Fiesta

Another week has passed by in a flash and we've celebrated Jess' 18th birthday. It seems like only yesterday that she was a chubby little one, now look at her! A beautiful young woman inside and out.

When we weren't celebrating or recovering from celebrating I took some time out to design yet more blocks on EQ7. Most of them are secret for now but I can show you this one that I designed last night for a block challenge on the Electric Quilt blog. The challenge involves using Fiesta from Michael Miller which has lots of large scale prints that are tricky to use in small scale but that wasn't going to stop me trying. I drafted this block in Patchdraw as I'm partial to paper pieced designs (I'm sure you hadn't noticed that, cough) and I find this the easiest way to use unusual but accurate shapes in EQ7. I'm still learning so I'm sure there is probably a better way of doing it but for now this works for me.  

As per usual I designed this block with secondary shapes in mind, that seems to be my style these days.

I'm not sure how easy it is to see the patterns in this colour way so here's another in solids which is much more defined.

The challenge is open to anybody, even those who scribble on paper ( I still do that too) and there are some great prizes up for grabs courtesy of Michael Miller and The Electric Quilt company. You might want to check it out for yourself. The challenge is open until March 11th. (Note. I'm not being sponsored to promote this I just thought I'd let you all know about the fun.)
Catch you soon x

Remix

It's a big week this week. Our baby turns 18 on Friday! I should be madly planning celebrations but instead I'm trying to ignore the fact that I appear to have developed man-flu. I say trying as it keeps breaking me out in a sweat then plunging me into the chills so it's fairly hard to ignore. I thought I'd get on and sew to take my mind  off it but by the time I climbed the stairs I wanted to curl up in a ball. I will have to satisfy myself (and therefore you too) with a WIP picture instead of a finished article.

I've been working on this EPP for a little while using lots of pretty screen printed fabrics from Karen Lewis textiles. I've used some of the templates from my Shields cushion (available in Quilt Now Issue 8) along with a newly drafted distorted hexagon template to link the elements together in a Shields Remix. All I need to add are the cornerstones then this top is ready for sashing and quilting. Fingers crossed for a finish early next week!
Now I'm off to chill out and will this man-flu to sod off. Catch you soon xx

Shields

Issue 8 of Quilt Now hits the UK shops on Thursday. This month's theme is monochrome and you'll find that there's nothing dull about it! Lynne's Cherie quilt graces the front page and snuggled up next to it is my Shields cushion :)

I spent the Christmas holiday manically sewing EPP to get it ready for the magazine. It's a whopping 28"! I've included lots of step by step instruction in the hopes that confident beginnners will be able to tackle it as well as those more familiar with EPP. I used lots of Art Gallery Fabrics low volume prints and some rather delicious Free Spirit solids. I'm delighted with the end result! I'm sure it would look pretty in colour too :)

This month's block of the month technique is fast-flying geese . I do love a quick block!

The bonus companion project is a cushion this month. I'm sure it will be up  Available now on the Quilt Now website shortly too. I used the flying geese to create a chevron effect. Very quick but effective. The gorgeous prints are from Cleta by AGF in-house studio and Jungle Avenue by Sara Lawson both for Art Gallery Fabrics.

I'll be back later this week. Hope you're all enjoying your weekend. Catch you soon x

Mystery BOM

I've been playing with EQ7 again, it's rather addictive! I'm enjoying it so much that I thought it might be fun to offer up a new block each month as a Mystery BOM. I'm expecting that the blocks will all be paper pieced in some way. I hope you'll consider sewing along with me so I'm not Billy-no-mates.

To kick off this time it's a 6" foundation pieced star block - Star Central.

I'll be making a sampler with the blocks that I post each month  but you can of course do what you like with yours.

Each month I'll post the templates, a colouring sheet and info sheet on our website so that they're all in one place. I'll obviously blog it too so you know when the new blocks are released. If you decide to join in I'd love to see your versions and it would be great to be able to share some of your work here along with our Flickr group and of course on Instagram #nelliesnicetiesmysterybom.
So there you have it, month one up and ready for use now. Tell your friends if you feel so inclined, the more the merrier!
Catch you soon x