Radio silence

Well my plans for regular blogging really haven't gone all that well. I have been busy sewing and sharing progress on Instagram but that hasn't translated into blog posts. To those of you who still frequent these parts I'm sorry that you've been neglected. I will try harder, honestly.
I stepped in as an "Angel" for the Pillow Talk Swap Instagram edition so I've had a few fun days stitching up this cushion. I resized the templates from my Kaleidoscopic quilt to create this 18" square cushion. I used Aurifil to echo quilt in the diamonds for a subtle look, there was already plenty going on with all the different fabrics.

 It was slightly painful sending this one off today, I really hope it will be loved by the recipient. I couldn't resist taking a shot of it with the original Kaleidoscopic quilt.

I will be releasing the pattern for this quilt and a stand alone foundation template version very soon so please do keep an eye out for news shortly if you're interested. 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 

Strike a pose

I currently have this song running through my head... 

...it's Vogue by Madonna for those that don't know. It's typical of me and my drama queen reaction to this amazing happening...

That, right there, is my quilt on the cover of Quilt Now Issue 5!!!! I am ridiculously chuffed to be gracing the cover. This is my favourite quilt design to date, so to have it on the front of the magazine is the cherry on top for me :)

I'm not going to lie, it was hard work making all those blocks but totally worthwhile for the end result. I got busy with the Perle 8 thread for some chunky hand quilting and I love the texture it gives :)

This issue of Quilt Now is all about scraps and there are lots of lovely projects for inspiration inside. We're making the second set of blocks towards the next border in the block of the month using Crazy Patchwork. It's quick and fun!

This month's free BOM project is an apron and you'll find the tutorial here.

Now I'm off to chill out before a rare outing to see Noel Fielding... Catch you soon x