Quilt Non 2016 - Mini Trellis block part 2

If you missed my original post earlier today you can find it here. I've stitched up my Mini Trellis block this afternoon over on Instagram but I thought I'd share the process photos here as well in case you wanted to see how the block goes together. I pulled a selection of fabrics from Karen Lewis' Blueberry Park range for Robert Kaufman.

I prepped all the pieces before starting to speed things up.

I marked, cut and pieced each block separately to avoid getting in a muddle...

..stitched using an old needle and shortened the stitch length to 1.3 to aid in removing papers later.

Trimmed a scant 1/4" seam within the block as the pieces are quite small.

 A couple of stitches in the seam allowance on the outer edges of the block help to hold the fabric in place when piecing the elements of the block together later.

I speared the relevant matching points with pins to make sure the alignment was OK before stitching. Before pressing I removed the paper from the seam allowances along the join to help it lay(lie? who knows?) flat.

Repeat with the other half of this section of the block.

Then there was the simple matter of making three more before the light vanished....I didn't succeed. It was dusk by the time I finished so the colours look vastly different but the block is still pretty.

So there you have it. One finished Mini Trellis block. You can find the free pattern download here.
I'd love to see your version so if you use any of the following hashtags I'll be able to find yours on social media #minitrellisblock #nelliesniceties #quiltnon2016
Catch you soon x

Blogger's Quilt Festival Spring 2015 - Kaleidoscopic quilt

It's that time of year again folks, all the big boys and girls are off to Quilt Market to see all the fun new fabric that we'll all be coveting and the rest of us get to watch jealously from afar. Thank goodness for Amy and her twice yearly Blogger's Quilt  Festival to keep us all happy looking at the fantastic creations of our online community! It's always fun to find new inspiration and new blogs to read.
I usually have a tricky time deciding which quilt to enter but this year I knew straight away which one I wanted to submit. I designed this Kaleidoscopic quilt for Quilt Now magazine last year and was delighted when it made the front cover of Issue 5!

This lap sized quilt was a real labour of love, 64 foundation pieced blocks was no small task. It was totally worth it though, this is one of my all time favourites. I love all the secondary patterns that this block gives and the colours just make me feel happy. There are so many of my beloved/ hoarded fabrics in here, which I'm sure contributes to its favourite status.

After all the machine work of foundation piecing it was a pleasure to take my time over the hand quilting. I'm a huge fan of chunky hand quilting with Perle thread. I don't have the patience for tiny. neat hand stitches but neat chunky stitches are right up my street. The texture that this type of quilting provides is fantastic, really snuggly, which is just what you need for a lap quilt!

I used three neutral shades of Perle thread in the low volume areas of the quilt and a dusky pink Perle thread to echo quilt the pink kites.

I contained the kaleidoscopic blocks with a scrappy low volume border and finished off with a black and white pezzy binding. I can't resist showing you the professional photo on the cover of  the magazine; I will never tire of seeing my creation right there on the cover.

So there you have it, I'm entering this in the Modern Quilts category purely because I designed this quilt on the iPad. You must check out all the other quilts in the category (and the other categories of course) and if you like this quilt or indeed any of the other quilts you can nominate up to 3 quilts for a Viewer's choice award. Nominations are open until the 21st May and voting commences on the 22nd May. I recommend getting yourself a cuppa and a comfy seat to trawl through the fantastic inspiration over there!

Thanks for visiting, I hope you'll come back again sometime. Catch you soon x