It's May already!! Where is this year going?? This is going to be a very busy month for me, thankfully ending with a few days away in the sun with some great friends. Before then I have two major shows and a magazine deadline which seemed so far away when I said yes...
Anyway, a new month means a new Pre-Cut Party pattern, for those new to Sewmotion, every month I send out a free pattern inspired by fabric pre-cuts to my Newsletter subscribers. This is often accompanied by a pre-cut kit, which my subscribers can also get at a discount. This month I've gone a little 'improv', and by little, I do mean tiny - seems I'm not quite ready to let it all go just yet!
This funky wall hanging to me looks like a modern piece of art, and made in these bright rainbow colours with that sharp white, it takes me back to my art degree years, though for the life of me I can't remember the artist I'm thinking of... collage? bright colours? Kandinsky or Mondrian maybe? These blocks are made with 2.5" strips and a clever technique using freezer paper to trim down each square. This is where the 'slightly improv' bit comes in as you can't see what you're cutting.
For this free pattern, with full access to previous months' patterns, plus my latest news, events and special offers, subscribe to the Newsletter.
I have also made this wall hanging into a kit containing all the fabric you need to complete the top, including binding, plus thread, freezer paper and full instructions. Priced at £25.00 - 20% off if you subscribe to the Newsletter, click here for more. If I get the time, I want to make up a black, grey and yellow version of this for the shows, she says hopefully.
Talking of shows, this time next week will be the first day of the Stitching, Sewing & Hobbycrafts show at the convention centre in the centre of Harrogate, North Yorkshire. If you're in the area, why not treat yourself to a day of inspiration, lovely people and craft therapy? I hope to see you there.
Can't make it to the show? Get your inspiration fix by visiting these great quilting links parties - Let's Bee Social, Midweek Makers and Needle & Thread Thursday.
It's all go here this week, with two weeks to go before the Stitching, Sewing and Hobbycraft Show in Harrogate, followed closely after by Quilts UK in Malvern (eek!) I'm sewing and cutting like mad!! As well as some gorgeous fat quarter bundles, strip sets and charm packs...
I'm been finishing up the instructions and packing for my Red Brick Tile quilt. I decided to wash it, it being red and everything... and with a couple of colour catchers, it came out fine.. thank goodness, you know that heart in your mouth feeling... thank the world for colour catchers!! I include a note at the end of all my kits recommending these babies, they really do work. This quilt is so big, it nearly filled our little garden! The kit will be available on the website after the shows in June.
I've also been working on a couple new Quick & Easy / Beginner's Quilt Kits, one in that gorgeous Coonawarra Red collection and another is this ditsy Confetti range from Dashwood. The Harrogate show is my first one of these Hobbycraft shows, so I'm hoping it attracts new quilters as well as the more addicted, sorry experienced.
So if you're in the Harrogate or Malvern areas in May, why not visit to one of these wonderful quilt and craft shows, details as follows;
Stitching, Sewing & Hobbycraft Show
11th - 13th May, Harrogate Convention Centre
10am - 4.30pm (5pm on Saturday)
Quilts UK
18th - 21st May, Three Counties Showground, Malvern
10am - 5pm (4.30pm Sunday)
If you're looking for more quilt fun and conversation, why not pop along to these links parties and say hi.
Let's Bee Social at Sew Fresh Quilts
Midweek Makers at Quilt Fabrication
Needle & Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation.
For my second new quilt kit of the month (!) I decided to develop one of my existing patterns, Snowballs in Spring, this time using these gorgeous Papillon fabrics from Makower. I've named this kit Snowballs Around the World as the blocks are laid out in an off-set Trip Around the World - can you see the centre snowball five rows down, three in? This quilt finished at approx. 52" x 61" so will sit comfortably on top of a single or double bed.
Each of these kits contain 104 pre-cut 5" squares, plus 2.10m of solid ivory for the corners and borders, so you'll have some cutting to do yourself! The kit also includes a 50wt thread, six binding strips in that cute stripe and of course, full colour instructions.
To accompany this new release, I thought I would do a quick tutorial on quilting concentric circles to accentuate the off-set Trip Around the World layout. I know Twiggy & Opal wrote a similar tutorial last week which you can read here, mine is more or less the same, I just start differently.
To create my first circle, I use freezer paper as a guide. Draw around something circular - a cup, glass, use a compass - onto the paper side of the freezer paper and accurately cut out. Use a hot iron to press this into place where you would like your circles to grow out from, in my case it was the centre square of my Trip Around the World pattern.
This quilting is done with a walking foot and with the machine's teeth up as normal, so no clever free-motion business here! The trick is to just take it slowly and to gently manoeuvre the quilt around to create each circle. This gets easier the larger the circles become.
When you wish to start quilting anywhere on your quilt that's not off the edge into the wadding, you need to bring up your bobbin thread to the top so you can move both top and bottom threads out of the way before you start stitching. So, holding onto your top thread, place your needle down where you want to start sewing, bring the needle up and pull up your bobbin thread, tuck both threads under your foot and out of the way.
How you secure your threads is up to you, on my Snowballs in Spring quilt I left all my ends long and like a good girl, stitched each of them into the wadding at the end - hard work! Luckily my Janome machine has a 'locking' stitch so I decided to use that this time at the beginning and end of each row. This basically just sews a few tiny stitches on top of each other to secure the thread, which you can still do yourself if your machine doesn't have this function. Just take the stitch length down to say 0.6, sew three or four stitches, then take it up to your chosen length for the main stitching, I think I had mine on 2.8 - you don't want them too long else you'll lose the smooth curve in the circle.
Moving slowly, stitch around the outer edge of the freezer paper, when you come to where you started, Jayne of Twiggy & Opal had a great tip, if you hold your starting thread ends in front of the foot, you will be able to see your starting point and where to stop sewing. Secure and break thread, and remove the freezer paper.
To start your second row, move your quilt so the left edge of your walking foot is sitting against your first line of stitching which you're going to use as your new guide. Secure your threads as before, and slowly sew your second circle. Try to move your quilt round in small increments to avoid getting sharp angles in your circle.
Carry on sewing circles - when you get to an edge you'll be able to start and end your threads into the wadding which makes life so much easier! As long as you keep that edge of your walking foot against the preceding line of stitching as a guide, your concentric circles should be nicely evenly spaced.
This is a great quilting pattern for so many quilts and always looks impressive!
If this quilt kit takes your fancy, get 15% off by subscribing to my Newsletter
I'm also having a fat quarter bundle sale this weekend, with all these new fabrics flying in, I want to share the fun! Use the code Bundle20 until midnight on Monday (24 April) and get 20% off all fat quarter bundles.
This week I'm linking up with Let's Bee Social, Midweek Makers, Needle & Thread Thursday and Main Crush Monday
