Running Out of 2017

Well, following my last post I haven't really improved my blogging output at all have I.

Many's the time I have thought to sit down and post but as the months rolled by I fretted about fitting everything in. Then I thought, if I am going to continue this blog, just get on with a post and show a few recent makes, I don't have to include every last moment from August! So working backwards from my recent sewing here is what I have been up to.

I finished all of the blocks from the Bella Skills Builder sew a long, changing a couple in the final stages. I did set out on this project hoping to make use of lots of shirts I have stashed and did use some of them. The project was meant to be made using Bella solids and I stuck to the solid plan which I found very enjoyable. The shirts I started off with sort of dictated my colour palette and I also used some stash solids. I always knew that I would want to make a larger quilt than the one in the QAL and tried a few layouts on EQ7. Aiming for a pretty large quilt for our very large bed, I made a start this week on joining and sashing the blocks and in the picture below you will see I have completed the top section, adding in monster 6" sashing & borders. My quilt is going to end up about 90" square and I am constructing this joining stage in three sections which I will quilt separately. I have to admit I was a wee bit scared using such wide sashing but the effect has spread out the blocks and I like this better than having them all butting up together. It's a wee bit hard to make it out in the picture as the blocks have overshot my "design wall" onto an existing quilt, I'll try for better photos as I progress.

Just before Christmas with no Big Day to organise here I found myself needing a quick sewing fix and made this Nina wristlet from Sotak Handmade
.

Since August, I have been attending Amanda's classes in Prestwick. Amanda took over these classes from me in 2016 and has offers really interesting projects. I decided to sign up for The Catch All Caddy, a useful bag design by Annie.com. This bag uses Annie's Soft and Stable wadding which I hadn't used before and was keen to try. The timing of the course was also perfect because if I finished the bag in time I thought it might be a perfect gift for my friend's special birthday in December.

Despite my years of experience (Cough, cough) I found this quite a tricky project and was really glad of Amanda's guidance. I used Sweetwater's Celebration fabric line for the bag - the main fabric has lots of celebratory events printed on it and as well as a birthday, friend Janet was retiring.

Also in December I recalled Jo launching a competition on her blog - those of us who attended the Stitch Gathering in September received in their goody bags a panel of Cori Dantini fabric plus some coordinating fat quarters. So the challenge was to make something using the fabric and submit photos on Instagram by tomorrow!! I opted to make a nice zippy purse and after  bit of thought I cut out the character from one of the panels plus some of the flowers and appliqued them on to an already quilted piece of fabric I found in my UFO drawer. I really enjoyed taking time over this project and actually came up with a different way of inserting the zip which I'll share another time.

And lastly, still in December my fellow Sewing Bee pals (real life not online) and I finally finished this joint effort quilt, a special birthday gift for the aforementioned Janet. The design is based on a quilt called Spin, by Leanne from She can Quilt who first showed the on her blog maybe about 18 months or even longer ago. Strangely I saw it at the same time as one of the other Bees and we had both bookmarked it in our heads as being the perfect project for Janet. With Leanne's blessing we chose this as the perfect project.

We all know Janet's colours and so chose our palette to suit.

We actually made a start on the project last January and used a Lewis and Irene fabric line, Make a Christmas Wish. We wanted to make a subtle Christmas quilt that perhaps could be left out all year and think we pulled it off. To finish we both hand and machine quilted it.

I have been enjoying my sewing recently and hope to forge ahead with projects old and new in 2018.

I wish you all a Happy and healthy New Year and hope to be back again soon.

Like an Old Penny

I am back!

I didn't mean to stay away so long, and then it sort of became a habit that I wondered if I should give up blogging altogether and then realised that would be so rude after all these years to all my followers and although blogging in itself has suffered a bit of a slump at the hands of Instagram, it still has a place, doesn't it! hands up if you still look at blogs? I know I still do.

So I refreshed my own memory and see I left you all hanging as I jetted off with the family to Florida for our big Disney holiday. The Art Wrap that I showed you here was a success - it was revealed at Glasgow airport when we had tears, I think maybe because of our delay in departure, can't remember, but the drawing materials went down very well and were a great hit on the flight and during the holiday.
As luck would have it, Florida was experiencing a heatwave and temperatures were way higher than normal for April, just great for the 14 day theme park pass!! I felt about 90 but eventually acclimatised. But it wasn't about me, the holiday was aimed at the 5yr old in our family and she had a ball meeting every Disney Princess known to man.
This is one of my favourite photos from our holiday.

Returning from holiday and it was a whirlwind few weeks until our son's wedding - I was busy with a little sewing during this time for Today's Quilter but won't be able to share this for several months.

I also took cold feet about the outfit I had picked ages ago for the wedding and set about choosing a whole new ensemble, I sort of turned into a total mad woman but was completely happy with my new choice........so the wedding was on 8th July. On 7th and 9th July it rained but on 8th "Happy is the bride the sun shines on" came true and we had a wonderful day. Very emotional.

Things haven't quite settled down yet................just after the wedding I attended a Christmas in July workshop with Amanda Clark in Prestwick and made this lovely candle mat. I decided not to use Christmas fabrics so I could have the mat in use year round.

Amanda is the very talented young lady who took over my classes in Prestwick last year and I think we both found it a bit weird that I was turning up at her classes However, any discomfort must surely have disappeared on her part during the next 3 weeks when I attended her Learn to Crochet classes - long on my bucket list, I was a total novice and felt very out of my comfort zone. I turned up at the second class to find the others with multiple Granny squares whilst I had achieved one, with a carbuncle.........I felt like a failure but I was determined and Amanda so patient. By the end of the third session, I think I had grasped the basics and I have now decided to try and finish the project which is a cushion, have even bought more wool.

Most summers I like to have a little EPP on the go and this year I started one using octagons and squares. It was always destined as a present for an old friend who had sent me a book about Lucy Boston, whose quilts inspired me to use her Piano Keys quilt pattern for this project. So I managed to finish in time for said friend's birthday this month and transform it into a cushion. I hand stitched the panel of EPP onto a backing piece of fabric and then layered up as I always do for cushions, making back and front in one long piece. I started to machine quilt but after just two rows of stitching in the ditch the octagons were beginning to wrinkle and I could foresee heartache ahead. After unpicking and an unscheduled break I had a bit of a eureka moment that would avoid hand quilting. I used one of the built in stitches on my machine and machine "tied" each octagon, very difficult to see in the photo but hopefully you will get the idea. This led me on to sewing a few buttons elsewhere and then machine stitching the back as normal. For the opening on the back, I pinched this  genius idea from Bonnie Hunter at quiltvillebonnie. The black fabric used in my cushion was actually an old shirt and I had watched a video of hers on how to strip down a shirt for patchwork - she added that you could even use the button and buttonhole plackets as openings on cushions and the idea had stayed with me (amazingly enough) and it worked a treat.

At risk of being a very lengthy blog post I am just going to go for it if you can still hang in there, we are not far off now.

Into August and the next big thing on our calendar was my husband's retirement, he has been ticking off the days for quite a while now so he welcomed the celebrations although tinged with emotions too, after 42years. Family and colleagues came together for lunch.

And throughout this very busy year I have been keeping pace with the Bella Skills Builder BOM that is being published each month in the fat quarter shop blog. I think there might only be a couple of months left now and I have thoroughly enjoyed sewing along to this one. All the blocks have been traditional ones and I have really loved using solid fabrics only. I did challenge myself to include shirt fabric and at the start thought that I might slip a few prints in but have easily avoided this as I am loving the fresh look of the solids against the white. I am hoping to make the final quilt a little larger than the planned pattern as I would like it for our super king plus I would prefer to quilt as you go in big chunks so have been playing about with a different layout on EQ7. Here's what I have done so far,

But that is for another day. For the moment I am feeling good to be back.

Next calendar event? First day of school on Thursday, how did that happen?

Holiday Season

A week or so ago I was approached by a representative of ECT Travel to see if I would consider mentioning their quilting tours on my blog.
Before I go any further I must say I have not been offered any remuneration or favours other than a mention of my blog on their own social media sites. That said I am not in a position to offer any opinion on their tours, I have never experienced one.

I had however heard of the company and I have in the past heard of the quilt shows that are held in the Alsace area of France. Indeed I believe it was that very area's show that inspired our very own Loch Lomond Quilt Show.
When I heard that ECT are themselves affiliated to the Quilters' Guild of the British Isles then I thought the company must surely be worth a browse, so why don't you have a look too. Personally I have been to big quilt shows in this country and in far away places like Sydney as part of my own planned holidays but not as part of an organised tour but I do imagine there is an appetite for organised trips to specialised venues and some of ECT's venues look mouth watering.......what follows is their own words and pictures, so please enjoy.

Nestled deep in the enchanting French countryside, the region of Alsace is situated close to the border of Germany and Switzerland. It is here in mid-September, for 4 days only, that you will find 36 unique and quirky exhibition sites dotted amongst the villages of Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines, Sainte-Croix-aux-Mines, Liepvre and Rombach-Le-Franc.

As the cradle of the Amish movement, Alsace has been a hub for quilting and textile artists for over 300 years. In 1993 the European Patchwork Meeting was devised to celebrate the talents of traditional and modern patchworkers and quilters. With a huge range of activities such as workshops, conferences, specialist stalls and exhibitions, it is no surprise that over 22,000 international visitors flock to the event every year.

Working together with the Quilter’s Guild, ECT Travel have put together a fantastic 3 night package that gives textile enthusiasts the chance to explore the art trail at their own pace, whilst all the hassle of arranging their transport and accommodation has been taken care of.

Staying in the town of Colmar, where on Friday and Saturday evenings the buildings are illuminated by an award winning light show, guests will have free time to explore after being transferred back to their hotel from the event by executive coach.

For more information on this amazing tour or to book, please visit ECT’s website or contact Sofia by email on sofia@ecttravel.com.

Fruity

Excitement levels are building Chez Bluepatch as our Disney holiday approaches.........I showed you a few things that I had made for Ava already but have one more project that I haven't shared and this one is courtesy of Ali at veryberryhandmade. It's a very nice art wrap, well, Ali's is, mine is a wee bit wobbly and I left out the ties as I thought the chubby five year old fingers might cope better with snaps, (and I am putting Kam snaps on everything that doesn't move at the moment). Anyway, thought I'd produce this on the flight, might keep her amused for half an hour or so..............

Meanwhile, I am now all up to date on the Bellaskillbuilder BOM that I am doing from the fatquartershop blog. This month we had to do seven Pineapple blocks, three in one size and four a little larger. There was a recommended ruler to purchase to help trim as you went along but I wanted to make a start and I am also a bit mean and thought I was unlikely to be making more Pineapples in my near future. I'd only ever foundation pieced this block before so had a bit of a look online to see if I could pick up some tips and found some help from this blog - once I got going I found I could use tape to mark my wide ruler at the point for trimming each round of the pineapple and this worked fine for me. Although my blocks look quite accurate they are actually quite wonky here and there but I am really quite pleased with them. Remember I am using old shirts for this project although in these Pineapples the peach is new solid from stash, the white is all shirt fabric.

All Change

Well, it's almost exactly a year since I retired from my classes, how quickly those twelve months have flown by.
As so many of you know, while I taught class, I introduced my lovely ladies to the wonders of Aurifil thread and became a small time retailer of said thread.........
I so wanted to continue selling and wanted to try online sales so after much research found a platform and opened up a small online presence - I have enjoyed moderate sales this way whilst continuing with my real life customers that I see in my day to day quilting life here in Ayrshire.

I sort of gave myself a year of trying the online thing but have reluctantly decided to cancel my subscription to the shop and here are the two main reasons - I think my online Aurifil customers know their colours, are perhaps regular neutral users, I rarely sell "colours", so tricky to choose unless you know your particular shade, do you agree?
and the second reason? I just can't keep the P&P to rock bottom on 1 large spool. In its wisdom the UK Post Office has designated this one small product as a small parcel and basically it costs the same as a shoe box full, so frustrating.....

So to my lovely online customers I am truly sorry, but I will still be stocking Aurifil - and will do my best to accommodate your thread wishes, all you need to do is email me, or DM me on Instagram and I'll do my best for you.

For everyone else that knows me I shall turn up like a bad penny at any quilty event in Ayrshire that you can think of..............wouldn't want you running out of your favourite thread.

Catch Up

I did mean to come back and update you on my sewing projects but my blogging has fallen way behind my quilting, so here goes.

In March I looked forward to Month 2 of the Bella Skill Builder BOM that I started in February - it is being featured each month on the Fat Quarter's Blog, The Jolly Jabber. So March featured an Orange peel block that didn't fill me with enthusiasm - applique isn't my favourite but I got stuck in. I had a look at the YouTube tutorial and did consider the interfacing technique but I have used it before and am not too good at producing a result where the interfacing is completely invisible so I resorted to machine applique because I am very familiar with my machine stitches and have used the applique stitches many times. Here are my results -

and together, with February's blocks,

When I started this BOM, using old shirts and some solids I had in mind that I might used the odd patterned shirt but as I see the blocks grow I absolutely love the look of the solids together - I have never before made a quilt just using plain fabric, maybe it's after making a couple of very scrappy projects, but I am fast becoming a convert.

I was obviously in the mood for patchwork last month because I made a few blocks for Siblings Together - those of you previously in my classes will recall making quilts last year for this worthy cause. Perhaps you'd like to join in again this year? Nicky has asked for a different couple of blocks this year and instead of raking through my scraps I used some larger leftovers and made these co-ordinating blocks.

We have quite a special family holiday coming up and so I thought some holiday stitching might be the order of the day, or month...........

Matching backpacks for Grandma and Ava,

The big one, mine, was made from old jeans with lining and pocket from a horded Kaffe shot cotton - after an inner argument along the lines of "you've had it for two years, use it!!"

The little one, was made from two of Ava's daddy's old shirts. Merida was stitched out on my Janome embroidery machine from a purchased pattern.

The backpack pattern is a very old one that I have had for years, by Bethany Reynolds.

The small person also had a holiday purse crafted for her holiday pennies.........

And there is just one more item that has been made but it needs a few extras added before I can show it off here...............

Other holiday planning usually involves a little EPP for me and this year I have decided to do a small Lucy Boston project. A couple of years ago a book of Lucy Boston's quilts arrived in the post from an old friend, a totally unexpected gift. She had been visiting the Manor at Hemingford Grey in Cambridgeshire and thought of me.

I have been aware that one of the quilts in the book has become a very popular EPP project on the internet but noted that my friend had mentioned another as her "favourite" so I thought it might be an idea to go forward with that and try making a panel of LB keyboard patchwork, mostly made up of octagons.

I was really pleased to source octagonal templates and freezer papers from Pelenna Patchworks and they do little charm packs in shapes too. Great service as well.

Wasn't too sure about the orange, as I hadn't really chosen my main fabrics. Then one day when I was tidying my room............the fabrics just called to me! 

I got this lovely Cotton & Steel fabric from Helen in a recent destash - perfect!!

And to go with it? A lovely black Paisley -shirt!!

Since taking this photo I have stitched all the fabric onto the papers but have yet to make my mind up on the colour for the background squares, the tiny little squares that will peek through from behind. Leaning towards green. Of course!!

As I am about to begin a new EPP project, I am relieved to report that I have finished an old one, at least the EPP bit.

I think this has been a long time in the making, I wonder what it will end up as........................?

In a recent visit to friends in Edinburgh I had to snap their hall floor, don't know why I've never done it before. Maybe a quilt of the future?

Enjoy your week. 

Love is in the Air

I do have quite a few sewing project to share but I am just popping in tonight to share with you a new pattern launch.

As so many of you know, I retired from my P&Q classes last year and it has been in my mind to work through some of my class projects, adapting them as patterns, suitable for online sale.

So this first one to be added to my Etsy pattern stable is Love is in the Air. It started out life as a personal, quilted wall hanging to celebrate my own Silver Wedding way back in 2005.

I went on to make a second for another Silver Wedding before presenting it as a class workshop and it was one that became very popular over the years.

So now I have been working hard to adapt it for a wider audience. The 11 page pattern includes templates for appliqued hearts and optional foundation pieced blocks. Essentially, the pattern will take you to a finished quilt top but does have fabric requirements that will allow you to progress through to layering and quilting stage. The little quilt mesures approximately 34" x 33"

You will also find ideas and diagrams that show how this delightful wall hanging can be adapted to include 30 hearts, or even 40 hearts, so if you have a special celebration coming up in the family any time soon, maybe this is the pattern for you. 

You'll find it HERE.

Practising Proper Patchwork

Back so soon I hear you say, and it's not even March! Goodness me.

Thank you for the lovely comments on my last post - unfortunately several commentators (?) is that the right word, are no-reply bloggers which means I can't reply and that makes me a bit sad. I like to reply when someone takes the trouble to leave a comment. Especially these days as comments are as rare as hen's teeth.

So if you have commented here and haven't had a reply from me, why don't you have a look at this blog post and check out your settings.

Meanwhile, I have been in a bit of a patchwork mood this last couple of weeks. I spotted a post on Leanne's blog recently telling us about the Bella Skill Builder BOM. I was drawn immediately to the calm, uncluttered appearance of the quilt and it peaked my interest. The patterns will be published monthly on the Fat Quarter Shop's blog, free. The idea is to make the quilt from a palette of Bella solids.
Despite teaching P&Q for 12 years, I have never deluded myself that I am an expert and believe we all have skills to be learned.
So I have dived in but of course have  deviated slightly by deciding to finally start using my horde of shirt fabrics, mainly plain blues and whites. Along the way I will be happy to add from my regular stash of solids and I might even buy some if I have to. The first block was a kaleidoscope, made from a template, or a purchased ruler, but I opted to make a card template which worked fine. (I have always avoided template blocks so this was my first wee challenge). And I have to say I was pleased with the results of my blocks. I took a few progress shots along the way. I did go against the instructions in a couple of places when I decided to press two seams open, deciding that this would make the final seam less bulky.

More proper patchwork in my next post - I'm on a bit of a roll!

Deadline Smashed

Many moons ago I made this cushion for my son and his girlfriend when they were living apartment life in city centre Glasgow. I made it with a mix of Japanese textured cottons and Sweetwater's Road 15, one of my all time favourite ranges. The cushion fitted well with their modern style and I hatched a secret plan that this Road 15 print would be the basis of a future quilt..........perhaps a wedding quilt?? Who knew?
I had all but given up buying fabric from overseas and stuck to our LQS Kaleidoscope where I knew there was a good stock of this precious fabric. I also know that once a Moda line is gone, it's gone. So I invested in 6m of that particular vanilla print and stashed it away.

A happy engagement was announced back in May 2015 and I was then able to legitimately start planning a quilt. I had long planned something quite complex that involved a specialist ruler that had also been bought and stashed. But you know what - I decided that this couple would not necessarily be into complex patchwork. Their style is quite minimal with little frivolous touches. So I chose simple. I also decided that I wanted to Quilt As You Go and so designed something that lent itself to this. Instead of selecting more prints from the Road 15 line, I selected several single metre cuts from Jennifer Sampou's first Shimmer line - these are gorgeous, quite understated fabrics with just a wee bit of metallic interest in them. So all of these had been chosen for my original plan but I managed to incorporate them into my new simple plan. Another little hammer was thrown into the works.

The happy couple moved to the suburbs last Spring, and treated themselves to a new bed - and yes, you guessed it -super king - I groaned!! Definitely QAYG!!!

This was my final plan on EQ7, it almost seems too simple to have been planned but I did consider lots of options like big blocks, blocks with snowball type corners etc but opted for this.

So I made a start on it last year and have taken things pretty slowly. I made the Shimmer blocks first, eight, 18" blocks made up of 6" patches. Panels of Road 15 above and below these blocks plus a centre block made up a centre "quilt" that measures 54" x 94". The outer panels were just big pieces of Road 15 that had to be layered up and quilted bringing the full quilt up to a nice square 94".

I did straight line quilting, lots of it. The outer panels nearly felled me when I discovered slipped stitches and just knew this was the fault of having spray basted the long sections together. I didn't unpick, I just oversewed, reckon nobody will ever know, unless they read this, lol. I had quite a bit of fabric left when considering how to back this giant - I looked at Kaleidoscope again - they actually still have some Road 15 left in stock and Susan there was so very helpful. In the end I bought another Sweetwater in vanilla and some in black with a tiny white spot, to bind. And so I have, with careful placement, created a reversible quilt. I have machine embroidered a label in very subtle colours but won't show this here as it's a bit personal.

As far as QAYG goes, I reckon those of you unfamiliar with the technique would be hard pushed to spot where this has been done. For those of you who do use the technique, and especially ladies from my former classes - you might be interested to learn that when I folded the folded edge over to the right side, I used the machine blanket stitch to secure instead of straight stitching it down. I found this avoided the rather hard edge that I usually produce at this stage.

And lest you think I am sounding a little conceited, let me tell you about my binding. I bought black with a tiny white spot, made up yards and yards of binding. Then I decided the white looked.....too white. So I dipped the lot in a solution of cold tea, dried it, ironed it again and started, again, to sew it to the quilt. Not for the first time in my quilting life, I turned the last corner.....

Oops...........so I had to cut more, dye more, dry more, add it to the rest, with a 94" square quilt still attached.................

and all was well, finally. 

The wedding isn't until July so as the title of this post suggests, I reckon that is a deadline smashed.

Have a great weekend..

PS (Thanks to my quilting pals for holding this monster up yesterday for the photo shoot!!)