Blogger's Quilt Festival Autumn 2015 - ROYGBIV Quilt!

It's that fun time of year again - Blogger's Quilt Festival time!

When I first started blogging the Quilt Festival had just started too and I have managed to take part in all but one festival ever since.

It used to be that I would save up a new quilt to preview in a big 'Ta-dah!' moment. But now the festival works with categories and is more like a proper quilt show with voting for the best quilt and prizes!

So I am posting again about my Buffer Wheel quilt as I have always wanted to have something in the ROYGBV category and this is actually the first proper Rainbow quilt I have made!

The inspiration for the design came from those moments where I stare at my phone waiting for a page to load! I suddenly realised that the spinning wheel would make a great quilt!

The quilt is made completely with Karen Lewis's screen printed textiles with the background from Carolyn Friedlander's Architexture line.

The quilt was featured in issue 24 of Love Patchwork and Quilting magazine, so if you fancy making one yourself you can get the pattern there (back copies or digital copies are available). Also this design will be a new workshop for my Edinburgh studio in the New Year. I have been asked for workshops on FPP and curved piecing so I think this will fit the bill nicely! Plus as you can see my cat Hector loves it too!

A huge thanks as always to Amy for organising such a fun event! Head on over to the festival now to check out all the amazing quilts and nominate your favourites!

Lone Star Rising Higher Quilt

It's a bit of a Ta Da moment!
My Lone Star quilt made with Karen Lewis's new fabric is finished!

My Instagram followers will have seen this coming to life over the last month or so and I'm sure will also have heard over there about Karen's new fabric line with Robert Kaufman.

I am a huge fan of Karen's screen printed fabric (as seen in my recent Buffer Wheel quilt) so I was very excited to be let into a little secret, way back in March when Karen came to stay with me. And as those of you who read my last post will know I am really good at keeping secrets!

Karen had loved the Lone Star Rising quilt I designed for Quilt Now magazine earlier in the year and asked if I could make a version of this with some of her new fabric line once she got hold of it.

So, what seems like ages ago now, I chose some fabrics, on screen, from her first collection with Robert Kaufman, which is called Blueberry Park.

Even though I am quite familiar with Kona colours (these are all printed on Kona shades), it was quite difficult to decide!

But I was very happy when they arrived and looked so fantastic together! Something about the white pattern on top of the vibrant shades really ticks all my boxes.

I have ordered A LOT of Blueberry Park for the shop including all the designs I've used here. The fabric should be hitting shops in November. As Karen will be visiting again to teach with us in November I am hoping to organise a 'shopping evening' on Saturday 21st (so 'make a date'!). Fingers crossed the fabric has arrived by then!



This is a scaled down version of my earlier quilt with the diamonds two thirds of the size of the original. I decided to add more background to the bottom to make it the right size for a single bed and to create the effect of the 'Lone Star Sun' rising higher into the sky, hence the name. It is 180cm x 125cm (71 x 49 inches).

This extra background also meant some negative space to go to town on my FMQ a little. You can see the quilting a little better on the back.

I quilted what a call 'sun creatures' meandering all over the star part, then I quilted 'rays' coming out from the 'sun' and filled these with spirals, bubbles, mussels and more sun creatures.

This is definitely the most ambitious FMQ I have tackled to far, and I did wonder how much easier those long wavy 'ray' lines would be if I had a long-arm machine! But I managed with my trusty Pfaff.

I used Aurifil 50 in a gold shade #5015 (for the star) and a mint #2835 (for the background).

The backing fabric is a special extra wide quilt back fabric by Tula Pink. The range is called 'Free Fall' quilt backing, it's 108" (270cm) wide and comes in 6 colours and will be available in the UK in October/November. It also has a lovely 'sateen' finish. I bordered it with some Kona Cerise and the binding is another Tula Pink fabric from her Eden line.

I had some left over diamond strips so I made this mini quilt which I used to try out some of my FMQ ideas before I started quilting. I also have some left over fabric and I have decided to giveaway the quilt and the fabric on Instagram in a few days time. I am really sorry for those of you not on Instagram and I promise I will host a giveaway over here soon too! I try to alternate giveaways between blog, Instagram and Facebook to keep things fair.

I've really enjoyed working with Karen's gorgeous fabric on this project, it is perfect for the Lone Star pattern. I just can't wait to get my full order in!

I don't think this will be the last Lone Star Rising quilt I make either, I am teaching a workshop in this next month (fully booked I'm afraid!) so will probably start another as a class sample!

Buffer Wheel Quilt

Issue 24 of Love Patchwork and Quilting landed in my mailbox yesterday (and it hits the news stands on Wednesday) so at last I can share this quilt with you!

This has to be one of my favourite quilts ever, and sometimes it's hard to keep things secret for so long!

This was really a collaboration between myself and Karen Lewis as all the coloured fabric was screen printed by her. When she came down to stay with me in March I gave her a big bundle of rainbow Kona to go home with and a few weeks later she sent me this!

Thanks Karen!
The background is a re-printed Architextures fabric by Carolyn Friedlander.

There's a Dashwood Studio fabric on the back and you can see the FMQ well in this photo. It's an overall pattern of a kind of trailing mussel with spikes around. I remember it being lot's of fun to do!

The idea for this pattern was conceived while staring at my phone waiting for a page to load - yes it's that buffer wheel that we see so much of! Fading the colours from light to dark hopefully gives the effect of twirling around.

Of course as soon as I put a quilt down to photograph it Hector jumps up to have a roll around!

The binding is a turquoise polka dot that was suggested by my husband (who's really good with binding advice!).
I think it's the graphic simplicity of this quilt that I love so much.

The magazine sent it back early so I could enter it for the Festival of Quilts. So last night a sleeve was added and tomorrow it will get mailed off. This is the first time I have entered any quilt to FOQ (well last year was the first time I had actually visited!), and I think it will be exciting to see this hanging alongside all the other fabulous quilts - though also a little daunting!

So if you are visiting in August, look out for it! And if you want to make your own version all you need is a copy of the magazine (and some of Karen's beautiful fabric!)!

Trying out some new techniques

I've made quite a few bags over the years, but they have all been pretty basic. I can either do a tote bag or one with a box gusset like the one above. Regular readers will know that I have serious problems following patterns and therefore am doomed to 'make things up as I go along' often to mixed results! But it is actually easier for me that way than trying to do as I am told!

A few months ago I made this workshop bag to take to QuiltCon and tried out an inserted zipper pocket to stretch myself. I used this tutorial.

When I showed my regular students the workshop bag they all wanted me to teach a class, so I listed it in this term's prospectus and the class sold out in a few days! So now I have to make at least one more workshop bag to remember how I did it. And more specifically try out that insert zipper pocket a few more times!



So that brings me to this bag which I made earlier this week for a friend's special birthday. The blocks were made as samples for a new course of my Modern Sampler Quilt class. They are what I call Japanese x and + and there is a great tutorial for them here.

I also used up some Karen Lewis Textiles fabric I had left over from a recent Love Patchwork and Quilting commission (you will get to see this in July!). Each side of the bag uses different fabrics but hopefully with a cohesive overall vibe.

The background fabric is the gorgeous Manchester Linen from Robert Kaufman. I love the look of this fabric but boy does it fray!

I decided to try matchstick quilting for the first time here too. I love the look of it but you can see just by looking that it is quite a commitment, so trying it out on a bag seemed sensible. I used an Aurfil 50 in a variegated yellow. It didn't take too long but used up so much thread!

I left some spaces between the quilt lines so that I could add some hand quilting with perle cotton 8's afterwards. I had been inspired by a quilt I saw in Austin with the same quilting, I am very sorry but I can't remember which quilt now!

I really love the texture this achieved.

As this is for a special friend I embroidered a felt label for the inside.
I also used a magnetic snap for the first time, pretty self explanatory really, though I did check out this tute first and found it very useful.

So lots of new techniques explored this week! Who says you can't teach a new dog... etc.

I'm pleased with how this turned out and am already feeling more confident about the zip pocket. Nevertheless expect a few more bags popping up here during May!