The Thread House PATTERN SALE!!

It is our first birthday this weekend and to celebrate we are having a pattern sale!! Hooray!

Get 30% off all our Thread House patterns at our Payhip Store! That's all patterns for £3.50 each!

Sale ends Monday night!

Starlights Quilt

Introducing my new Thread House quilt - Starlights!  And the third finish on the blog this week!



Yes three months have (somehow) passed since our first patterns were released back in September. So it's time for three more Thread House Patterns, and this is my offering.

I was attempting something relatively simple ( I often tend to over complicate things!) but also a bit clever. It's quite a simple off-centre star block but with fancy sashing that makes another star between each block. 

Plus there's an 'Irish chain' type thing going on through each block which, I hope, gives the impression of strings of fairy lights looping through the stars.

I love a grey and yellow palette and that's what I started with, but it's a little too restrictive for me so I added the bright solids for the stars.

It's free-motion quilted with a variegated grey Aurifil 50 thread in an overall design which is a variation of a mussels pattern.

The back is one of the Heather Ross Mendicino fabrics in the colour I find most indispensable - orange!

I really wasn't sure about this quilting at first, I thought that the grey was too dark, especially over the yellow stars. But after sharing the quilt with my students and getting some encouragement I feel a bit better about it, and I have to say it looks good in the photos.

Lynne and Karen both have stunning new quilt patterns to offer and all three will be ready to buy later this week.

I'll be sharing them all here once they're published!

The Thread House Pattern Launch and GIVEAWAY!!

Our The Thread House patterns are now ready to purchase! You can check them all out here.

Right get ready for some serious quilting eye candy...

We are so pleased with our first six patterns! We hope you like them too. At present you can only buy them as a download but paper patterns will be coming soon!

Let's take a look at them all...

This is Karen's Giant Hexie cot quilt. I think this was the first pattern she ever wrote and she has revived it and re-made it in her beautiful Blueberry Park fabric.

And this is Karen's Summit Quilt, a brand new design, love the colour placement. The whole thing is so simple yet so striking!

Next up is Lynne's Pic'n Mix Sampler Quilt, which is amazing value for money, with four different versions included! My husband loves this quilt and wants to keep it for himself :)

You probably recognise some of the backdrops featured. We are so lucky that my very talented husband, Jonathan, offered to do the quilt photography for us. He took all these gorgeous photos using Shangri La Farm and his Tiny House as locations, aren't they amazing?!

Our lovely Gothic bench which was one of Jonathan's first fabric designs from around 20 years ago, is the fabulous setting for Lynne's Cube Quilt, which is just stunning!

And of course there are my patterns which we already looked at in great detail in my two previous posts!

To celebrate our launch I am giving away a copy of each of my patterns on both this blog and IG. And Karen and Lynne are also doing the same thing with their patterns (though not necessarily at the same time as Karen is in Rome!!) so check out their IG accounts and blogs!

Just leave a comment below telling me which quilt you like best out of the six featured above (you don't need to say one of mine, just be honest, I can take it!!).

For an extra entry then share this post on some other form of social media (your own blog, facebook page, twitter etc.) and leave me an extra comment here telling me you've shared it.

If you are on Instagram then head over and enter the giveaway there to double your chances!

Giveaway is open to International entries and closes midnight on Sunday (4th September). Remember if you are a 'no-reply commenter' then you will need to leave your email in your comment.

Good luck everyone! And don't forget to check out all the patterns on our website!

New craft kits and The Sweet Life is here!

A few months back I showed you some EPP hexies and suggested I had a plan for them. Well I had decided to produce a cushion cover kit for hand sewers, and though I finished the cushion ages ago, producing the kit feels like I have actually had to give birth to it!

I think it's because I have so much else going on at the moment, but anyway, it is finally here. You can buy it online or at our Edinburgh shop and it contains all fabric, wadding, DMC perle number 8 threads, needle, full instructions and 3 sheets of paper templates, and costs £14.99.

Or you can buy a copy of the excellent Homemade with Love magazine for Aug/Sept as it is a featured project in here.

Another 'new delivery' this week is a kit for the Garden Shed Wall Hanging made with Cori Dantini's new The Sweet Life fabric line (which is here in store now, more below!)

This is the first time I've done a quilt kit, and it is much easier to put together then a fancy-stitched cushion! The kit contains enough fabric for quilt top and binding along with full instructions, and costs £34.99.

Or you can download the FREE pdf and buy your own fabric and make it anyway.
Yes, The Sweet Life fabric is finally here, in stock in the shop and listed online!



It's absolutely gorgeous and a wonderful addition to any of last year's Beauty is You that you have left, or are hoarding!

We've put together fat quarter and fat eighths bundles with 11 fabrics each.

Plus this incredible 'made for adventure' panel which we are selling per 60cm panel for £8.99.

Now it's time for the Stitch Gathering countdown - less than a week to go and we are all getting so excited!

Garden Shed Wallhanging - FREE pattern pdf!

Click here for your FREE Pattern/Tutorial

I had such a lovely time playing with my new Cori Dantini line 'The Sweet Life' by Blend Fabrics, and here is the result!
I love Cori's illustrations and when I saw these garden themed ladies for some reason I wanted to put each of them in their own little shed!

My original title was 'Allotments' but having checked with my USA consultant (Dolores!), allotment isn't a word that's really used there. And seeing as this project is for an American fabric company I changed the name to Garden Sheds.

It's a very simple construction, that can be whipped up in no time. I also think it would make a very pretty quilt if you made 3 rows of sheds and paths before putting the piano key border on.
You could also use the pattern with any fabric that featured figures.

Of course I went to town a bit with my hand quilting (as is my way!), which did add a few hours to the project (but I love doing it!). And this time I added French Knots for the first time on a quilt. I thought the garden sheds should have a trailing, flowering vine around the door.

Also, in 'The Sweet Life' world, there should be fluffy clouds in the sky, every lady should have a flower on her dress and the path should be strewn with pebbles.

The Sweet Life should be hitting the stores any time now (in the USA, it takes a bit longer to get to us in the UK) so if you would like to make your own version of this wall hanging then I have produced a pattern / tutorial pdf which you can view and download by clicking the link at the top of the page.
I should have plenty of this line in our store (both real and online) as soon as it gets here. Plus I will be producing a kit for Garden Sheds Wallhanging as soon as possible.
I would love to hear about, and see any versions you make, so please share! And enjoy!!

Liberty Pants Panda Tutorial

Who wants to make a panda?!
Not just any old panda, but one of these pandas wearing really cool Liberty pants ?!

Remember Sunshine and Sweetie up there? I did promise you a couple of months back that I would do a tute and here it is!

Please assemble:

Black and white felt plus a tiny scrap of contrasting colour (for the heart)
Small amount of Liberty Tana lawn (or some of the new Lifestyle cotton when it comes out!)
Black thread and black perle cotton 8 (or floss)
Glue stick
Toy filling
8" piece of ribbon
The usual - scissors (small, sharp ones are best for fiddly cutting), needles and pins.

Now download the pattern PDF and print it.

Cut out your pattern pieces, pin to appropriate felt and fabric and cut out.

Place one of your white panda bodies on to the wrong side of your Liberty pants piece as above. Run your glue stick around the fabric.

Fold over and gently stick this to the panda's body, evenly gathering it around. Repeat this with your other felt body and pants pieces.

Pin your panda belt over the raw edge of Liberty fabric. It should be just below the half way point on the body, leaving more room for face than bottom.

Using black thread, sew small over stitches along top and bottom of belt to attach to body. Repeat with other panda body.

Pin the 2 panda bodies wrong sides together, matching belt on both sides. Slip the feet, hands and ears into the appropriate spaces between the bodies and pin. You may need to trim the straight side of the ears about a quarter of an inch to get correct 'ear appearance'. Fold ribbon in half and insert into seam as well.

Using perle cotton and starting at one side of the head, sew around body close to the edge (but not so close that you tear the felt) using neat running stitches made in 2 parts. In other words don't gather a few stitches on to your needle the way you would if you were hand quilting, send your needle down with stroke and up with the next. This is to ensure that the back stitches look as neat as the front.

 Stop sewing once you get beyond the last hand, leaving a gap for stuffing.

 Stuff gently with toy filling, taking care not to stretch the felt at the gap.

 When you are happy with panda's cuddliness sew up gap and fasten off.

 Draw on face using top photos as a guide (though try to give your panda a personality of his own!)

Back stitch around inner and outer eyes and around nose and mouth. Fill inner eyes and nose with satin stitch.

Lastly, stitch you panda's heart decoration on using tiny over stitches and matching thread.
Give your new friend a big smile because he's so cute!!

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and found it useful. You are welcome to use this to make as many pandas as you like, but please be courteous and credit me and also link to this blog where possible. Thank you!

The pandas were part of a new class I developed to make handmade party favours. I talked about this here. The 'boys' favour was a felt robot. I gave this class on Sunday (hence the photos for this tute) and also managed to make this Rainbow Robot for an extra demo. I though you might like to see him too.
It was a very fun class, I could hardly call it work!!

Embroidery Pattern launch with FREEBIE!

 You have been asking for these and I have been promising them, and at last I can announce...

... that my embroidery patterns are ready to buy!!

Thanks to my IT consultant (*cough* husband), who has been working hard on this all week, you can now buy a pdf of any of the designs on this page from our website.

The pdf features the pattern both right way and reversed, instructions for 2 different methods of transfer and stitch instructions with exact DMC colour codes so you can obtain the exact look shown here. Of course it would be lovely to see some of my designs in your own chosen colours!

I plan to do a tutorial on the blog very soon to accompany the Sampler Tree pattern above, showing some of the more unusual stitches like the raised rose and the wheel. Meanwhile anyone very keen to get on with this (and quick!) can email me for any extra help required and I will send you links to on-line stitch diagrams.
The other patterns only use very basic stitches such as back, running, satin and French knots, so should be easily tackled by anyone who can hold a needle and thread.

My little Woodland Portraits are available on their own or as a set and prices start at just £2.50!

And as I special thank you to all my blog readers for the support and encouragement you have always given me for my projects, I am giving away one of these mini woodland portraits absolutely FREE!
Yes, you can 'buy' Boris the Bear Woodland Portrait Pattern pdf with 100% discount on our website using this code mybearpaw. Just head on over here, and click to buy! But don't dawdle because this offer will only be available for a limited period only (at least a week, so don't panic too much!).

I chose Boris as he works so well with the name of the blog and so can be a bit of a mascot! I hope you like my 'try before you buy' offer but I hope that doesn't stop you from 'buying before you try' with some of the other patterns!

AND if you want more embroidery pattern action Blueberry Park are hosting a giveaway to help launch my patterns too! 5 winners can choose the pattern of their choice and 1 lucky winner will get a pack of 10 DMC perle cotton 8's! Head on over to Karen's blog for more details and to enter!

As some of you may have noticed, this blog is changing slightly. I have my dear, sweet, lovely IT consultant working on a re-build, so expect a few more changes before we've finished!