Blogcentenary Colour Wheel GiveAway!!

It's my Happy One Hundredth Blog Post! How time flies. Last summer my first blog post was a very self conscious affair. I'm very English you see, not keen on being a show off, I was worried it was a bit 'look at me'-ish? But quilt blogging has opened up an amazing world of shared inspiration, supportive encouragement and lots of fun. I have loved watching the weather change in the backgrounds of fellow bloggers shots in both hemispheres ( yep, that English weather obsession). I have loved hearing the stories behind quilts, loved watching ideas and quilt crazes spread, watching quilts grow. You see at it's nub, my obsession with quilting is based on a love of the meanings sewn into each and every quilt. Quilts are a unique item, they are incredibly durable so they carry their stories sometimes opaquely through the generations. They hide mysteries and they celebrate love, and families, and bonds. Every quilt is a story from the inspiration behind the colours, the meanings within the patterns chosen, the fabrics each tell their own story, and so history is woven as a quilt is passed and gifted through families and friends. I Love Quilts.
Thank you for sharing your stories.

To celebrate my Blogcentenary, and as a thankyou to you all, I am giving away a second set of my colour wheel fabrics to make your own colour wheel quilt, please leave a comment and join as a follower, it would be lovely to see you all! The fabrics are 4" squares. They are cut from my stash and include Amy Butler, Denyse Schmidt, Moma, Tanya Wheelan, Liberty for Quilts 1700-2010 and Jessica Levitt Timber. For the circle size I drew around an Ikea kids plastic beaker ( a pretty universal template?), but any mug or glass that fits inside a 4" square will do. Of course you could use the squares for a squarer design too, I just happen to love circles. I hand appliqued the circles to the backing ( Kona Cotton Ash) using freezer paper templates. (p.s If you win and you want proper instructions do ask!)

I will draw a winner on Sunday, and will send the fabrics internationally so please enter for a chance to win. My Small People have asked to draw the winner from a hat ( so proper and more ceremonial than a random generator, don't you think?). To enter leave a message and join as a follower (if you do both that's two chances to win!). Good Luck!

Hope Valley Baskets Ta Dah

Wet weekends = antsy kids, very green lawn, muddy boots, and lots of time for stitching bindings.

But the sun came out today so I got to take some pics( spot the ladybird?).

Hope Valley Baskets had the big Hand-Quilting-Push last week ( I am on a one-a-week mission now having completed, this, this and now this one in consecutive weeks!).

I used the rainy weather and a stinking cold to hunker down and get the binding finished. I just love these fabrics and this quilt.

I feel sort of greedy about these fabrics, I might have to make a second quilt in another design in the same fabrics!

Quilting Bee - Preparing your Bits and Bobs

Hello!

I got a bit waylaid by a tele marathon yesterday as our election results played out so - a day late - here is Installment One of our MakeClub Quilting Bee.

Now first things first, you need to go and get a cup of tea and a slice of cake, or at least a choccie biscuit or somesuch as MakeClub is very fond of getting the background conditions right before strenuous crafting begins!

This Bee is a little program I am putting together for my Club, but as I know many of my readers are new or almost quilters, I thought I'd share my instructions here too if you would like to join us too?

The most important thing that I wanted to show my MakeClub Bee-ers is that quilting need not be complicated, or fiddly, or any kind of stress. It can be done with the bare minimum of equipment ( needle, cotton, scraps) and with basic skills (sew in a straightish line? you're in!)., you don't need lots of space or lots of time. This is a craft that has its roots in poverty and hardship, done by women in the cracks of time and space in their lives, built around cramped living conditions and labour intensive lives. If women could make beautiful quilts in wagons on the American prairie, or in squalid dark miners cottages in County Durham or Wales, then I'm pretty sure we'll all manage! In a very busy and complicated age, quilting offers a simple pleasure.

Now having said that I am now going to write a bossy list!

We will make 9 blocks (12" x 12") over 5 or so months which can be made up into a quilt approx 1m20cm x 1m20cm (47" x 47").

Each month the block that we make will introduce a new skill so that by the end of the 5 months although you will have made 9 blocks, you could confidently make hundreds of others , the principles are transferable.

This quilt can be made completely by hand, and you don't need lots of whizzy equipment.

To participate you need 8 - 14 different, but co-ordinating cotton fabrics to make approx 2.5m in total and approx 1m of a neutral background fabric that works with all of your choices. This may or may not be a plain solid colour, but should definitely work as a background for your other colour choices. These amounts are approximate, you will cut your cloth to suit your means as you go along, but you should have more than enough with these amounts.

You will also need a neutral cotton thread to match your colour choices, sewing needles (longer and thinner is better but just make do with whatever you have to hand, its not at all critical).

If you have a rotary cutter and mat it will make things quicker, but it's not critical, a little pair of sharp scissors will do just as well.

Next week I will talk about fabric choices. It's one the most scary bits of making a quilt when you start out, I know that the fear of making a 'wrong' decision was enough to stop me making my first quilt for months! I promise my Painting By Numbers approach will take the fear away!

Hung Parliament

Whatever your political colours today I expect you're as glued to the TV as me here in the UK. The outcome of our general election - a hung Parliament, an impasse, the unprecedented possibility of a coalition of the two parties that have done the worst on the night, as no one has failed to gain a majority of the British vote. Outside our little national bubble the Greeks are rioting, wall street lost 10% of it's value yesterday we need some form of stability and we've got lots more uncertainty, but then that's democracy for you, we've all had our say. I've settled in for the day with a heap of applique hand sewing and the TV on as we sail into uncharted waters. We sure don't live in boring times.

MakeClub Bee

Last night was my MakeClub meeting. You may remember that MakeClub is my lovely local group of mums from school who cooked up the idea for a group last summer at a rainswept sports day (wishing we were somewhere warm and knitting!). Since then we have learnt to knit, crochet, quilt, embroider etc etc together, encouraging each other, making lots of lovely friends along the way. I love MakeClub. Its food for the soul.

Last night we kicked off a Quilting Bee. We are going back to basics and making a modern take on a sampler quilt. Making the same block together each month, but in our own fabric palettes. Each block will demonstrate a new skill, so that by the end of 9 blocks you could tackle pretty much any other block with confidence. We all plan to make 10 blocks each then make the orphan blocks into a charity quilt. I am so excited about it all. There is so much energy and enthusiasm about learning a new skill, and my favourite thing is helping people to make their first quilt. They are always hooked!

I know that lots of my blog readers are teetering on the brink of making their first quilt. I thought I would open up our Bee online, so if you would like to quilt along with us month by month I will post the block instructions online as we make them. If you would like to join us, this month you need to get your fabrics planned. I will post tomorrow with the info on what you need to have in order to join in. Happy Quilting!

Confessions of a Colour Addict

Photo from purlbee.com
I'm supposed to be cleaning the house, making a bolognaise sauce, folding laundry etc etc. Before I'd even got my rubber gloves on I had got waylaid in My Front Room this morning. I always love love love the PurlSoho colour wheel quilt.I have this picture on my pin board. I decided to try out my stash to see if i had a colour wheel of my own...... It was so much fun.

Anyway, back to the cleaning.............boo!

Baby Buttons Big Bed Quilt Ta Dah!

I have loved this quilt ever since I first started sewing the blocks. I fell in love with this quilt and wanted my own! It was pretty quick to put together the quilt top but I have been held up finishing by my hand quilting log jam. Last week I really put my mind to it and so here is Baby Buttons Big Bed Quilt finished and really for my smallest girls big bed ( probably a bit early for that yet so it has a nice home over the back of the nursing chair in her little bedroom until then)

If you wanted to make a similar quilt I used Heather Ross fabric remnents from etsy here and here. I really only had less than a yard in total but lots of little bits and pieces ( its the only way it comes these days). Or you could visit spoonflower where Heather has started reprinting some of her designs and buy new. I pieced 6.5inch, 4.5 inch and 2.5 inch squares out of co-ordinating scraps and pieced them any which way to get to the 12 inch by 8inch blocks. The sashing is Kona Cotton Snow.