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!

Granny Squares Quilt

It always takes me a while to get round to these popular quilts that are quilt-a-longs etc. 

I've loved the Granny Square quilts from afar for a while now (especially the one Lynz made which was part of our Scottish Modern Quilt Exhibition last year) but never got round to making a whole quilt - until now!

Have you met Hector? He's our six month old Tonkinese kitten, and he is a big bag of trouble!! So of course the minute I finished binding this quilt and put it down he was all over it!

So I guess it gets Hector's seal of approval...
It was my friend and colleague Barbara's special birthday this week so I made her this quilt!

I did have some help. I was first up with our Edinburgh Modern Quilt Guild's Bee a couple of months back. We are a big group of 18 quilters so we have divided the Bee into two groups, the Jelly Rolls and the Layer Cakes, except no one can ever remember which group they are in!!

I'm in the Layer Cakes and 8 of the blocks here were made by the rest of the group, I contributed the other 12. Speaking of the EMQG, do you like our new logo? It's over there on the left near the top... My husband designed it for us and I think it's wonderful! And luckily so do the rest of the group :)

I've now got myself an extension table on my Pfaff so I can tackle big FMQ patterns like this. I got the inspiration for this pattern from one of the quilts at FOQ ( sorry no idea who made it, I just go around collecting ideas like a magpie!). But I love how it turned out and will use it again for sure!

It's backed with an Amy Butler fabric (or is it AMH?? God I am getting very menopausal at the moment and my brain has turned to mush!).

It's not a huge quilt (of course I didn't even measure it so have no idea really!), but a good lap quilt/throw size.

Anyway Barbara loves it and there were tears when I gave it to her (which I now expect, so remember that friends and family). It was especially nice because, as she's been working in the shop for the last few years and coming along to lots of classes too, she knows most of the quilters who made blocks for the quilt.

And that's another quilt ticked off the bucket list for me!!

Edinburgh Modern Quilt Guild

I've been meaning to post about this for ages. The Edinburgh Modern Quilt Guild is now well and truly established!
That's us above at meeting number 3, the first in my new studio, during our tea break (with cake of course!). We've had number 4 since then and have quite a few projects on the go already.

There are 18 of us. The picture above was taken with Tatyana's very clever phone that does panoramic shots. However my legs aren't 6 feet long and Tatyana only has one face! But you get the idea.
This was our second meeting in the pub (while I was between shops).
We are sticking at 18 for the moment as that is all I can fit around my table and we don't want to look for new premises. Also we've all bonded so well that we are going to be a little cruel and not let anyone else join!
 However if anyone wants to start their own MQG and would like any advice please email me.

We have 2 separate bees already started. The group I am in are the Layer Cakes and the other group are the Jelly Rolls. Anne and I started things off at meeting 3, I asked my group to make Granny Square blocks and Anne asked her's to make House blocks. She was super organised and wrote her own pattern!
These are all the blocks she got back last month

And these are the Granny Square blocks I got back, still to be trimmed, aren't they lovely?!

We are also working on a group quilt made from some donated blocks that made their way to me through a very circuitous route! We will give this to charity once finished.
And we have our own blog!
You can take a look here. If it is your month in the Bee than you can post about your chosen block, yourself and your favourite quilt. This seems to be a great way to get to know everyone (and learn each other's names!).
I am really enjoying being in this group and am pretty sure all the other members are too.
Yay for Modern Quilt Guilds!

One more thing, have you heard about the Handmade Fair at Hampton Court Palace? This is a new event involving Kirstie Allsop and Molly Makes. They have a huge roster of guests, including Kaffe Fassett, Brandon Mably, Cath Kidston and Stuart Hillard. As well as Kirstie herself of course! Tickets went on sale earlier this month and you can buy your's and learn more about the event here.