Tumbling Around

Last Sunday I held my Tumbler Cushion workshop. I had bought a Tumbler die for my Accuquilt Go last year in the US when I was on holiday and early in the New Year set to making my sample cushion. I was happy with my cushion but less than happy with the cutting process, the shapes did not cut cleanly.

This is an issue I had with my very first die that came with the machine and to their credit, Accuquilt did replace that die.

With the possible problem at the back of my mind and a full booking list for the workshop I tried another cutting session a couple of months back and things were worse than I remembered. As cutting with Gordon (my Go) is part of the attraction for this particular workshop I had to bite the bullet and buy a new die.

My initial try outs were good,.........and things proved even better on Sunday. Everyone cut their tumblers with ease - phew!

Because the cutting was done in next to no time it meant that there was a good chance of completing, or nearly completing their cushions.

And when you realise that all my cushion workshops involve quilted backs and fronts then you will agree that is a great achievement in a day!

This was my sample cushion.............

                         

and here are some from Sunday, in progress................you can see the construction process,  it's like a small rectangular quilt.

and while this hard work was going on I did a little Tumbler Vomit

and there were some finishes too!

Well done ladies, it was a really good day. I might invest in the bigger Tumbler die now, I have some ideas.................

And if you are looking for my BQF entry go HERE.

Bloggers' Quilt Festival

Six months must have flown by because it's time for the wonderful Bloggers' Quilt Festival where you can view the most brilliant selection of quilts, large & small, without getting sore feet!
Use the button above to delve in and keep on returning as new quilts will be added until voting time.

I have entered something now for the last few Festivals and didn't want to miss this one out. I have decided to enter into the Mini Quilt section. Minis should be no more than 80" all the way around so my offering at 17" square fits in fine.
I made this Mini for a friend's 0 birthday this year - the friend who introduced me to quilting way back around 1998. With a few others we have been meeting most Thursdays for many years, at what we loosely call our Sewing Bee. In the early days we laughingly called ourselves Shady Pines in what we thought was a hilarious nod to the future but the future is here now, so we don't mention that name so often.
The wee Mini came about from a few little Granny blocks that I had been playing about with, testing sizes, etc. I had four in shades of pinks and aqua. I framed them all up with white borders and then "wonkified" them all to, I think, 6" square. I liked the movement the wonky produced. I then added borders from some leftover Bella, by Lotta Jansdotter .

I tried my hand, or should I say, my machine, at matchstick quilting, something I hadn't tried before but had spotted turning up in blogs and IG. On a piece this small, it was fun and added such texture.

In an effort at arty I stitched a few lines in pink thread and then promptly unpicked..................

I had just the right piece of teal fabric to bind.

And that was my gift, Granny to Granny.

In an effort to be business like, here are some stats.
The Mini is 17" square.
All fabrics are 100% cotton
Thread used is Aurifil #50 in white 2024
Wadding is Hobbs 80/20

Am now off to link up and have a nosey at all the other quilts. Hope you do too.

Deja Vu

As I had no contact from the original winner, I re-did the draw and am delighted to announce the winner of the Mega Pinnie,

is

The lovely Sarah from SewMe. Drop me an email Sarah and I shall get the Pinnie off to you asap.

Thank you again to all who entered.

Re-count!!

So, for my 500th post I am highlighting my techie numptiness!

When I announced my recent giveaway I failed to remind folks that they might be "no-reply bloggers". This results in it being terribly difficult to make contact.

The winner of said giveaway was Ruth Griffeth who I have tried to contact via Google + where I have found a brief profile, she lives somewhere in California.

So, Ruth, I hope you read this - if so please contact me asap.

I shall wait until next Monday, same time, same place and then draw a new winner.

And for any of you who may be wondering click HERE to find out if you are a NO reply blogger, and how to remedy it.

And the winners are............

Haven't drawn them just yet, but thought I'd do a quick update on my weekend sewing first. I found myself on Friday and Saturday with lots of opportunities to sew but was suddenly overwhelmed by weariness to the extent that I took to the sofa with my Kindle. Sometimes you have to give in to it don't you?
So on Sunday morning I managed a quick hour to make a start on quilting a baby quilt that I am planning as an early 2015 workshop. It features one of my latest Accuquilt dies

Quite cute, I decided to keep things quite simple and concentrate on just one animal, the giraffe. I showed the full top in my last post and today I finished off the quilting, so just the binding to do.

I enjoyed a bit of fmq meandering around the giraffe appliques and then in the plain white blocks I had a go at doing them in reverse.

And then I decided to make a start on this month's Bee Blessed block, a scrappy, stripey triangle. I decided to try and make them from my already cut strips and managed to do so. They were very quick to make.

If any of you would like to join in and make some of these blocks ( anyone in my classes fancy having a go??) then Judith has a tutorial HERE.

And so to my giveaway - thank you again for all the lovely comments. I am hoping for the first time to actually embed the random thingy in this post - have never managed before, possibly because I have Windows 8 but have been researching earlier this evening so here goes -

First up -

So Ruth has chosen prize number 1, the Mega Pinnie.

Next up, 

and Linda has chosen prize number 3, the Mystery bundle.

and finally,

So Pauline, the cushion cover will be yours, not your first choice but as you say, you can make your own Mega Pinnie. And by the way, AMH is Anna Maria Horner.

Well done ladies, I will be emailing you shortly.

September was a busy month...........

If you are looking for my Giveaway - it's HERE. ( Many thanks for all the lovely comments, much appreciated)

So - September. When I was checking my September photos, I realised my month fell in to different categories:-

I like to get Bee blocks done early in the month so first up were my blocks for Janet, in Bee a Brit Stingy...

and then a couple for Bee Blessed..........

My classes really got underway although we did have a week off due to the Referendum!! So I progressed with my blocks for our Modern Sampler.

Then of course there was the wonderful Stitch Gathering.........

I finished off a cushion and managed a small key fob gift..........

 

I made very little progress with my WIPs, a double quilt, an advent calendar and a Christmas table topper...

But, I did manage to get a baby quilt top pieced, a future workshop...............

As the month drew almost to a close, I held a Mile a Minute workshop - a great stash buster although strangely it does seem to create more scraps............a messy business.

but so many lovely blocks made...........

and I made some really, wee ones, for a future Princess & the Pea quilt,

And my September finally closed with a delightful moment as Ava was deemed old enough to get her paws on Grandma's button jar, oh how I had looked forward to this moment.........

And that was September, I am linking as always, to Lynne's Fresh Sewing Day.

A Giveaway...............Who Knew?

That I would still be blogging after 5 years!! Yes, I have just passed my 5th Blog Birthday and have not quite hit 500 posts. I did intend to have both those factors coincide but hey, life goes on and in the big scheme of things, it's not very important is it?

Coming up to this milestone has made me think a lot about my blog, whether or not I should close the door on it or keep going. Blogging has shifted in recent months, maybe even in the last year. Has it changed for you too??

I started Bluepatchquilter as a link from one session of classes to another, to keep my ladies in touch over the big summer break. Little did I know that I would be discovering a whole new world online.........somewhere to discover the new enthusiasm for patchwork & quilting. Somewhere to learn new techniques, drool over new fabrics, new designers............where I made new online friends, all over the world, friends with a common purpose and interest..where sometimes virtual life morphed into real life.

I amazed myself that I managed to create my blog, all on my own. I learned as time went on that if ever "stuck" with techie issue, there is always someone to help.

I have dabbled in online swaps and become part of a fun Bee, I have taken part in charity drives and been humbled by the way quilters everywhere lend a hand to help bring warmth and comfort where needed.

I used to put myself under quite a bit of pressure to post regularly, it always seemed terribly important to get a lot of followers, I followed lots of other blogs and reading took up a great deal of time............and then there was Flickr & Pinterest too to keep up with.

Then along came Instagram and I think IG also stands for instant gratification, because response to mini IG posts is so quick - I tend to use it when I am at home, alone, quilting - it feels sometimes as if you have friends doing just the same, wherever they may be.

In conclusion, I don't think I need to dramatically stop posting - I shall just continue in my new, relaxed manner and post when I feel like it. I have been watching my stats over the past few months and I seem to have a lot of visitors per post but fewer comments. And that's fine because I think that parallels the way I am reading too, I don't always comment.

Anyway, in the time honoured tradition of anniveraries etc, I shall announce a bit of a giveaway. I have a few items to offer so perhaps the easiest question is for you to say in order, in a comment, which item you would like to win. 1,2 or 3. No other hoops to jump through - open to anyone, I shall try to remember to pick a winner by next Monday which will be 6th October, by 9pm GMT or BST or whatever our time thingy is here in the UK.

Offer 1 has to be one of my Mega Pinnies

Number 2 is a cushion cover made for a workshop - the colour is a coral pink (Kate Spain fabric if that helps pin it down) The cushion cover is quilted both back & front so quite luxurious. I will send it minus the cushion pad, for obvious reasons. I think it's about 18" square.

and finally, number 3 is a bit of a mystery prize as I forgot to take pics and now it's too dark - I have a couple of pieces of voile, possibly AMH, not sure, and a wee zippy pouch, it's a flat one, no gusset (horrible word!) I might even throw in a spool of Aurifil because blogging introduced me to that too.

Good luck everyone.