The Lucky Streak Pay it Forward with Backstitch Loulouthi Giveaway …

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>This Giveaway is Now CLOSED!<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<  


Hello lovely Readers - if you've popped over from Lily's Quilts then welcome, make yourselves at home and have a good snoop around ! If you're a regular visitor, nice to have you back - that colour looks great on you, have you lost weight?


I’ve been a very lucky girl recently …

First of all  I won this great bundle from Fat Quarterly …

…then I received this wonderful angel quilt from Lynne @ Lily’sQuilts for the BritQuiltSwap

… and I won this The Farmer’s Wife Pony Club book giveaway @ Lily'sQuilts

… And then I won some Happy Mochi Yum Yum at Lily’sQuilts too ! (not to mention some Aurifil thread too!)

Truth be told I'm a little embarrassed, but I’m not going to apologise for my luck (trust me, there's enough dark stuff in my life to balance it out!) I am going to pay it forward though …



The lovely Alice at Backstitch has offered you lovely readers a chance to win a metre (in any combo you like) of Anna Maria Horner’s new LouLouthi line …

I like some of the prints in this line a lot, although it’s not in my usual comfort zone by any means.   I'm slowly learning how to look at a large print and see how it would look cropped and pieced.  It's not easy for me unless I actually have the fabric in my hot little paws.

You should really check out The Enchanted Bobbin's wonderful hexies using Loulouthi here.  There's a lady who knows how to use a print!


I definitely need some of that blue and yellow Coreopsis for my 4x5 bee quilt …


Backstitch is one of my regular payday visits …  Such lovely service - speedy, wrapped properly and tied with ribbon ... this is something that really makes a difference to me.  I hate when I just receive fabric shoved into an envelope with no packing note or nuffink.


I love their Klona cottons – the texture is different from Kona and the colours are different too.  It’s not the biggest range in the world, but there are some really goodies, so I use both brands to complement each other. 

It’s really good value, at only £5.50 a metre.

You can get a swatch card
for about thrumpence too …





… this is what I did with mine …
it flutters in the breeze, lovely …







What’s really great is that they send out update swatches too
–  note to self: sew these onto swatch flag before I lose em!



So, yes, back to the giveaway ….

You can choose a total of one metre OR two half metres OR four quarter metres from the lovely LouLouthi line by Anna Maria Horner. 

For one chance to win all you have to do is leave one comment telling me



(a) which Loulouthi fabric/s you would choose
PLEASE DON'T ASK FOR OTHER FABRICS! This is a LouLouthi line giveaway!! 
Your entry won't count!


(b) what denominations ("1 metre of Coreopsis" or "1/2 metre each Coreopsis & Buoyancy")
(c) what you'd use it for, if you won


(Please make sure you tell me all 3 things in the same comment or it won’t count!)


For a second chance to win, tweet, blog or tell the postman about it and let me know in a separate comment …


For a third chance,  leave me another comment to tell me if you're a follower  .....


Yay!  Go feast your eyes … and Good Luck ...

Giveaway closes midnight (UK time) Friday 29th July ... international entries welcome!

QAYG Hexalogacabin - a cunning plan - quick tute

Funny really how things come full circle (or in this case, full hexie).

This weekend will be the first anniversary of my brother’s death.  Not the cheeriest opening to a tutorial, I grant you, but I mention it because that time in my life was what started me sewing again, out of necessity for focus and displacement.

For my Summer Hexalong project I wanted to maintain some form of connection to the paper piecing that I was doing exactly this time a year ago …

I love hand sewing and I haven’t been doing enough of it recently.  I find it calming and rhythmic and the crafty equivalent of tea and toast on a cold winter’s day.  So far I’ve been machining my hexalogacabins, but that’s no good for a portable project, or for the vibe that I want to pursue at the moment




Back in October 2010 (I had only been sewing & blogging for about two months) I had this brilliant idea to make a double sided quilt using paper pieced 1” hexies with the batting stuffed inside … (I’d never even heard of QAYG at this stage, so I thought I’d invented it! LOL )

I ended up using all the hexies for pincushions, but the idea stayed in the back of my mind …




Ripple dissolve to now and Lily’s Quilts Summer Hexalong …

I finally found the blog post that inspired me to do this in the first place - Lee at Freshly Pieced has a lovely tutorial here …  I didn’t alternate the sides on mine, I just went straight round.

So far you’ve seen these two blocks … thank you for all the lovely comments here and on flickr, btw … click on pics to go to my quick tute

I did get a few questions asking how I was going to join these little lovelies …

Aha! 

As Baldrick would say … I have a cunning plan.



When I saw these fab hexies by Silly Lil Doe I filed em in my brain along with all my other hexie plans …  She used a great tutorial here (I don’t have these templates, so I improvised and cut mine from template plastic …)


This is my quick tute to show you how easy it is to QAYG a hexie! 

(I cut my backing fabric 1” larger than the hexie/batting.)

At last I have a properly portable project … If I sew up a whole load of hexalogacabins in advance I can just sandwich and join the little darlings at my leisure, wherever I may be …

Hmmm, talking of sandwiches … off to make tea and toast and go back to bed with a book on this wintery summer’s day!

Do let me know if you give it a go …

Scrappy Hexacabinalong – Quick Tutorial

 

I’ve made a couple of these hexagon log cabins now, as part of LilysQuilts Summer Hexalong …

This one from yesterday uses strips that are uniform in size (1.5”).

They are sooooo easy to make, and if you choose different sized hexies for your central piece you can really get some variety going! 








I received my Happy Mochi Yum Yum winnings from Lily’sQuilts today and I couldn’t resist having a little play.






Vicky, aka Patchwork Queen (my lovely BritQuiltSwap partner) asked me if I’d used a tutorial, but I hadn’t – I just busked it, so I thought I’d make a quick tutorial for anyone who fancies making these … they’re easy peasy lemon squeezy and a grrrrreat way to use up your scraps!

This tutorial is aimed at everyone from absolute beginner up - no meaningful measurements here … You can choose whatever size hexagon you want as your central piece and just build from there until you get to your finished size.

If you want them to fill a square block, just keep going until oversize and then trim … If you want to square them off with a white background, that’s easy too … just a couple of triangles and rectangles to add …

I hope the following tute is clear – I’ve numbered each stage so that if you just want to right click and save em they’ll be easy to view.  It's not difficult, so you should be able to make one in just a little longer than it takes you to read this!

Have fun!

Happy Hexing!  Don’t forget to check out Lily'sQuilts for the Hexalong, or take a peek on Lily’s flickr page at all the lovely stuff people are making and join in the fun  …

SingAlonga{modern}HexAlong

SingAlonga{modern}HexAlong, a photo by Sarah @ pingsandneedles on Flickr.

I'm killing several small birds with one stone here - these are the colours for my 4 x 5 {modern} quilt bee, and I'm auditioning blocks (otherwise known as playing with fabric)

I thought I'd join in with all the hexie fun going on at Lily's Quilts Summer Hexalong .... it's co-hosted by Gayle Brindley here and there's some terrific stuff going on at their blogs, or go check out Lily'sQuilts flickr group ...

I need a portable summer project, so my idea is to hand piece the central hexies and then come back and machine piece the borders ... of course, I'm not actually 'going' anywhere this summer LOL! but, you know what I mean ... any excuse for a hexie ...

Pondering Blocks for the Summersault Quilt

Thank you all for your quilty block inspiration ideas on my last post.  Even though I haven’t completely decided on where to go with this quilt yet, I thought it would be fun (for me only perhaps!) to go through my process from absolute start to finish on a quilt. 

So, I’m going to show how this little stack of Erin McMorris’ new Summersault line that I won over at Fat Quarterly will become a quilt for my god-daughter.





Even though I save a lot of tutorials to my computer, and I am a self-confessed geeky nerd, I usually end up working from a sketch of a block using good old analogue pen and paper.  I don’t aim for beauty in these sketches, I’m just getting the key maths/shapes/values down for later.





I do a lot of this – sometimes I spend so long sketching and pondering a block that I don’t feel the need to make it! (A technique I’ve learned from reading recipe books - LOL!) 

There’s something about the physical process of drawing blocks that helps me to visualise the piecing steps and, crucially, gives me a pretty good indicator as to whether I’d enjoy sewing it!

The red and white sketch (top right above) was going to be my Quilt for Japan … but it took me so long to sketch it that I’m afraid I wimped out of actually making it … one day … !!





 
So, if I see a block that I like,
I sketch it out and include some form of reference for later attribution …


I’ve noticed that all my notebooks now have squared paper, just in case I feel the urge to draw some sewing!


Next process post I’ll cover playing with colour values …




So, do you use a notebook to jot down block ideas? Are you a back of the envelope scribbler, or perhaps you use a computer program like EQ? 


Do share …

Wonky Star Block - trial for 4x5 {modern} quilt bee

Wonky Star Block - trial for 4x5 {modern} quilt bee, a photo by Sarah @ pingsandneedles on Flickr.

I haven't chosen which block to do for the 4x5 {modern} quilt bee yet, so I thought I'd audition a few blocks in my colour choices ...

That way I end up with more blocks for the final quilt ... win win.

This one's yer trad wonky star block - 4.5 inch squares with 5" squares cut diagonally for the points ... easy peasy ...

Well ... I say that, but I did get a bit confused with my overs and unders! (I need to make a block at least twice before I really get it! LOL - I think it's the whole muscle memory thing)

The fabrics are a green/yellow shot cotton, Kona Canary, Laurie Wisbrun's Tufted Tweets, and some spoonflower prints of Laurie's Modern Whimsy collection ... The line is coming to RKaufman later in the year, so go to her etsy shop if you want to catch the colourways that didn't make it to the mix.

My colour way for the bee is:

lemon/canary yellow
lime/chartreuse
turquoise/aqua/sky
orange/tangerine

It's to go with my Berlin fleamarket fabric ...

apologies for foggy photos ... camera has forgotten how to focus ... grrr

Summersaulting Thursday

I recently won a giveaway at Fat Quarterly so I thought I'd cheer up our glowering thunderstormy skies with a little peek!

It’s a fab stack of Erin McMorris’ new Summersault line for Free Spirit in the ‘Lake’ colourway.  I somehow missed out on Park Slope & Wildwood, so it’s really great to get my hands on these beauties.  I’ve used Erin’s Irving Street Flannels before and they were wonderful to work with.


There’s a lovely interview with Erin here.   I can’t find anywhere in the UK that stocks Summersault , but you can see it in loads more detail at The Fat Quarter Shop or Sew Mama Sew.  If you know better, please let me know in a comment!





The colours are rich and bright without being too garish, the fabric is warm and soft and I can’t wait to get quilting with it.  More precisely, this is going to be a quilt for my god-daughter’s birthday at the end of August .


I’ve got so many blocks I want to make at the moment, I can’t quite decide on a final pattern!  I’m thinking wonky stars on white or a rectangle zig zag. 





It needs to be simple or hypnotically repetitive to assemble, and sophisticated and striking to look at/touch.  After my Harlot’s Web I need a break from scrappy & strippy for a while!





Any ideas?  I’d really appreciate some suggestions …  do leave a comment with a link to something you love right now or a description … or summat like that.

BritQuilt wonderfulness & the lady parts pincushion

Whoa! How lucky am I?  I’ll show you, shall I?

This morning I received my quilt in the BritQuilt Swap.  I had waited till the absolute last minute to leave for work in case the post came. When I opened my front door the box was outside!  Either a silent postman, or my neighbour took it in yesterday, dunno.

All I did know was that I absolutely didn’t have time to give it the attention it deserved.
So, I just ripped the top of the box off, to have a peek, to see me through the day, you know … and I nearly peed myself I tell you. 

You see, Lynne @ LilysQuilts had sent me the best possible “angel quilt” anyone could ever send.  An angel quilt is for when for whatever reason one of the swap partners has to drop out or postpone.  My partner Yvonne has been very poorly.  Sending love Yvonne!


I didn’t even have time to take the contents out of the box -  I just stroked it all for a nanosecond, grabbed the card and flew down the hill to work.

This is what I savoured on my return this evening:





fab mug rug, some scrrrrrrrrumptious  rubystar rising (I don’t have any left, so this was wonderful!  Also my first Sherbet Pips (totally scrummy too!) and some of the lovely post goat Japanese fabric. 

Nestling in there is an infamous piece, now known as the Lady Parts Pincushion you can read a tea snortingly funny thread here from the DQS10 that explains it all and that should give you a clue as to why I’m quite so squeaky!





Introducing Regina Phalange … This was Lynne’s quilt from the Doll Quilt Swap on Flickr, but long story short, her partner sent it back to her. I know. Let’s not judge.  Let’s bloomin frickin celebrate, cos I’ve got it!  Ha-Ha!


So, Lynne, when you said that these had come to their proper home, you didn’t know quite how right you were!  I had to stick a few pins in first,just because I wanted to know if it would feel as wrong as we thought it would.  It did.




But now, you can see the lady parts pincushion happily nestling in her readymade pink pubic heaven, and that is where she will stay.

Whodathunk a quilt swap could give a girl so much fun?

Thank you Lynne.  From the bottom of my flange. Thank you.

Happy Happy Give Me Give Me Mochi Mochi Yum Yum

Be still my beating heart ...

Lynne @ Lily's Quilts is having a fabtastic 2 FQ stack giveaway of Monica Solorio-Snow's gorgeous new line for Lecien - Happy Mochi Mochi Yum Yum, sponsored by The Fat Quarter Shop.  I've had my eye on this big time since Monica first unveiled little sneaky peeks  ... I absolutely love it.

You should see the loveliness that Monica's making over at The Happy Zombie

(Monica's using the line for her Farmer's Wife Quilt-a-long! - you can see more here on flickr )

So, what are you wating for .... get on over to Lily's Quilts and be in with a chance to win ...  !

BritQuiltSwap - Harlot's Web - Ta-Da!

BritQuiltSwap - Harlot's Web - Ta-Da!, a photo by Sarah @ pingsandneedles on Flickr.

Hoorah!

All finished and nearly ready to go to my mystery partner!

I'm just waiting for it to dry - I had to wash it because I pricked my finger really badly and bled all over it! So, partner, blood, sweat and tears ... but now big smiles.

Hand quilted with Anchor Pearl 8.

Back: Kona Coal - I used the backing to bind the front because I wanted the grey side to look more like a whole cloth quilt.

It's really difficult to get a camera to see this quilt the way it is in real life ... the back is vibrant but still calm. There are lots of better detail shots in my BritQuilt Swap set ...

I'll be sad to see it go - it represents so many firsts for me, it's one of the things I love about Swaps!

- first time I've machine quilted anything bigger than a mugrug

- first time I've used perle cottons instead of 6 strand embroidery thread - so so wonderful. I don't believe how much nicer it is to sew with!

- first time I've really ended up with exactly what I first pictured when I sketched it!

I had such a blast making it, and I learned so much! I do hope you like it, lovely partner!


1. BritQuiltSwap - Harlot's Web - Finished & Washed!, 2. Brit Quilt Swap - Harlot's Web - Finished! Yay!