A Month in the Country BOM Quilt - Ta dah!

I'm so delighted to be able to share my finished A Month in the Country quilt from my year long Block of the Month in Today's Quilter!

It's in the new issue, number 28, which came out yesterday. Unfortunately my copy hasn't arrived yet but I can share some of the lovely images from the mag.

Stitch Gathering attendees got a special exclusive viewing at the event on Sunday. Here it is hanging behind our pop-up shop.

This is a very personal quilt for me as it charts our life here at Shangri la Farm through the four seasons. There is also a lot of hand applique in the blocks so I wanted to give it a proper heirloom treatment when it came to quilting.

I didn't think my poor old hands were up to hand quilting the whole thing so I began by FMQing a selection of leaves over all the sashing strips (Kona Snow).

I then hand quilted all the blocks as much as I could with Aurifil 12wt threads in subtle shades, mainly by outlining the motifs.

I love all the birds depicted, I feel inspired to do a bird applique for a workshop next year, what do you think?

I used a Heather Ross Mendocino print (with fishes) for the backing, which seemed appropriate with all the wildlife on the front!

Action shot below of me finishing the binding.

I didn't manage to get any decent outside photos (but luckily the magazine did that gorgeous styled garden shot above!) before I had to send this off, but I did take this one on our bed.

Jonathan says this is his favourite of all the quilts I have ever made - praise indeed! It's definitely a bit special to me too.

And I'm hoping to turn this into a series of course at myBearpaw Studio next year, so watch this space!

Did you sew along with this BOM? Do you have a finished quilt to share? Please send me an image if you do, I would love to feature it here!

Meanwhile I have news! I will be following this Today's Quilter BOM with a new Block of the Month that starts next month!!!

And this time I will be running a Quiltalong too! Look out for more details next week!

Shangri La Farm Sherbert Quilt finished!

Last week I showed the top for this quilt when announcing my new Aurifil thread collection, Sherbert Dip. I am pleased to show you the finished piece!

I made this to accompany the thread box and to hang on the stand at Festival of Quilts. Here's a little reminder of the colours from the box...

I think I got them all in! I mainly used Kona Solids with some matching prints for the quilt.

The original idea came for this piece after I returned from QuiltCon Savannah earlier this year. I had been to a lecture there on minimal quilt design by Season Evans and I fancied having a go at some minimal quilting myself.

We have a long line of poplar trees that border one side of our land towards the west. We often get spectacular sunsets behind the trees and this happened on my return from QuiltCon. Initially I was envisaging a much more minimalistic interpretation with just vertical lines for trees and horizontal lines for the landscape.

But it turns out I can't really do minimalism - at least not yet! Maybe I will have another go one day...

When I found out that my Aurifil thread box would be launching at FOQ I decided that I would make a quilt to hang on the stand and that this landscape idea could work perfectly with the colours I had chosen for the box. 

Here is my initial sketch. I tend to work everything out in my head but still like to put pen to paper just before I start something.

It turned out to be one of those projects that works perfectly first time. It took me an afternoon and evening to finish the whole top! The whole thing is improv pieced with wonky curves. The only time I used a ruler was for the tree 'trunks'.

I don't have one of my Aurifil boxes yet as they are only just ready in Italy now, but I have most of the colours here as I use quite a few regularly and others I ordered while picking shades for the box, to 'audition' in the flesh.

As it is not a large piece  (44 x 31 inches) and as I wanted to include as many of my collection shades as possible I really went to town on the quilting. I used a mixture of FMQ, matchstick quilting (some straight line with a walking foot and some with my FMQ foot) and hand quilting. There were a lot of ends to thread in!

How amazing does the back look?!! As it is was always going to be a wall hanging I just backed it with an old duvet cover without much thought, but it's plainness  works well to show off the 'landscape of stitches'. Those blobby shapes are butterflies which is also kind of appropriate.

As soon as I finished the top I turned some of the scraps into these two improv panels, destined for some more of my 'Project Pouches' (large zippy pouches, perfect for storing your latest portable project!). But then I took delivery of a new laptop and so I decided to make them larger and make a laptop case with them.

I matchstick quilted them and then spent Saturday evening (I know it was a Saturday as this photo has a #saturdaynightcraftalong hashtag on Instgram!) handquilting some extra lines.

My plan was to just make a longer version of my project pouch and so I measured the laptop, adding plenty of extra for seam allowances and so it wasn't too snug, but I totally forgot about the zip opening being smaller than the sides! Duh!! So of course when finished the laptop wouldn't go through the zip aperture. Sigh...

So I cut the bottom off it and made a zippy pouch after all!
Here is one side...

....and here is the other. It has left me with two more smaller panels that I can make into a narrower pouch as well, so two for the price of one! I will need to think again about the lap top case.

Meanwhile as I was in a zippy pouch mood I thought I better finish off the class sample for my Stitch Gathering applique class by turning it into yet another pouch! I used more scraps from the quilt for the other side of this one too!

AND I still had enough scraps to make two more panels for yet another pouch. This one will have added applique 'tendrils'. This is a technique I have perfected for machine appliqueing stems and leaves over patchwork (with no raw edges).

I will be teaching a demo for this on the Aurifil stand (C1) at FOQ on Friday at 2pm, so if you are around then come along and watch me! If you can't make it then it will also be recorded as a Facebook Live demo on Aurifil's FB page. I will post more about this on my return next week and provide a link (and show you the finished pouches!).

Also look out for a quilt using this method coming up in next month's Today's Quilter magazine!

Meanwhile Shangri La Farm Sherbert Quilt is going along to the Edinburgh MQG meeting tonight as my Show and Tell. After FOQ I hope it will end up in Alex Veronelli's  Aurifil Designer Quilt Collection which tours around quilt shops with him.

In between you can check it out in person at Festival of Quilts if you are lucky enough to be going this week.

And just to confirm that my Sherbert Dip thread boxes will be availabel to buy from the Aurifil stand at FOQ. By the end of August I should have them in my Edinburgh shop and online store for everyone to buy!

Linking up with Scraptastic Tuesday!

My very own Aurifil Thread Box!!

I have had a few very exciting things to share recently - TV appearances and Bookazines - but I have kept the best and most exciting announcement till last!

I now have my very own Aurifil thread collection box!!!

This is such a dream come true for me, I love Aurifil and I love colour so choosing 12 shades as a collection was such a joy! When I had to name the collection all I could think of was sweeties, especially refreshers, so I came up with Sherbert Dip.

I have included my favourite shades for piecing and quilting, all in 50wt, alongside some lovely variegated threads as I use these so much for FMQ. I also hoped to highlight my 'signature' colour palette here, and though I do like to use pretty much ALL the colours I think this is a good representation.

I am currently working on a quilt (a wall hanging really) to accompany the collection and here is the top (it is slowly getting quilted this week). I am calling it Shangri La Sherbert as it was inspired by the sunsets we get behind our line of poplar trees (this is a very impressionistic interpretation!) but using the collection's colours.

I am planning on taking it to FOQ for the Aurifil booth. I will also be on the Aurifil stand (C1) on Friday afternoon, and at 2pm you can catch me doing a demo. More details on this next week!

I will be selling the collection box in our store and online but I won't have stock till later in the month as all the Italians are on holiday in August!

Feathers Quilt for Siblings Together

I finally had some time to finish a quilt this weekend! This is a version of my Feathers Quilt that I've made during the last three years that I've been teaching this workshop.

The pattern was in Love Patchwork and Quilting issue 9 (and it made the cover!), and has been one of my most popular quilts. Every time I've taught it I've made a couple of blocks and now I have enough to make another quilt.

I know I will have people asking me if they can still get this pattern and all I can say at this stage is, yes, if you hang on till July (all will be revealed in a couple of months).



I've decided to donate the quilt to Siblings Together (more on this below) which meant it took the pressure off me as far as quilting was concerned and I could have a little fun with it.

So I've been trying a little 'doodle quilting'. Basically it's a kind of greatest hits of my previous FMQ patterns! I've just ranged from motif to motif, doing anything I please, with loops and spirals to travel between.

It's a great way to loosen up and try some new variations and it also means you get less bored!

It was a bit of a warm up for me as well as this is the first full sized quilt I've made this year. I'm about to make quite a few more over the next couple of months so this was really helpful.

This took me about four hours to quilt in three sessions, using my trusty Pfaff QE 4.0 domestic machine and of course some gorgeous variegated pink Aurifil 50wt thread.

The thread shade is number 4660 and it is quite dark in places against the light background (a Carolyn Friedlander print from 'Doe').

In fact I was worried it was way too dark and standing out too much while I was quilting it, but my husband gave me the thumbs up so I pushed on through and now I like it. I also think it will be fun to follow the meandering lines and pick out all the different motifs for whichever young person ends up with it. I'm hoping it will be stimulating but meditational at the same time!

It's backed with an old duvet cover, and I've used a neutral thread in my bobbin rather than the same as my top thread.

We are having the most incredible weather in Scotland at the moment, with day after day of clear blue skies. So I just had to drag the new quilt around Shangri la Farm for a bit of a photo shoot.

We also have a lovely new garden bench, situated behind the Gothic Arbour which faces on to the pond.

As I mentioned this quilt is going to the Siblings Together charity and is the first of three or four quilts I am planning to finish before this summer's camps.

If you don't know about this charity and the wonderful work they do to bring children in care together with their siblings for summer camps every year, then please read about it here.

They need around 100 quilts a year and so are always looking for donations.

Can you help? A charity quilt is a great way to practice your FMQ, or try out some new designs. Letting yourself loose on a whole quilt worth of practice can really push on your FMQ skills. I think people are often put off doing FMQ as they don't want to ruin a beautiful top they have just finished. But if you can put something together out of scraps or orphan blocks then you can take the pressure off yourself and just go for it. Your quilting will really benefit!

And you have the pleasure of knowing that you are making a huge difference to a disadvantaged child's life by making something homemade and precious just for them.

For those of you local to me - are am hoping to organise free transport for a huge box of quilts sometime in the summer (once I've confirmed deadlines with ST), and will be happy to include any quilts provided. Maybe you'd like to donate one but are put off by the cost of postage? If so get in touch and we will try to coordinate a Scottish Siblings Together Quilt Drive.

OR do you make regular car journeys from Scotland (or North of England) to London? Or know someone reliable who does? Maybe you could help too!

A Month in the Country BOM

As we are just over half way through I thought it would be nice to have a catch-up with my Block of the Month for Today's Quilter magazine. 

Every month I design two blocks inspired by my surroundings at Shangri la Farm, the seven acre smallholding where I live. The blocks are accompanied by a diary-style article and illustrated by my husband's wildlife photos. I wrote initially about the BOM here with a bit more here.

We are up to month seven in the magazine but I am currently making month eleven at home. Initially I had hoped to do a monthly post on the blog but alas, I could never quite get my act together! But here are all 14 blocks so far on my design wall. They will not necessarily end up in this order and there'll be some sashing involved but you can get a fair idea now of the finished quilt I think.

Let's zoom in on some of those blocks, working backwards from the current issue which features my favourite bird...

...the blackbird! Above is Mr Blackbird encircled by Rowan leaves, and below is Mrs Blackbird with accompanying birch leaves.

These are both needle-turn applique so will be slowing down participants a little this month! It's been wonderful to see versions of the blocks cropping up on social media, the BOM seems to be going down really well with lots of the readers - phew!

Last month the blocks featured our Shangri la Farm wildlife with my take on the Bearpaw block (appropriate!) but using native British animals. This one is 'fox and stoat paw'.

And below is 'badger and hare paw'. I just love the way the magazine has been styling the blocks! Unfortunately I don't always manage to get hold of the published photo of both blocks, hence the use here of my slightly rubbish snaps like the one above. However now my own photo styling has improved so much I don't really have an excuse for rubbish photos!

Back in February I focused on spring flowers with the blocks that I think are my favourites (so far!).

This tulip block worked like a dream, even though I was tight up to a deadline. Some days everything just works out! And some days nothing does, but the best thing is that you usually remember the former and forget the latter.

And during the design process for this block I had one of my (even if I say so myself) genius ideas! I realised that if I turned the tulips upside down they would become snowdrops!

Would you like to see a few sneak peeks from the months to come?!

Next month we have mini birdhouses!

The following month we are doing tiny FPP to make wildflowers...

...and then we are making patchwork feathers! And there are still three more month's, with blocks planned but not yet made, to keep you guessing a little longer.

I can't tell you how much I have enjoyed this project, it really has my creative juices flowing every month. Also I love sharing this part of my life with so many quilters all over the world. It makes me feel closer to all of you 😊