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 #8, Boro and Two New Patterns

A couple of weeks ago we went to visit my mum in London, which just happened to be the same weekend Middlesbrough Football Club were playing at Wembley… we honestly didn’t plan it this way! As some of you may know, Justin is a Boro fan, and I myself have been known to go to the odd game. including Ostrava in the Czech Republic, and Eindhoven for the Uefa Cup final, I'll have you know! Me a glory seeker?? Never!

Anyway, Justin was lucky enough to get a ticket for the Monday, and after seeing a friend Sunday afternoon, we decided to wonder over to Trafalgar Square where we’d heard Boro fans were starting to congregate. Now, I don’t know if this is just with Boro fans, or it’s the same with other family clubs, but I can honestly say that I love being around these fans. Not only are they the most friendly of people, but they really will have a laugh with anyone! I especially found this on a 5hr journey on a Czech train going from Prague to Ostrava! But that was a lifetime ago!

I’ve heard there were approx. five thousand fans in Trafalgar Square that night, and yes, some were climbing on the statues, and there may have been the odd half naked body in the fountains, but there was also such a great atmosphere, loads of families with young kids, lads a little tipsy on London-priced beer, and just a great joy of being there and sharing the hope for the match the next day. Does this happen with other teams?? I really don’t know. There was no trouble all night, all weekend for that matter. The only dampner on the whole thing was that the actual team ‘failed to turn up’ as the pundits say, and lost 2-0.

As we were in London, I of course had to visit Liberty. So having sent Justin off to Wembley, me and mum went ‘up west’ where I had heard the landmark store had recently revamped their haberdashery dept. I was not disappointed, its beautiful and I strongly recommend a visit. Rather than having the tables of goodies around the balcony, there is now a separate room with even more kits and sets and general gorgeousness than ever! So inspiring! The scarf hall also looks amazing at the moment.

Unfortunately, as much as I love Liberty, working for myself at the moment means I can’t really justify buying their fabric. So how happy do you think I was when on Sunday morning, having walked around Spitalfields craft market, then Brick Lane to find The Rib Man, (best ribs ever!!!) we came across a back street fabric merchant, owned by a very smart older gentlemen. Sadly I can’t remember the name of the shop, or exactly where it was… hopefully I’ll find it again one day. Not only were there some beautiful dress fabrics, suitings, and heavier weight cottons, but I also found a horde of beautiful Liberty prints, for about half price! I recently bought this dressmaking book, with great intentions, so I treated myself to a couple of metres of each of these. I’m hoping to make a summer top or two… if not they’ll make lovely soft quilts!

Talking of quilts, I thought I’d just share my latest pattern releases with you. First we have Floating Lilies…

This bright and modern quilt is based on hexagons and 60degree triangles, which when used together, avoids having to tackle those tricky Y-seams. The pattern also features partially-seamed hexagons for which I have added a new free tutorial here to whet your appetite! I have also included suggestions for pieced backing and for quilting your finished top. I am particularly pleased with the back where I decided to do more partial hexies, but in the oppposite colourway.

My second pattern is Snowballs in Spring, based on the traditional and very simple snowball block.

I was amazed at how quickly this quilt came together, and plan to make more of them. I decided to sew the blocks in a wonky Trip Around the World pattern, but I became worried it wasn’t working, the fabrics seemed a little too busy to show off the design. However, after a ponder over how to quilt it, I thought concentric circles emanating from the design’s centre square may bring the pattern together, which I think it has, I’m now very happy!

Both of these patterns include fabric requirements, full colour cutting and sewing instructions and layout plans. There is advice and suggestions on backings and quilting and I have included Helping Hand hints and links to my free online tutorials to guide you along the way. These patterns are available from my Folksy shop, in both PDF format (£5.95) and paper format (£6.95).

I hope you have like my ramblings, thank you for visiting. If you would like to leave a comment, please do, and if you would like more inspiration and ideas, why not pop over to Molli Sparkles’ Sunday Stash link-up.

For a bit of mid-week socialising, why not pay a visit to Let's Bee Social over on Sew Fresh Quilts, I do love this lady's work!

How to Sew Partially-Seamed Hexagons

I came across this technique last year when I was working on a project for John Louden, only then I used squares, and I found it was much simplier than it looks! Thankfully, it is equally as simple with hexagons, which made my latest quilt, Floating Hexagons a joy to make. 

So I thought I would share this joy and give you an easy-follow guide on how to make these simple blocks. I am working with 4½” hexagons, and 1½” x 4" white border strips.

1) Take your coloured hexagon and pin a white strip along its top edge, with the left side hanging over the end of the hexagon very slightly. Sew only halfway across this seam, shown by the red dashed line. Secure with a couple of back stitches, and cut thread.

2) Open the seam and finger press upwards. Now moving anti-clockwise, pin your second white strip along the next edge of the hexagon and carry on across your first white strip. Sew along this whole seam, and cut thread. 

 








3) Unfold and fingerpress this second strip back as you did before, and carry on with your next three white strips. 

4) When you get to the last strip, fold your first strip up and out of the way so that you can sew along the whole last side of the hexagon. Fingerpress this strip back as before, then fold your first strip back down so that your can see your first seam, pin and sew along the whole length of your first strip, finishing off your partial seam, and so that your first and last white strips are joined like the others.

5) Now use your quilter's ruler to trim your block up, my block needs to be 6½” tall, so I aligned my ruler as below, noting that the 1¼” ruler marks line up with the inner seams of the white strips.

6) Trim all your ends and you now have a partially seamed hexagon!

7) If you would like to put this new skill to work, look out for my latest pattern, Floating Lilies, which uses these blocks together with triangles to make this gorgeous quilt. This pattern will be released onto sewmotion.com very soon!
 

Thank you for visiting, your comments are always welcome. If you are looking for more handy tips, why not pop over to Late Night Quilter's Tips & Tutorials Tuesday link up. Enjoy!