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!

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!

Stitch Gathering 2017 Tickets - Quilted Postcards!!

It's that time of year again, when the secret Stitch Gathering Ticket project I have been working on is finally revealed!

This will be our fifth event in October, so that means I have had to come up with FIVE different ideas for this so far - phew! Talk about making a rod for your own back (which is quite a violent metaphor now I think about it...)!

This year we are asking all our Retreaters to make a QUILTED POSTCARD, and then to swap it at the event with a secret partner (partner's info going out next week!).

And to help you out with this very creative project we have designed and printed some exclusive (and rather cute IMHO!) fabric stamps!!!

Drawing these little stamps was such fun! I started off with a bear king and a cat queen (because stamps often feature the head of state and in my Stitch Gathering world these would obviously be bears and cats!). And then I drew a little landscape and some buttons and a patchwork Dresden plate.

Scanning my Sewing Room for inspiration I spied some of Aurifil thread so I included those too. Then I was starting to run out of ideas so I decided to feature parts of the four quilts that have been used as our 'quilt of the year' on our Stitch Gathering branding.

Then Jonathan got involved and offered some of his Tiny House designs! We also had a myBearpaw flower logo but part of that got cut off by the printing.

We got Spoonflower to print this for us, as they did with our Stitch Gathering Text fabric last year. Such a great service and with cheaper and quicker postage now, as they have a factory in Germany!

From last Friday the stamps and instruction letters started to arrive with our Retreaters and by now most of them should be there so I can spill the beans. Everyone received a random selection of three stamps.

As in previous years this blog post will cover some initial ideas for making your ticket project. Of course I expect our Retreaters to totally out do any ideas I have, as they do every year!

I started with a little bit of improv. I had a leftover block from a recent quilt I made with Kaffe Fassett (I can share this next month!). I sliced this up and inserted some strips and generally mucked it up a little!

Then I added some yellow 'teasel heads', just lightly gluing them on. I drew around them to finish the teasel effect. It is based on this zippy pouch which had hand embroidered teasels over improv.

Then I had a try at free-motion embroidery! I've not really done this much before (I did some numbers once for an advent quilt), but I think all the FMQ I  have done made it an easy start. Quite pleased with how this looks, though maybe I should have made the stems more prominent.

I think the back maybe looks more interesting!

I finished this first postcard by sewing a back on, pillowcase style, with RST, leaving a gap and turning inside out. I added some random straight line quilting including around the outside, close to the edge, to close the gap.

I then needle-turn appliqued a couple of my stamps to the back.

Then I moved on to some FPP.

I was trying to find a pattern that needed a 100% or 200% enlargement, which I would then ignore and just make a mini version of. I think this could work really well if you have a pattern like this already, perhaps in a book?

But after trawling through some back issues of Love Patchwork and Quilting I found these arrows as past of a Lynne Goldsworthy BOM block. The pattern was 'actual size' in the magazine and I realised that three of them would work perfectly. And I've always loved Lynne's arrows!

So I chose a little ombre range of fabrics in three of my favourite colours, along with a low-volume background, and off I went! After a some decision making I opted for the layout above.

For the back I found some printed instructions from a fabric Noah's Ark that I must have been hoarding for around 25 years! I used the machine to applique the stamps with a zig-zag stitch. This time I 'layered-up' as if it was a real quilt and used a little 505 to hold it while I added a half inch grid.

The lines are quilted with Aurifil 80wt.

I then added a thin single-fold binding (see my tutorial for this here) in a charcoal fabric.

Next up was a little more improv, this time straight out of the scrap bag, along with a little fussy cutting.

I brought back some of the Rifle Paper Alice in Wonderland fabric by Cotton and Steel from QuiltCon and I haven't used it yet. So I took a little Cheshire cat from it and framed it in red. I even included a little selvedge!

I then finished this the same way as the first postcard before tackling my usual matchstick quilting with variegated pink Aurifil and added hand quilting in perle cotton. Somehow the quilting has made that cat look a little sinister!

I needle turn appliqued a couple more stamps. to the back.

So here are the finished quilted postacrds!

And here are the backs. I used some printed quilt labels for the first and last ones. The hand quilting on that last one has appeared as lines ready for a message!

The idea is to write a message to your swap partner but I will keep these blank for now and they can be used as spares if necessary. They are all around 5 x 7in which is the maximum size we have asked for (anything between 4 x 6in and 5 x 7in).

I also asked that they be landscape in orientation, though having made a few now, I really don't think that matters too much, so knock yourselves out retreaters!

So far the feedback from Retreaters has been very positive, and they seem to be relishing this new creative challenge - hooray!

Everyone's finished tickets will be handed in at registration on the day of the event (to gain access obviously!), and then during the morning classes, my wonderful helpers will display them in the large conference room where we have our lunch so that they can all be viewed (like a mini exhibition!). Towards the end of lunch everyone will be asked to SWAP! They will then grab their postcard and go off to find their secret partners!

So watch out on social media for these little works of art appearing. I can't wait to see what everyone does!

Greenery Shoots Mini - Pantone Quilt Challenge 2017

These last few weeks I feel like I've finally caught up with all my long lists and have therefore had a bit of time for a play!

I think it's because I am not teaching quite as much this term or it's because I am getting better at saying no, but somehow I actually have some spare time! It's amazing and wonderful!!

And so I have made an entry for the Pantone Quilt Challenge 2017. It's called 'Greenery Shoots' and measures 17 inches square.

The Pantone Quilt Challenge is something I remember vaguely happening over the last few years but either I was too busy or I was just not interested enough to enter, mainly I think because the recent Pantone 'colours of the year' haven't really done much for me.

But this year the colour is Greenery, which just happens to be my all time favourite colour! So of course I just had to join in.

This year the challenge is being run by Bryan House Quilts and No Hats in the House. You can read more about it here.

I started this a couple of weeks back, well before the deadline (still a week or so to go). I wanted to try out an idea I'd had for a quilt for a while now, a way of incorporating my love of needle-turn applique but with a more minimalistic aesthetic.

So I started off with some low-volume improv.

I love this sort of 'sew and trim' improv, it's pure playtime for me, and so this background was really quick to make. The main difference for me here is the low-contrast palette - I don't usually do anything this subtle!

It was lovely that this project coincided with some amazing sunny weather, which meant I got to sit outside to sew on my stems and leaves.

I added some hand quilting, a sort of 'ghost stem', before outlining the leaves with machine quilting then filling the whole background with matchstick quilting in a green variegated Aurifil 50wt.

As I've done on previous matchstick quilting projects I left some larger spaces and filled them later with hand quilting in shades of green and the odd pop of shocking pink.

I even machine quilted round the hand quilting! Something that amused a few fellow members of our Edinburgh MQG, when I shared this at show and tell last week.

Here is the back, I like the way the outlined stems and leaves stand out. The backing is an old duvet cover.

I couldn't resist the one pink leaf - I do find restraining myself to one colour really hard!

It's bound in a Carolyn Friedlander fabric.

I really love how this has turned out. I think you can safely put bets on this type of thing occurring in future quilts. Perhaps with a larger quilt next time and maybe with something other than leaves...

There is still time to enter the challenge if you fancy it, the link-up opens this Friday and closes on May 29th, and you can enter with a link to an Instagram or Flickr photo so you don't even need a blog.

There are also actual prizes and fancy judges - Carolyn Friedlander, Christa Watson and Jennifer Sampou! More info here.

It's been great to have time for a little experimentation, which is what these sort of challenges are all about. And it's totally still my favourite colour!