Vintage Home BOM Quilt Along - Month 1

Hello and welcome to the first month of the new Today's Quilter BOM Quilt Along!!

I am so delighted with the reception to this new Block of the Month and to all the quilters who've already shown enthusiasm for joining in!

In case you feel you've missed something take a look at my launch post here.

Hopefully most of you have already got hold of issue 29 of Today's Quilter, either through your subscription or buy popping out to the newsagents or supermarket.

There's another gorgeous Lynne Goldsworthy quilt on the front cover this month!

I absolutely adore this cushion by one of our guest hosts, Kerry Green, and that vintage fabric would work so well in the BOM. Kerry will be taking our first guest post slot in 2 months time!

And breaking news! We have added another fabulous guest host to our list - the amazing Carolyn Forster! Yay!

Let's chat about the Block of the Month in the magazine.

Every month I have picked a subject from our homes to depict in patchwork, the first month being teapots. Mostly there will be patterns for two blocks every month and you need to make both blocks (not either or!), but the blocks will probably be different sizes. And importantly some months you will need to make more than one of the blocks!

For the first month you need to make one of each of the teapots shown. But some months one or other of the blocks will be smaller or much simpler and you will be asked to make 2 or even 4 of them (don't worry it will be equivalent to one full block in amount of work needed, you just won't be sewing them together!). This crucial information will be under 'Notes' in the magazine. Plus of course I will remind you here.

The last BOM I designed for the magazine was a classic 25 x 12in blocks with sashing, and though I am delighted with that outcome I wanted to try something a little different this time around.

With the blocks being different sizes and all having the same background the items will be distributed and almost 'floating' around the quilt, a bit like a very random medallion (you're going to have to trust me here, it all looks great in my head!).  I have a plan don't worry! But even though I have it all drawn up  I always need to leave room to change things around as I go, especially if things are not working properly or I have had a better idea. I am about halfway through making the blocks and hope to have them all finished in January.

Which brings me to fabric amounts. I have had lots of requests for this and so I'd like to share the amounts here. These are calculated estimates based on my plan, with some added amounts to give me (and you!) room for manoeuvre.

I have picked the Harvest Collection from Tilda alongside coordinating solids, plus Tilda Doll Fabric in Grey Sand for the background (I will use the same background throughout). I have to say that the doll fabric, though a lovely shade and really soft, isn't the easiest to work with - it frays and stretches more than craft cotton. But Tilda are kindly supplying all the fabric for the BOM and they don't have many solid fabrics. The Doll Fabric is also quite expensive so I would recommend you find a nice neutral shade (or any colour you like!) in a good quality craft cotton.

One of the reason I picked Tilda was because all the Tilda fabric works so well together. It isn't the easiest to get hold of and I hoped that even if you couldn't get the Harvest collection any of the other Tilda fabrics would work perfectly for the same effect.

Would you like to win a bundle of 20 FQ's from the Harvest collection?

Well Today's Quilter are having a giveaway! Check out their post here - you have till 7th December to enter!

But there is no reason you have to stick with Tilda. One of my students, Carol, has chosen this bundle of Joel Dewberry Florabelle, which will work equally well and give a fabulous retro feel to the blocks. Carol is using Kona Ivory as her background - great choices Carol!

Alongside the patterned fabric I am using a selection of coordinating solids, I have picked mine from Kona but any solids would work and I am sure a lot of you have some in your stash, plus you can add more as the months go along if you don't want to buy everything at once.

Which brings me to amounts:
Background fabric (based on a usual 112cm width of bolt) - 5 metres
Pattern fabric - 15 Fat Quarters (of a yard or metre)
Solid fabric - 6 Fat Quarters (ditto)

The Tilda Harvest collection can be bought in a 20 FQ bundle (which I am using), this will give you more variety and you will have fabric left. Or you can buy 5 FQ bundles in which case just buy 3 of these. Likewise you might be better with 12 fat eighths of solid fabric to give you variety.

We are constantly trying to get more stock of the Harvest FQ bundles and are now buying yardage and making some up ourselves, so keep an eye on our shop/website.  Or try one of our other guest hosts Sarah Edgar Pretty Fabric and Trims.  Plus the Sewing Space has stock in their shop in Hythe, Kent.

Every month I am also going to give you some tips for tackling the blocks...

MONTH 1 BLOCK TIPS

The two teapot blocks this month are not the easiest to start with, but I wanted to 'sell' the whole thing with a superstar block and something you don't see a lot of. The trickiest bit in the block above is the curved piecing of the handle. Just use plenty of pins, as instructed in the pattern. If you are really struggling you could try hand piecing this part, or if you really hate curved piecing you could even applique the handle.

There is a little FPP but it is just for the spout and so shouldn't give you any trouble even if you are new to FPP (check out an online guide to FPP if you are).

The second block also has an FPP spout but the handle is just straightforward piecing. However there are more curves! And these are a little tighter so take your time and use those pins. Or try hand piecing, one of our other guest hosts, Lucy Brennan, has a great hand piecing tutorial on her blog.

If you haven't machine pieced curves before then practice on some scrap fabric before using the block fabric. And one more tip, if you are still having trouble getting the two curve pieces to fit together try starting from the centre of the curve. Fold over both pieces to find a centre point and start there (locking or reversing your stitch), when you have sewn to the end, flip over and sew the other way. I find this really helpful for tricky curves!

One last thing to mention, as well as the patterns every month there is also some added extras to this feature in the magazine. First off you get a short 'article', or as I like to call it 'chat', where I talk about the items featured and share some of my inspiration through photos of teapots (or whatever) that I own or love. The photos are then dotted about through the pages.

Plus we also have a 'Vintage Shop of the Month' section. I 'visit' Vintage Shops around the country and also a related 'Find' from said shop! Yes this is going to be a lot of work for me...

The first month features the charming Pepper Pot in Wellington, Somerset. I visited this on a recent trip to teach with the South West MQG. But a lot of the other months may mention Scottish shops...

So do you know any great local vintage shops? If so please share their details with me! Thanks :)

Also please feel free to email me with any queries about the BOM. Make sure you add an email address to comments if you are a no-reply commenter (this means no email address is attached to the account you are commenting from) so I can reply easily. Otherwise look out for replies below.

I am so looking forward to seeing your versions of my blocks! If you are sharing them on social media please make sure to use the hashtag #TQVintageHomeQAL and tag me in your comments too @mybearpaw so I don't miss them!

Vintage Home BOM Quilt Along!

So this has been an exciting week for launches!  And it hasn't finished yet as amazingly enough I am about to launch my first ever Quilt Along!!

You all know that my Today's Quilter 'A month in the country' BOM has just finished, which means that a new Block of the Month will be starting in the magazine next month, and guess who's designing it?

Yes it's me again! This time I thought it would be a lovely idea to host a QAL alongside it. Today's Quilter have given me permission to show you one of the first blocks (the teapot above) and tell you all about it now, a few weeks ahead of the first issue, so you can get yourself organised and maybe buy a subscription to the mag (read on for a special offer!).

Let me tell you a little bit about the new block of the month and share another wee sneak peek...

...It's called the Vintage Home BOM and every month the blocks will feature items from around the home, with a bit of a vintage or retro twist. We're starting off with a little crockery but will move all around the house during the year.

There's actually some other fun elements to the feature but I want to keep a few things a surprise for now :)

Post edited to include all monthly posts published:
Month 1 post

I'll be using fabrics from Tilda's Harvest collection throughout and the same background for each block (I am using Tilda Doll fabric in Grey Sand), but I'd love to see the blocks made in different fabrics!

So about this Quilt Along - as I said I've never hosted one before and so you'll have to bear with me!

I'd like to keep this nice and relaxed and informal. Every month I'll be posting about that issue's blocks and offering a helpful hand for those sewing along with a little more info and tips to help you make the blocks successfully.

I've asked some of my favourite bloggers to write a guest post during the year. They'll be making a block too (or maybe more than one) and sharing it on their blog. There'll also be lots of sharing on Instagram where we'll be using the hashtag #TQVintageHomeQAL

The lovely guest hosts will be:

Kerry of Very Kerry Berry
Lucy of Charm About You
Florence of Flossie Teacakes
Sarah Edgar of Pretty Fabrics and Trims
and the team at Today's Quilter will also join in for a month! Rumour has it that legendary editor Jen Fox-Proverbs may be dusting off her sewing machine especially!! ;)

So how about joining me?? Do you get Today's Quilter already? If so all you need to do is start sewing along next month! For those of you that don't already have a subscription then this is certainly the time to start!!

I have a special subscription offer for our QAL!

Just click on that link above to save 50% on an annual subscription with Today's Quilter. Your subscription deal includes 13 issues for £38.94 by Direct Debit. Free gift with every issue and Free UK Home delivery. *

Unfortunately I've left it a little late to launch this so you will miss the first issue (sorry! I only just thought of it!). You will be able to find this issue (number 29) in the shop or order a copy online (hard copy or digital) and then your subscription should start for issue 2 of the BOM (depending when you order your subscription). Of course you could just buy a copy in the shops every month if you prefer.

Watch out for the first QAL post in around 3 weeks time. If you don't want to sew along with me then I hope you'll still be here, cheering on from the side lines!

 *SAVE 50% offer available to UK Direct Debit orders only. After your first 13 issues your payments will continue at £46.72 saving 40%. Your subscription will start with the next available issue. Offer ends 31st December 2017

A Month in the Country BOM Quilt - Ta dah!

I'm so delighted to be able to share my finished A Month in the Country quilt from my year long Block of the Month in Today's Quilter!

It's in the new issue, number 28, which came out yesterday. Unfortunately my copy hasn't arrived yet but I can share some of the lovely images from the mag.

Stitch Gathering attendees got a special exclusive viewing at the event on Sunday. Here it is hanging behind our pop-up shop.

This is a very personal quilt for me as it charts our life here at Shangri la Farm through the four seasons. There is also a lot of hand applique in the blocks so I wanted to give it a proper heirloom treatment when it came to quilting.

I didn't think my poor old hands were up to hand quilting the whole thing so I began by FMQing a selection of leaves over all the sashing strips (Kona Snow).

I then hand quilted all the blocks as much as I could with Aurifil 12wt threads in subtle shades, mainly by outlining the motifs.

I love all the birds depicted, I feel inspired to do a bird applique for a workshop next year, what do you think?

I used a Heather Ross Mendocino print (with fishes) for the backing, which seemed appropriate with all the wildlife on the front!

Action shot below of me finishing the binding.

I didn't manage to get any decent outside photos (but luckily the magazine did that gorgeous styled garden shot above!) before I had to send this off, but I did take this one on our bed.

Jonathan says this is his favourite of all the quilts I have ever made - praise indeed! It's definitely a bit special to me too.

And I'm hoping to turn this into a series of course at myBearpaw Studio next year, so watch this space!

Did you sew along with this BOM? Do you have a finished quilt to share? Please send me an image if you do, I would love to feature it here!

Meanwhile I have news! I will be following this Today's Quilter BOM with a new Block of the Month that starts next month!!!

And this time I will be running a Quiltalong too! Look out for more details next week!

Stitch Gathering 2017 GOODY BAG GIVEAWAY!!!

 

Yes it's that time again! I have kept aside two of the amazing goody bags from this year's event to giveaway!

You can enter one giveaway here on the blog and the other on Instagram!

But let's take a closer look at what you will be winning...

1. From Immediate Media we have a copy of Love Patchwork and Quilting AND Today's Quilter!
2. A bundle of Cori Dantini 'Makers' fabrics courtesy or Blend Fabrics (4 panels!!).
3. 2  balls of Perle Cotton number 8 thread by DMC.
4. A fat quarter of Cloud 9 Fabric.
5. A fat quarter of Dear Stella Fabric.
6. A fat quarter of Sarah Campbell's 'Our Yard' fabric from Micheal Miller.
7. A half metre piece of Joel Dewberry's 'Florabelle' from Free Spirit Fabric.
8. A 30cm (WOF) piece of 'Down by the River' from Lewis and Irene fabric.
9. A fab little Liberty Tana Lawn Scrap Pack from Duck Egg Threads.
10. A 30cm (WOF) piece of fabric from Dashwood Studio
11. A set of spools of all types of Aurifil thread - 7 different threads including 80wt!! Also booklets and shades cards and a cool Aurifil sticker for your sewing machine!
12. A packets of delicious Nairn's Oatcakes.
13. An Aurifil Tote Bag (not pictured).
14. A mini sewing kit from the Sewing Quarter.
15. A chalk lolly courtesy of myBearpaw :)

WOW! What a haul!

A huge thank you to all our Sponsors, both for the goody bags and for the Lucky Dip prizes. We are all so grateful for your support!!

So how do you win all this booty?

Simply leave a comment on this post:
I'd like to know, if you could have your dream teacher, from anywhere around the world come to teach at the Stitch Gathering in 2018 who would you choose?! If you can't think of anything just say hello :) Make sure you leave your email address if you are a 'no-reply' commenter.

That's all you need to do! If you want to increase your chances then head over to Instagram @mybearpaw and enter the giveaway there for the second bag too.

Giveaway will close Tuesday 17th October at midnight. International entries are welcome!
Good luck!

Argyle Chain Quilt

I've been through a bit of a manic phase in the last few weeks, no time to blog and nothing to show anyway as I have been sewing magazine commissions like crazy! I'm just about through a bit of a backlog (phew!) and have a quilt in the latest issue of Today's Quilter to share with you.

I'm calling this one Argyle Chain as it reminds me a little of an Argyle plaid but it's actually made from two different Irish Chain blocks.

And it is blue! This is VERY unusual for me as I don't actually like blue very much. I love turquoise and am okay with indigo but rarely use blue.

So settle down and I'll tell you the story of this quilt...

Earlier this year when I was at QuiltCon in Savannah, I visited the Michael Miller stand to say thank you to the lovely folks there for being Stitch Gathering sponsors. Last year they had sent some gorgeous fabric for the goody bags but I hadn't really paid much attention to the designer. It turned out it was by Sarah Campbell. 

As we chatted on the stand and they showed me more beautiful Sarah Campbell fabric it became apparent to me that they assumed I was familiar with Sarah as a 'famous British designer' who used to design for Liberty. I was as vague as possible without revealing my ignorance, and when I got home I googled Sarah Campbell and was amazed and delighted to find out about her long career in surface design and the famous book she wrote about design with her sister.

How had I missed her? Turns out all the quilters I questioned had somehow missed her too. So I contacted my friend Jane Rae (who also happens to be feature editor of Today's Quilter) to suggest she wrote about Sarah in the magazine and I would make a quilt with some of her fabric.

I chose the wonderful Sandpiper collection - with all that blue!

Why choose this when I never use blue? Well around this time I had been teaching a course at myBearpaw to make my Starlights quilt. This is primarily made from a wide range of greys with a few bright solids.  One of my students, Sally, chose to replace the greys with a wide range of blues. Initially I was a little sceptical, but I absolutely loved the finished quilt! In fact I preferred it to my original!

So I decided to come out of my colour comfort zone and embrace blues! Obviously not just blue, there's yellow and orangey-red too, I haven't gone completely mad!

The fabric was so beautiful to use and I really fell in love with it. Finishing the quilt coincided with one of my Scrappy Improv workshops, so I used the scraps for class samples and then made them into these two panels.

 
After adding my usual combination of matchstick quilting with a variegated Aurifil thread and hand quilting with cotton perle #8 I turned it into one of my project pouches and it was sold in aid of the Makers For Grenfell fund (and blogged about a few months back, so don't worry if you are getting a case of deja vu!).



Back to the quilt which was quilted with my current fall back overall FMQ pattern of a sort of curly mussels variation. The wavy lines and almost fishy shapes seemed to go well with the seashore themed 'Sandpiper' fabric. I used Aurifil 50wt in a turquoise shade, number 5017.



I love the yellow feather print that I used for the back.

The quilt was finished at the deadline (of course!) and the weather was awful, really wet and windy, which meant I couldn't get my usual outside shots. It was way too dark in our house so I took it into the Tiny House and hung it from the sleeping loft!

It goes really well with the colours in there so maybe it might end up on the Tiny House bed when it makes it's way back to me.

I hope you enjoyed this quilt story! Meanwhile do your self a favour and buy Today's Quilter issue 27 so that you can find out all about the amazing Sarah Campbell too!

Tendrils quilt

It's a long time since I made a quilt with Kaffe Fassett fabric and I had forgotten what an uplifting joyful experience it can be!

This quilt was destined for the issue of Today's Quilter that coincides with Festival of Quilts so it always need to be a bit of a showstopper. And what better fabric than the Kaffe Fassett Collective to obtain that effect!

As you can see it made the cover, as well as the magazine exhibition stand (see my last post for a photo!).

I've been playing around with the idea of appliqueing leaves over patchwork for a while now and had already made this mini with leaves and stems sewn by hand. But that wasn't going to work for me (and my dodgy hands) for a whole quilt.

So this is when I developed my Tendrils Technique that I have been using on a smaller scale for pouches recently. It's what I demonstrated on the Aurifil stand at FOQ (you can still watch that here).

I basically created a patchwork brick wall with the Kaffe fabric and then let the leaves climb up it!

As I'd chosen a mixture of warm and cool fabrics from the range (by Free Spirit) I thought it would look good with a 'temperature' colour wash.

Here's a shot from the magazine. I love how the leaves seem to grow out of the carpet here.

I quilted it with a trailing feather overall FMQ pattern in a neutral shade of Aurifil 50wt. It is so busy that I didn't need the quilting to show up too much, but I love the texture that a feather pattern gives.

I made a mistake with the dimensions and it ended up bigger than I planned at 80 inches. I was annoyed at the time but it actually fits my bed perfectly so I think this may be my new bed quilt for the winter. It is certainly one of my all time favourites already!

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!