Sneak Peeks and Hand Sewing

I've entered a bit of a frantic period with lots of magazine commissions due all at once, lots of teaching in the studio, and the Stitch Gathering coming up on Sunday - eeek!

Normally I wait until I have lovely finished project to chat about over here, but alas I have nothing finished I can show you at the moment. So instead I thought I would share all the sneak peeks of the secret sewing I have been posting on Instagram, plus some new adventures in hand sewing...

I can't wait to share more about this new project I am working on using Tilda's Harvest fabric (I can in about 5 weeks time!). I haven't worked with Tilda fabric much before and I absolutely love it!

The fabric feels gorgeous and looks so good that I hardly need to do anything to it to make something beautiful. I'm really enjoying using these pretty pastels and more muted shades (for me!).



This was my fabric pull for a new hand sewing project. The palette was inspired by my new Anna Maria Horner collection of Aurifil 12wt threads that I obtained at Festival of Quilts (I won't say bought as it was a freebie 😀)

Here's a sneaky peek at the hand quilting on this project. I loved using the 12wt, it glides through the layers so effortlessly and is easier on my hands than the number 8 I've used previously. I've ordered some for the shop (including the AMH box) and they should be in any day now.

My latest quilt finish uses Denyse Schmidt's new Washington Depot fabric. It's such a fabulous collection, classic DS style and colour, and also available at our online store here! 

I'm totally in love with this new quilt and can't wait to show it off (at the end of the year)!

In the meantime I had a little fun with my scraps. I had a rare weekend day off week last Saturday, and made these two improv panels.

Of course you can probably work out by now where this is going...

Yes, another tendril pouch!!

I am acquiring quite a collection!

In fact...

Here comes another one!

Everybody loved the last one I made using Outback Wife fabric so I thought I would try the other design I have in this line, and this time with circles instead of leaves! This fabric is Elaine in orange.

And talking about that rare Saturday off a week or so back... I actually had time to get my paints and brushes out and do a bit of design doodling.

It's something I love to do but never seem to make time for. But I took myself off to the Tiny House and had a blissful afternoon being creative. I was chuffed with the result!
(note to self: MUST DO THIS MORE!)

I liked it so much that I used it as inspiration for this applique hand quilted panel. I am going to turn this into a fabric storage pot, and while I'm at it I plan to turn it into a Tutorial for you all! This will hopefully be later next week, so stay tuned!

It's time for another new project! This is for another magazine and a new one to me. This won't be published till next Spring but there is a fair bit of hand work involved so I've started early.

And also because I was longing to do a bit more applique after finishing that last panel above. I just love appliqueing circles, especially in these bright cheerful colours!

I am really enjoying my hand work at the moment, and my hand and wrist issues seem to be under control. Maybe it's because of all the lovely Aurifil thread I am using along with those super fine Tulip needles?

The right tools can certainly make a lot of difference!

Pouch Problem?

Is an addiction to zippy pouches a recognised condition?!  If so I think I better get some help as I can't stop making them!

I've been talking about my Tendrils Technique in my last few posts.  The pouch above was the first one I tried with this technique, using Dashwood Studio 'Paper Meadow' fabric. I sold this the other day with funds going towards the Makers for Grenfell fund.

These next three were all made with leftovers from my Shangri la farm Sherbet Quilt, with the one at the back using the panels I made in my FOQ Aurifil stand demo.

Talking about Aurifil, my new thread collection got a proper launch on the Aurifil blog on Sunday. You can read the post here which includes an interview with me and a giveaway to win a box (which has one day left to run - so don't hang around before entering!). 

I should get my stock of thread boxes very soon and I'll be sure to let you know when they are ready to sell!

Back to the pouches. This narrow pouch (without a gusset) was made from the bottom part of my aborted attempt to make a new laptop case (documented in this post).

I put this one up for sale on the Makers for Grenfell site but it didn't sell (I am going to use it for  a giveaway soon instead!). But I did sell the other pouch I made from the rest of my failed laptop case.

So that's four pouches sold and a total of £135 raised! A huge thanks to all four buyers!

Here's a close up of the finished pouch made with my Tendril Technique demo sample. I'm holding on to this one as a class sample. This is going to be a new myBearpaw Craft Class next term and also one of my Thread House workshops for our 2018 Retreat. 

We announced all our Thread House workshops yesterday. Here's a wee look at them...

We are so excited about the 2018 retreat classes! I wish I could do them all! Take a look at our website here for details.

As we are unlikely to have enough time to make a scrappy improv panel AND a zippy pouch in a class session I thought I would try the tendrils technique over a plain quilted panel. So I broke into my hoarded stash or the amazing Outback Wife fabric by Cathy of Gertrude Made fame. This is a beautiful bark cloth and the slightly heavier feel works so well here.

I also experimented with a more rounded leaf shape, which is a little bit tricky but probably worth it.

And here's the finished pouch. I call these large gusseted pouches 'Project Pouches' as they are large enough to carry around your current craft project. They measure approx 10in high by 12in wide and 2in deep and the base.

We'll have the new myBearpaw classes for sale at some stage new week including the Tendrils Project Pouch. Meanwhile we have plenty of space on some of our current classes. Check them all out here.

Now, I think it's time to make another pouch! Oh dear!

Festival of Quilts 2017 Report

The Festival of Quilts is a four day event and the largest quilt show in Europe with thousands of quilts to see, and way too much to buy! Plus you get to catch up with all your quilty friends! Basically it is four days of bliss and excitement, where you feel completely 'amongst your people'!

If you remember in my last post I was just finishing my Shangri La Farm Sherbert Quilt for the Aurifil stand. You can see it behind me in the shot above as I happily clutch my new Aurifil Thread Collection box 'Sherbert Dip' for the first time!

I spent some time on the Aurifil stand on Friday afternoon and gave a demo to the gathered crowd which was filmed by the lovely Jenni for Aurifil's Facebook page. You can view it here. Things didn't go completely to plan and there were a few electrical issues (!!) which just made it all the more fun and entertaining. 

The demo is for my Tendrils Technique which you can see on that lovely panel above, it's a clever and quick way to machine applique leaves and stems without any raw edges.

I had a couple of quilts in the exhibition, and here are the obligatory photos of me standing in front of them (taken by my helpful cousin Julie who I met for lunch with my sister on Saturday - quilting being quite a family affair for us!). This is my Almost Black quilt which was in the Modern Quilt category.

And here is Hot Water Microbes which I made with Tatyana Duffie for the two person category.

I think the quilts in the competition this year were the best ever, it was quite overwhelming. I took quite a few photos and shared some on Instagram, and could fill this whole post with incredible quilts, but I am just going to share two. 

My favourite in the Traditional category (which got 3rd prize, though IMHO it should have won!) is by Janette Chilver and is simply epic!

My favourite in the Modern category is 'The World is Your Oyster' by  my friend Tatyana, the quilting is just sublime and I love the colours and design. You can see some more detailed shots and read about this quilt in this post.

Apart from the competition quilts there were also the most amazing quilts and textile art at all the galleries, including some stunning quilts from Victoria Findlay Wolfe, who was there in the flesh - what a charming lady!

If you want to check out a lot more quilts from the whole festival try this excellent blogpost by Zephyre Skies.

On Thursday afternoon I taught an Academy classes for my Patchwork Portraits technique.

Gill was this class's over achiever by managing to create her daughter at her recent graduation, complete with gown and mortar board and tiny red heels!! Brilliant stuff Gill! And her daughter liked it too.

Jane brought along a piece of fabric to match her blouse (the exact same fabric!) and managed to create a pretty accurate portrait of herself!

Love the glasses! If only Jane had a lime green spotty hat...

Julia finished her 'Ascot lady' at home and kindly sent me a photo. 

Love her matching accessories Julia!

On Friday I taught another Academy class for my 3D improv Dresden Plates.

Sue was the star pupil this session, managing to almost finish during the 3 hour class (this one just needs it's centre).

Some of the other students finished at home and sent me photos. This is by Elizabeth Ann who won one of the FOQ tickets on my Instagram giveaway!

This one is by Rhonda, she got the 3D effect spot on, love it!

And Ruth made a beautiful version and then made a 'wonder cushion' with the scraps. I hadn't encountered these before but now really want to make one for my wonder clips too!!

Thanks so much to all my lovely students, you were all a pleasure to teach!

I had one more quilt on show at FOQ and it was keeping really good company! Here is the first photo I've shared of my Tendrils quilt which is on the cover of the latest Today's Quilter (expect a post about this in a few days!), with Karen Lewis's gorgeous 'Outback Wife' quilt from Love Patchwork and Quilting to the left and Lynne Goldsworthy's stunning log cabin from a recent TQ supplement above!

It's a Thread House triple whammy!!

I was very prudent with my cash and bought just one pattern and one packet of needles (too busy chatting to shop!). The pattern was for this Bubble Pod by the very talented Beth Studley. I had been admiring it for the last couple of years, wondering if I could make one on my own. But this year I took the plunge and bought it. I made it as soon as I got home on Monday (I needed some fun sewing to ease myself back to work). It is an excellent pattern which I wouldn't hesitate to recommend!

I am delighted with it and am using it for my stash of Aurifil 80wt!

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!