Quilty Fun, Tulip Mini Quilt

I've had such a blast working on this tulip mini quilt for my sewing room! I can't tell you how much I love this, and really - the pictures don't do it justice at all, it's so much brighter and happy looking in real life. The tulip pattern is from Lori's book Quilty Fun, which I've used again and again since receiving a copy last year. I love the row-a-long quilt from the book but I know I haven't got a place to hang the whole quilt, so I figured there was just enough space above my design wall in my sewing room for a tulip mini quilt ;-)

Ah it makes me happy just looking at it! If you have the book, you should really make these blocks, they're so fun. I went for a scrappy look to use up a bunch of new fabrics we've got in recently for Sew and Quilt. I'm so pleased with the binding, it's a new Darlene Zimmerman print which I think set's it off nicely, and of course I had to go for some Lori Holt fabric for the backing - it would have been rude not to!

Tikki Patchwork, London

I had a quick trip to London last weekend to visit family and friends. I stayed with my sister in Richmond so I planned a trip to visit Tikki Patchwork shop, a beautiful quilting shop based in Kew so it was a must-stop! Wow, I was completely blown away! Almost floor to ceiling with fabrics, carefully arranged in a rainbow colour co-ordinated fashion; a real treat for the eyes! I don't get the opportunity to visit many 'real-life' quilt shops so I'm always a bit giddy when I get to see and touch fabrics in a proper setting! OK, I know I have my own shop, but it's a little different from the spare room setup ;-) Yes that's a picture of me below! Not really sure why I decided to do a hand on hip pose, I never do that!? :-/

We had a very warm and friendly welcoming from the glamorous Tiina, (whose image above I have shamelessly stolen!) the owner of the shop. We'd met previously at Fat Quarterly Retreat in London last year, so it was nice to see her again. We visited on the Saturday as Tiina mentioned Hen from HenHouseHomemade blog was teaching a class that day, so after perusing the lovely wares on offer we went downstairs to the class area and said a quick hello to Hen! I've long been an admirer and fan of Hen's blog for years now so it was great to chat and meet in person :-) 

Like myself, Tiina is a big fan of the reproduction prints and has a lovely selection available in store.  I couldn't help but notice the amazing quilts dotted around the shop too, lovingly made by Tiina, unfortunately I didn't get photo's of anything really because I was too busy chatting and drooling over the fabric on offer! After a lot of deliberating I came out with this little selection, which I think is very restrained, don't you agree?! All very vintage, and pretty, just my cup of tea. I particularly love the two civil war repro's at the bottom, I'd love to do a quilt with a civil war palette some day as well, so I'd better collect a few more! A great excuse for more fabric hoarding of course. I also got a new-to-me book on Cross-Stitch quilts or postage stamp quilts - or if you're a 'modern' quilter, the pixelated quilts! Whatever they are, I love the look of them and  I've always wanted to try out a design some day, so hopefully now I will. So if you're in London for a visit, be sure to stop by! 

Homespun Magazine, June 2014

Hello, hello blog friends! I just wanted to pop in today and show you this fantastic feature I have in this months Homespun magazine!! I'm so crazy excited about this I can't even tell you! Ok, maybe I can ...

If you're not aware of Homespun magazine, it's a beautiful sewing and quilting magazine from Australia. It really is so, so well put together; featuring projects you really do want to make! Though I know I might be a little biased saying that ;-) I was contacted by the lovely editor last year after she spy'ed my other embroidered shelf edging project I had been working on. 

After a little discussion I went ahead and sketched up some motifs and tested out some embroidery designs. Do you remember these on the blog last year? Soon after I had two shelf edgings made, complete with cute scallop edging. 

So there you have it; from initial designs to the final piece :-) I'm really pleased with the article (all 5 1/2 pages of it!!) and how it's all come together. Because I worked on it such a long time ago, I'd actually forgotten how it looked so I was really intrigued as to how they would photograph the finished project, but they did a perfect job so it was such a treat receiving a copy in the post! Wouldn't it be so cute in a vintage cabinet, with some lovely china? Hopefully this might spur me on to complete my cherry themed shelf edging, which has been patiently waiting for me to finish. We shall see.

They also did a little interview with me which was fun. If you're in the UK. and fancy picking up a copy, you can find it here; (although, this latest issue is not available yet) I actually purchased a previous issue from there before and it was easy and arrived very quickly. I'm not sure where you can buy it in the U.S.? but I know you can also get a digital version of the magazine too, if that helps anyone? 

Cherry Blossom Quilt Finish & WIP's

Hi friends! I've not been on the blog much last week but I have been sewing so I thought I'd catch you up on the latest! ;-) I decided another mini quilt was on the cards, (pictured below) the Mini Blossom by Fig Tree & Co was calling me after I'd seen Sherri's version from A Quilting Life. A classic red and white, using Kona solids Tomato and White and April Showers Red Gingham for binding, which frames it quite nicely I think. 

Having worked with solids for the mini quilt for a few days, and finishing a blue themed quilt top I had a major urge to sew something cute and fun with patterned fabrics, so I pulled out Lori's book 'Quilty Fun' of course! The tulip blocks were just the ticket, and the perfect excuse to use up some of the amazing new fabric collections we've got in recently at Sew and Quilt (I'll have to give you all an update of what we've been getting in recently!). I'm planning on a row of them and will piece them together for a wall hanging, as I have juuuust enough wall space left above my design wall in the sewing room!

It seems I like to start other 'quick' projects in between finishing quilt tops because I just love to procrastinate and put off the quilting process... for most it's the basting that is the dreaded task. For me, it's quilting. I always struggle with it, I'd love to send them all off to a professional long-arm quilter but unfortunately it's not a cheap option! :-s Wish me luck!? xo

P.S. We have a little quilt-a-long going at the moment with the nautical quilt I'm making, Kerri and Tasha have joined me in making this fun quilt as well! You can follow all our progress on IG with #naturallynauticalquiltalong hashtag. Hope you can join in! 

Storybook Toys by Jill Hamor, Little Cub

Hello! Let me get straight to the point with this blog post; Storybook Toys by Jill Hamor is absolutely amazing! Possibly my favourite inspirational sewing related book I've had the pleasure to read. I honestly don't think I've paged through a book so much and read, and re-read the same pages. I'm not a doll maker by any means, I'm pretty much an exclusive quilter - but this book has inspired me so much!

I got this book for Christmas, and been itching to make something from it but not really had the opportunity to make anything? I'm a little grown up for toys now ;-) and I don't have children. So when I knew I was going to my friends baby's Christening, I had just the excuse to start something. My first project from the book is the 'Little Cub' baby doll. I'm saying, first project as I know I will definitely be making more ;-) This little sleep toy is perfect for a little baby to snuggle with, the furry fleece fabric is incredibly soft and cosy. I used synthetic stuffing and apparently the doll can be machine washed, but I would worry about this going in the washing machine personally? hmmm...

The book comes with full-scale pattern pages at the back of the book as well as a pull-out section of patterns, which I really, really appreciate. There's nothing worse than finding out you have to enlarge pattern scaling on sewing books, such a nightmare. Considering this is the first doll I've ever made it actually went together pretty smoothly. The only hiccup I had was making the hood, I could have done with an extra diagram perhaps, as I find it easier to follow instructions with pictures rather than lots of text. 

The pattern called for the embroidering of the face to be done once the doll is finished and stuffed, but I did it before I sewed anything together to make it simpler. (The more difficult dolls in the book have ears, so you embroider the features and enter at the back of the head, which is then covered up by the ears, plus they have a seams running through the front of the face - this doll didn't have ears or any seam lines on the front, so hence I did the embroidery first). 

It was SO much fun to make, and one of my most satisfying finishes. It's definitely in my top five proudest projects! I loved embroidering the face, bringing out the character and stuffing the body, watching it come to life! You can tell I love it from the amount of pictures I've taken of it! 

The body is made with Kona Solid, Sand, which is a perfect pale skin colour. The author recommends Kona colour's Sand, Wheat and Earth for doll bodies, all of which we stock at Sew and Quilt! I was very lucky to pick up the fleece fabric from my local fabric shop. 

I've said it once, and I'll say it again, it's a brilliant book if you fancy trying your hand at doll-making or soft toys. I really love the classic character toys featured in the book, everything from Marionette puppets (which totally remind me of the fabulous puppets in The Sound Of Music!), Humpty Dumpty, Roly-Poly Duck and Little Red Riding Hood puppets. Lots of the inspiration for the book was from vintage patterns of the 1940's and I love the nostalgic feel, so think this book is pretty perfect if you ask me :-) There's also tons of information at the front of the book on the doll-making process with in depth hair how-to's, tips on embroidering the face and what stuffing to use etc.

I'm so sad to see this Little Cub go ... wahh! I hope baby Elsie like's her as much as I do!! xo

PS. Thank you Jill Hamor for inspiring me so much to give this a go, and congratulations on such a fantastic book. 

Please find the link to the book on my Amazon widget - to the right of this page.