Granny Blanket QAYG Quilt

Here is my newest project for Love Patchwork and Quilting magazine!

Some of you may be surprised at the simple, sparse look of this quilt, as usually my quilts are a little 'fancier'. But read on and you will find out why I wanted to make it so much.

Issue 23 is now available and has the usual mix of amazing quilts and projects plus a really useful set of Dresden Plate templates and booklet that I know I will be using soon!

The cover quilt by Michelle Wilkie is just stunning, and new quilts by Lynne and Karen are also providing fabulous eye-candy for me.

I just love how they styled my quilt! I really want those green drawers!

I had the idea for this quilt a long time ago. A few years back I designed a Christmas stocking with quilt-as-you-go Log Cabin blocks that you sew together. As anyone who has tried QAYG before will know it is the sewing together of the backing that causes the issues. For the stocking it wasn't a problem as the whole thing is lined.

But it got me thinking - what if you started off with a huge piece of wadding and backing and then just kept going with your Log Cabin, going round and round until you filled up the whole piece? That would mean no sewing together at the end, just trim and bind!

It took me until recently to have the courage to try this out (potentially expensive waste of fabric and wadding) but it actually worked! And I was able to get the quilt much larger than I though at 59 inches square!

Of course as soon as I put a quilt on our bed to photograph it someone jumps on top! Hello Hector!

I actually practiced first on this cushion (which I made for the magazine project too but they ran out of space for).

Both the cushion and the quilt are backed with a lovely Kaufman flannel for extra cosiness.

The other inspiration for this quilt is my love for vintage crocheted Granny Afghans.

I had an elderly relative who made these for our very extended family and it is hard to find a family snapshot which doesn't feature one of these somewhere in the background!

I started making my own a few years back, here's a photo of my 'Budget Granny'. It's got a few more rounds on it now and is one of my many crochet UFO's (I usually always finish quilts before I start a new one but am never as disciplined with crochet!).

I also now know how to fix that wonkiness!
Added later after a few enquiries - the trick is to start each round in a different corner! So obvious when you think about it!

Anyway you can hopefully now see the similarity and the look I was trying to achieve with the quilts,

It was also nice to get a chance to marry my two crafty passions!

This quilt is now on it's way to Siblings Together for this year's summer camps. It is the 107th quilt donated! Well done to Mary and everyone else for organising and contributing to this year's quit drive. You can view all the quilts on the group page on Flickr. I have a large amount of Economy Blocks (from our EMQG Bee) that will go towards a future quilt for ST but I won't get it finished in time for this year.

And might I suggest that this QAYG quilt would make an excellent Sibling's Together project for anyone wanting to contribute in future years?
You can actually get this finished in a day! Plus it is a great scrap buster, especially for left over Jelly Roll strips!

Patchwork Christmas Stocking

It's time to start planning my Christmas Classes at my Bearpaw Craft Studio. Well actually, that time was a few weeks back, as this class went up on the website today!
I made this, very generous, Christmas Stocking on Monday out of the gorgeous new Robert Kaufman Christmas fabric that came in last week.

I thought I would try quilt-as-you-go with log cabin and it worked like a dream!
I love it when projects come together much more easily than you think they will.

I made 3 log cabin blocks, strip piecing on to wadding.

Then these were sewn together and the wadding trimmed to fit. You need to think ahead as to where you put your first strip as it's easier to piece the blocks if you can sew them together using the 2 longest, last strips on the log cabin block (does that make sense?). I didn't always get this right but as this is a trial piece, I should be able to help my students get it right in the class.

The smallest, 'toe' block is a bit of a weird shape as I didn't want to waste any of the lovely fabric!

I then trimmed it round my stocking pattern. The other important thing is to make the second piece as a reverse of this one. It was at this stage of the proceedings that I realised I hadn't done this! Luckily it was easy to unpick the toe block and put it on the other side of the leg.

I then trimmed the wadding away from the edge a quarter of an inch so that the seams didn't get too bulky. I made a lining from a dark green solid and finished the raw edges with red bias binding and made a hanging loop.

This was the fabric just after delivery last week. I love to see the bolts piled up like this! There are 4 designs each from Brrr! by Laurie Wisbrun, O' Tinsel Tree by Pink Light Design and Jingle by Anne Kelle.

I've made up this Christmas bundle of a Fat Eighth of all 12 designs which is easily enough to make the stocking above. It's available now on the website or in our Edinburgh store for only £16.99! If anyone is interested in coming on the class you can book here.

Your advice taken and quilt top vastly improved!

You lot are so amazing! You always offer generous and spot-on advice whenever I ask. Thank you!

I asked you about this quilt top a few months back in this post. I was using it to develop a workshop on the Quilt As You Go technique, but something wasn't working and I was in a quandary. You pretty much unanimously agreed that the grey sashing wasn't working, and also gave me lots of pointers about the workshop idea.

I unpicked all the Moda Bella Grey and replaced with a thinner sashing of Kona Charcoal. A border of Kona Artichoke and a binding of Kona Pomegranite finished it off nicely and I am very pleased with the result.

I have decided to just get on with teaching the technique at the workshop and not worry about finishing a specific project. I can suggest lots of ideas for using up practice blocks made on the day, or students can carry on at home and make a whole quilt.

I love the woven-like effect you get with these scrappy strings, and I'm still loving the colour palette of green, pink, aubergine, orange. This little quilt is coming to work with me tomorrow to hang in my classroom!

So thanks, pals, you have saved this little quilt from being lost forever at the bottom of a pile of UFO's!

I'm really stuck...

I started this project a few weeks back with the idea that I would get a full day workshop out of it for later this year (for my Bearpaw Craft Classes venture at the shop). I have made these string blocks using the QAYG (quilt-as-you-go) method which I first tried out making blocks for the Quilts for Christchurch appeal back here. I love the fact that the quilting is all done with piecing (and very neatly for me!), and that all you have to do to finish is hand sew the big blocks together on the back.

As I was sewing this together I was really falling in love with the colour palette I'd chosen. It's quite an unusual one for me but I had just got all this lovely new fabric from Dolores, Leila, My Fabric House and as extras with my DQS11 from ladmquilter, and I felt really inspired and excited to put them all together.

The original idea was to make a 4 block mini quilt as a finished project. But as I worked on this I realised I would not fit this into a day workshop and also each student would need quite a bit of space to lay out the 4 blocks as they worked. So when I had got this far I thought I would leave it and make it into a full sized quilt and offer it as an evening class block of 5 next year.

But as time has gone on I am sure about it less and less. First of all I am not sure about the grey sashing (it is Moda Bella Grey), maybe white would be better? Also I think the sashing is too wide and maybe a half inch width would look better (and would be much easier for students to achieve).

And now I am wondering about the whole evening class idea again - I think it would be too boring to be sewing these blocks week after week and, as my students all seem to be quilting beginners, they would be not learning any of the more traditional quilt making instructions. Maybe I could base a full day workshop on teaching the actual QAYG technique, where everybody tried out the method but we weren't under any pressure to actually finish anything?

Aaarrghh! I am not getting anywhere here but maybe you lot could help? You are all so wise and creative and I would really appreciate your honest opinion. I don't like to leave stuff unfinished. Even if I don't turn this into a class would this make a nice quilt with 16 blocks and white sashing?
Any help would be gratefully received (and let's just hope you actually get to read this post - fingers crossed Blogger!).