to get two more blocks done in the following week, honest! But I didn't think my slowness should be any reason for you to miss out on this month's blog hop over on Sew Fresh Quilts - this is not only an ideal opportunity to find puppy-inspiration from others, but it's also a great way to meet other quilters and discover new blogs to follow.

On each of the days listed below, some of the world's (and I do mean world!) fun and fresh quilt bloggers will be writing about their QAL experiences, so why not pop along and say hello. Meanwhile, I will be cutting more pieces and getting my head straight, hopefully in time for my own blog on the 22nd.

Tuesday, October 6
Karen of Run Sew Fun
Kris of Kris Loves Fabric
Anja of Anja Quilts
Kelly of Quilting it Out
Tish of Tish’s Adventures in Wonderland
Thursday, October 8
Carol of Just Let Me Quilt
Nina of Inchworming
Doris of The Quilting Queen Online
Brandy of Pampered Pettit
Leena of Creative Instincts


Tuesday, October 13
Ruth of Charly and Ben’s Crafty Corner
Tanya of Tanya Quilts in Colorado
Laurel of Quilts by Laurel
Kathy of Kathy’s Quilting Blog
Deb of New Creative State
Thursday, October 15
Anita of Daydreams of Quilts
Gina of Quilts and Cakes
Beth of Words & Stitches
Rachel of Quiltineering
Julie of Mack and Mable
Tuesday, October 20
Cathy of A Quilting Chick
Selina of Selina Quilts
Shauna of Shauna’s World
Gayle of Pedal Sew Lightly
Kathy of Kayak Quilting
Thursday, October 22
Sandy of Upstairs Hobby Room
Heide of Heide’s Quilty Hugs
Britt-Inger of Hill Valley Quilter

Judy of How ART You?

Louisa of Sewmotion

Tuesday, October 27
Teje of Nero’s Patch and Post

Stephanie of Jak and Will
Valerie of Val’s Quilting Studio
Ellen of Georgia Florida Studio
Cristina of Pretty Little Quilts

Thursday, October 29
Abigail of Cut & Alter
Magdalena of iloveneutrals
Jenn of A Quarter Inch from the Edge
Anne of Batiks by the Bay
Susie of Susie's Sunroom
Tracy of Tracy’s Bits N Pieces

My very first QAL!!

I can't believe I've been away for near enough a whole month! After the Festival of Quilts my poor broken body needed a break, so we headed off on our European road trip... more about that in a later post once I've sifted through the mountain of pics! We had a great time, and I thankfully feel rested and also desperate to sew something.

Of course, these days, even when you're on holiday, if you turn on your phone you can't quite escape... you might just miss something... so I'm very pleased I caught this QAL (quilt-along) from the wonderful Lorna at Sew Fresh Quilts.

I've been an admirer of Lorna's quilts for a while now, and totally fell in love with her Elephant Parade last year.

Having sadly missed that QAL, I signed up for Dog Gone Cute straight away, also signing up for the Blog Hop later in October. Now I'm finally back home, I've just printed off the pattern and can't wait to start stash-pulling. I'll be sharing my progress on Instagram and Flickr, hopefully I will inspire you to buy the pattern and join in, just click on the link below to visit her page.

Festival of Quilts 2015

Well, that's the Festival of Quilts over for another year, and I'm devastated to say I only managed to take one quilt picture, this beauty by Philippa Naylor. I've been to one of her talks at Leominster Quilters before, so recognise her work instantly. She's also very entertaining, if you get a chance I recommend going to see her talk about her life and her stunning quilts.

I didn't even get a chance to see the quilt category winners this year, so really don't have much to report. Hence I thought I would write a bit about what goes into doing a show like this from the perspective of one of the many businesses there. I wasn't working as Sewmotion, (maybe next year) but instead I did my yearly stint for Doughty's, possibly the one company there with the most stalls... Five in all! We had the Colourwall, the Clearance, Batik & Riley Blake, Wadding and the Cut Pieces stands, some customers commented that our section should be called Doughty Village!
Preparations start much earlier in the year with cutting and folding half metres and fat quarters. As Doughty's now have a fabulous new warehouse open to the public, this is actually a daily routine now, which lessens the pressure a lot. There are then many discussions of what to take, what to leave behind, what to put on each stand, what would look good together, what would attract people to the stands, and so on, and this is all before a van is loaded!

This year we took up seven loaded vans in all. As Doughty's are based in Hereford, we're able to drive back and forth to the NEC everyday, I wouldn't want to think how we would manage with that amount of stock if we couldn't come back of a night! Setup starts Tuesday morning, when we arrive the electricians and exhibition fitters are already there building the stands, painting the walls, laying new carpet and setting up lighting fixtures. We begin by building all the shelving for each stand, something we've all got faster at over the years. Then it's time to unload the first couple of vans of fabric, sort it into colour and stock up the shelves. By Tuesday evening our awesome team of eight has got all the stands built, and about two and a half stocked. Off home to load three more vans and to bed.

Wednesday is a mad day as every other stand holder is in the hall, it's lovely to see some familiar faces, and to catch up. As I don't work for Doughty's anymore, I only see some of these people once a year now. By the end of Wednesday all five stands are stocked, tweaked and titivated to look amazing for tomorrow.

After a good night's sleep, we're up early and rearing to go. There's Mrs D finishing off some pricing. It takes on average 19 people on each of the four days to staff the stands - as well as current employees, there are a few ex-staff like myself, then there are family friends and quilting friends who come and join the fun, we have a great team, and the morale was spot on, it's great when you can have a good laugh and enjoy what you do! I miss this sometimes working on my own at home.

The stream of customers was quite steady over the four days, though to me Friday and Saturday seemed a little quieter than normal - you can always tell when you can get to and back from the loo in five minutes! Having said that, Sunday was a lot busier than past years, so maybe people were staggering their visits.

On Sunday I did get a chance to have a quick rush around stalls I had spotted, one of which was of course lovely Aurifil, where I treated myself to this lush box of threads, I also met the handsome Alex Veronelli with his beaming smile! Talking of quilt celebs... I was over the moon to meet one of my idols from QuiltCon, the very talented and very sweet Angela Walters. She was there holding classes for Cotton Patch's Sweet Sixteen quilting machine, and I managed to catch her in a break. We had a great chat about Austin and Texas and also how much I love her quilting mantra, "finished is better than perfect" - she gave me one of her wrist bands! I then got really cheesy and took a rare selfie... :)

The last thing on my to do list was to get the amazing Millefiori book that everyone is raving about, and I came across Lina Patchwork, not only do they have every die-cut paper shape known to man, but also sell the books, so I bought the papers too, can't wait to get stuck into some fussy cutting and hand sewing.

I obviously couldn't work for Doughty's without buying some fabric, so my last treat of the week were these cute Riley Blake prints and a couple others I thought would make great make-up pouches.

5pm, Sunday afternoon, and the Festival of Quilts is over, the halls now become a building site once again, on come the hi-viz tops, and the madness begins. Here's the long queue of vans waiting to get loaded.

It does amaze me that it takes two whole days to set up, and four and half hours to break down! Again, we were joined by a couple of extra helpers/drivers, including my husband :) to load up six vans this time. We are usually the last to leave the NEC, and travel in a Doughty convoy back to Hereford, to then unload the three hire vans, and finally get back to a cold beer around 12.30am to celebrate the end of a very long week!

So if you were one our lovely customers who were empathising at how shattered I looked, now you know why! :) It is a great event and good fun with the Doughty's, but boy, is my body hurting now! We're now off for a couple weeks driving around Europe to see friends, and hopefully to sit and relax in the sunshine.

Posted with Blogsy

How to use paper templates

Many quilt patterns, including my own, come complete with templates, which somehow need to be transferred onto your fabrics.

In this tutorial I am going to cover two methods that I use when I don’t have the specific acrylic ruler to hand.

First, if your pattern is in PDF format, you will need to print your templates off at full size. I have written a tutorial on printing PDFs here.

We’ll start with the freezer-paper method. Freezer paper originates from the US where it’s used to wrap fresh meat and produce, although I get the impression that it’s mainly used for quilting these days! It has a rough side which you can draw on, and a shiny side which becomes sticky when heated by an iron (obviously, you do not want this coming into direct contact with your iron’s baseplate).

Trace your templates onto the rough side of your freezer paper. NOTE: if your template isn’t symmetrical and has a right and wrong side, you need to invert your pattern when tracing. To do this, I turn over my printout and looking through the back of the paper, I trace the shape with a black felt pen – I then place this side under my freezer paper and trace this backwards shape.  

Take your fabric to the ironing board and place the freezer paper template on top and iron into place – do not use steam. The freezer paper will stick to your fabric – magic!

Now carefully place a quilter’s ruler on top of your first cutting line. I have used my smaller 6½” square here, but any straight edge will do. Without cutting into the paper, use your rotary cutter to cut against the ruler. In some cases, as in this shape I’m cutting for my Side to Side pattern, bear in mind that you may need the next piece of fabric intact for the following cut, so be careful when cutting at the points that you don’t over cut and waste fabric.

Once you have cut down your right-hand sides, (or left if you’re a lefty) flip or rotate your fabric so that you can cut down your remaining sides. Now gently peel off your freezer paper, this can now be re-ironed onto the next piece of fabric – you can use the paper quite a few times. This method is a little laborious as you have to use the iron every time, but you can cut through a few layers of fabric at a time, just be careful when repositioning for the next cut.

Template plastic is another technique to try. This plastic is thicker and more durable than card, and is translucent making it easy to trace through. Use a biro pen to trace your templates onto the plastic and cut out carefully (do not use your fabric scissors!)

Place on top of your fabric and carefully place your quilter’s ruler on top. As before, cut along the edge of the ruler with your rotary cutter - avoid cutting into the template plastic. 

When you have cut your right-hand sides, rotate your fabric and cut the remaining sides. Then reposition your template ready for your next cut. Again, you can layer up your fabrics for bulk cutting, just be careful when repositioning for the next cut.

You can of course draw around your template for a cutting line, but be sure to use a very sharp pencil to get an accurate cut.

I hope these techniques have helped in your quilting, for more handy tips and tricks, visit my Tutorial page at Sewmotion.

Summer Sale

Sewmotion on Folksy is having a 15% off sale, running from Sunday 26^th July to Wednesday 29^thJuly (ends midnight). If you are one of those super organised people who have started thinking about Christmas already, or if there’s a special birthday on the horizon – this is a great opportunity to pick up something pretty. Simply enter the code SUMMER15 at checkout to get your discount.

 
One reason for me holding this sale is as a kind of apology… due to work commitments, as in the Festival of Quilts (!) followed by a much needed holiday, I’ve decided to close my Folksy shop for the month of August. While this probably isn’t great business sense, as I don’t have anyone to look after the shop, and I really can’t see me traipsing around Europe with my boxes of purses in hand, I think this is the sensible thing to do. So my Folksy shop will be closed from 1^st – 31^st August – I will be processing orders again on the 1^st September.

However, my PDF patterns will be still be available for instant download in my Etsy shop – so if you are looking for a summer project, maybe something to do with the kids, why not teach them - or learn together - the wonderful craft of patchwork and quilting. 
You could start with my free Beginner’s Quilt – this online tutorial takes you through the whole quilting process, from choosing and cutting fabric, and piecing your shapes, to quilting and attaching the binding. 

Based on simple squares, this quilt will teach you all the basics for you to then develop with my other free quilt tutorials – All Squared Up, Fox in the Nine Patch and Novelty Nine Patch.  

I will hopefully be blogging from the Festival of Quilts with lots of photos - probably taken on mad dashes to the loo. Even though it is a crazy week of hard work, I'm looking forward to being surrounded by gorgeous fabric, stunning quilts, and some wonderful people, if you are going and happen to be passing one of Doughty's stands, come and say hello - chocolate is always welcome!

Selling online is not as easy as it looks!

I love to quilt, I love reading, writing and eating everything quilty… well, maybe not eating… but you get the general idea. Sometimes however, I feel the need to set aside large quilting projects and pattern writing, and instead work on smaller items – not only do these come together quickly, but they’re also much more manageable in this muggy heat we’re currently enduring!

One of the greatest things about patchwork and quilting is that there are always new techniques to learn, new fabrics to use and new patterns to collect. It’s these techniques and fabrics that inspire me to create my handmade gift items – purses, glasses cases, cosmetic pouches, cushions and so on, many of which I sell through my Folksy and Etsy shops.

I have been a seller on Folksy since its Beta years and I have watched it grow

while selling the odd item now and again. However, it’s only recently that I’ve started  making an effort to learn more about selling online through marketplaces such as these, and let me tell you, there is a lot to learn!

There are many out there (I was one of them) that think selling through these outlets is simple - you just create a page, upload a few items, add a brief product description and a couple of photos, then sit back and wait for the orders to come flooding in! Well, I assure you, it’s not that easy at all!

Not only do you have to make quality products that people will want to buy, (let’s face it, not everyone is as obsessed with hexies as I am!) but you then have to think creatively about how to photograph it, how to describe it to make it attractive to a passing visitor, what tags to use to help buyers find you - and that’s after you’ve decided on an eye-grabbing name and the sensible price of the thing! (And don’t get me talking about pricing, that’s for another blog, let me just say – there is a HUGE difference between hobbyists just wanting to cover their costs to designers and crafters needing to make a living!)

Anyway, back to this blog… I have also recently opened an Etsy shop, mainly because I wanted to sell PDF patterns for instant downloads which Folksy doesn’t currently offer, but also to tap into the US market - quilting is so big over there. I have sold one item so far, with no marketing at all on my part, so we’ll see how that goes. I do have a lot of reading and learning still to do, and thankfully both Etsy and the lovely people at Folksy have amazing databases of useful articles and guides on everything, from taking great product photos (I'm getting the hang of cutouts now!), writing descriptions and using tags, and how to use blogs and social media to share your creations with the world. I’m not by any means intending to take over the world, but reaching more of it and spreading my obsession love of quilting would do nicely.

Finally, I have a little announcement… patchwork and quilting specialists Doughty’s of Hereford are now stocking all six of my quilt patterns – these are the printed versions, available in the shop or over the phone at £6.95 each.

This week I'm linking up with Late Night Quilter's Tips & Tutorials Tuesdays and Let's Bee Social over on Sew Fresh Quilts - come and visit some truly inspirational quilters.

Thank you for stopping by, as always your comments are very welcome.