Mystery Quilt Update

We are up to week 7 of my Mystery Quilt evening course tonight so I thought it was a good time to share the quilt's progress so far.

I shared the first couple of blocks in posts earlier this year and explained how offering this class back in December (when we launched the term) had given me a couple of extra months to plan a new intermediate patchwork course. This was of course completely dependent on my students having faith in my design abilities as they had nothing to go on when they booked this (luckily they trust me!)!

Here is a re-cap of the first 'snail's trail' block and the first block I made, top right. This ended up as block 4 as I thought students needed a bit of a 'run at it'!

So the bottom left 'shooting star' block became week 2.

And this 'sawtooth checkerboard' was number 3. Yes I have to keep coming up with names for the blocks too - not my strong point!

The idea is that we make a block in class and then at home students 're-mix' the block any way they like for their second block (giving us 16 blocks at the end). Here is my re-mix of number 3. So far the students have all amazed and impressed me with their imaginative re-mixes!

Here is my re-mix of number 4, except this is actually the original block 'storm at sea' and the first version was my remix (keep up at the back!). I have been using EQ7 for some of these blocks (the ones with FPP templates) and am finding this software really useful as I get better at it.

I have also become increasingly fascinated by this block and the way the diamond shapes give the optical illusion of curves. I have just finished a whole quilt with some of these same elements for a magazine. I can't wait to share it here but publication isn't until the end of May!

Block 5 was a mini Lone Star. Each week the blocks are getting more challenging for my class. But they are totally up for it and are rising to the challenge with no complaints!

I thought this block had limited options for re-mixing so didn't really try anything for my second one (except switching the background from light to dark). But then one of my students astounded me by rotating each of the corners 180 degrees (and making each corner have a different background) to make a totally different block!

This same student, Mags, is actually making 4 different blocks each week (for a giant quilt!) and is really shining with her different re-mixes, as are all my students. One of the most wonderful (and surprising) things about teaching is how much you constantly learn from your students!

This is block 6 and another from EQ7. They call this 'morning star' and it is all FPP and therefore quite time consuming. But I love it!

I wasn't sure how the mixed light and dark background was really going to work for the re-mixed block but actually it is my favourite block so far.

It's quite hard coming up with ideas for new blocks each week so I have talked the students into designing their own blocks for the last class.
I thought a really fun last class would be to let the students design their own blocks! I think they have acquired enough confidence and knowledge of techniques through this quite rigorous course to give it a go under my tutelage.

But that still leaves week 7 tonight. Carrying forward my 'each week more challenging than the last' mantra we are really going for it this week with a double New York Beauty type block which I adapted from an EQ7 block (there was actually even more detail in the original!) called 'Rolling Wheel'.

It is ridiculously laborious! I managed to make a quarter of the block last week to show them and I feel like it has taken me all week to finish it! And it is very far from perfect!

Poor Mags, can she really make 4 of these??!! So I am thinking I will offer an easier alternative as well. I have a block up my sleeve that I was going to use for my 'design your own block' week (yes, of course I forgot that I will need a block anyway to finish the quilt myself *sigh*).

I may also manage another easier 'curved piecing' block before the class tonight - I have a few hours to spare! Maybe this Mystery Quilt wasn't such a great idea after all...

Hopefully I will be back relatively soon with a whole finished quilt to share!

Sewing Room Rebooted!

I spent the first half of January having a massive clear out of my sewing room and a move about of furniture around the house. This has resulted in me at last having room for a design wall!!

I have been looking forward to sharing photos of the finished room with you. How pretty does my sofa look? This is actually a sofa bed as this room doubles as our spare room. Luke Haynes and Karen Lewis have slept here!!
Not at the same time though!!!

You can see most of my new fabric storage in the photo above (and the one below actually), I have 4 trolleys that my hubby made me with stacked Ikea boxes on, they fit under the table or in nooks and crannies around the room.

I forgot to take 'before' photos but I have a few 'during' photos like this one above - the horror!

I filled 13 bin bags in total - most of it went to the Edinburgh Scrap Store to be redistributed, and the rest went to charity shops, or the actual bin.

I had a big bookcase/dresser type of thing on this wall where I used to store my fabric, except my stash had outgrown it (hence the new trollies). We had a move around in our bedroom and found a space for it there, and now my bedroom is vastly improved too!

Below is a 'during' photo of this end of the room - chaos! It took days to sort all this out.

The paintings around the room are all be my son Jacob Avery, and there are also embroideries and framed needlepoints that my mother made. I don't have many swap minis in here as they are all hanging in my studio. I store my rolled quilts at the back of the sofa.

I love my new Design Wall! 

I just stuck a load of orphan blocks on here to try it out. It is made with Gridded Flannel by Kaffe Fassett which is available to buy on our website and in our shop. Hubby just stapled it to the wall. 

The embroidery hoops to the far right were by my swap partners in the 'Hoop Up' swap one year. In fact there are quite a lot of items made by Dolores in this room!

Like the two sweet little dolls on my new Inspiration boards! Dee sent me these just a week or so ago. She made them 30 years ago!

The framed picture above the board is one of the Lowry needlepoints my late mother loved to make, this one is from a kit I made up specially for her. I really love having her handmade things all around me.

I am so happy with my bright spacious tidy room! I know where everything is, which is quite unusual for me! It is actually quite hard to get me to leave it and spend time in the rest of my house. And as I have been working from home since mid December (I am back to teaching tomorrow!) I have been in here rather a lot.

This week I have been working on more blocks for the Mystery Quilt evening course I mentioned in my last post.

This is a Snail's Trail block and all was going splendidly until I measured it at the end and found it was only twelve inches when it should have been twelve and a half! I couldn't understand what was going wrong as I had worked out the pattern using EQ7 and on graph paper.

And then, just when I was going to give up and decide on a new block I measured my seams and realised they were a tiny bit over a quarter of an inch! My usual machine is getting serviced and I am using a basic model from the studio with a quarter inch guide foot which has a 'wall'. I am not used to this and was obviously shoving my fabric too close too the wall, making my seams too big - total rookie mistake!!

So I had another go today adjusting my seams and this one is bang on - phew! My students love to hear about my mistakes (as they have a crazy idea that I only produce perfect sewing!) so I hope you do too!

You can see the difference between the blocks here. It's the sort of simple mistake I am always warning my students about and just goes to show you have to be so careful with your seams!!

I will be passing on this wisdom in the first class on Thursday. Just one place left still if you are interested!