The Easy Peasy Mini Tote - Free pattern

When I released the Easy Peasy Christmas Sampler I mentioned that I was going to make a Santa sack from one of the blocks. Well, amazingly, I have actually finished it! It's approximately 10 1/2" x 13 1/2", so a decent size for little gifts and for little ones to fill with their favourite possessions when they want to tote them around. I have visions of dinosaurs and Lego being carried around in this one when Christmas is over.

This fantastic dotty print from Gardenvale by Jen Kingwell was the perfect snowy background for the nutcracker block. I wanted to make sure the bag was going to be up to the task of toting toys for a decent amount of time so lining was essential. I used another print from Gardenvale to pull everything together.

This mini tote took less than an hour to make so it's a perfect last minute make. As making this made me feel festive I thought it might be fun to share how I made it so you can make your own!
You can download the PDF pattern free here. I'd love to see you version if you make one so please feel free to email a picture to reene@nelliesniceties.com or use the hashtags #easypeasyminitote #nelliesniceties on social media. Catch you soon x

The Easy Peasy Christmas Sampler

Yvonne, Emily, Katie, Trash, Mandy, Tina, Paula, Mary, Sue, Virginia, Rosie and Maria did me proud.

Thanks to my trusty pattern testers I'm releasing the Easy Peasy Christmas Sampler pattern today!

Here's a badly lit photo of my finished quilt top. I used Kona solids and the stripy prints from Tula Pink's Elizabeth range for this cheerful kid friendly version.

I've designed this quilt to be a very quick project. There is no foundation piecing and all the blocks are designed to be chain pieced to speed things up when making multiple blocks. The Easy Peasy Sampler is made up of multiples of 5 simple blocks: Nutcracker, Candy Cane, Christmas Tree, Star and Stack of Presents. Here are Yvonne's cute print versions...

 

...and Trash's.

The 12 page PDF pattern is in pictorial format so there is very little written instruction, as such it is suitable for people with at least a basic knowledge of patchwork techniques. 

The pattern testers have all enjoyed the pictorial format and have found it very straight-forward to follow, I hope that you will agree. Here's an example of the page layout.

If you don't have time for a full quilt you can use any of the individual blocks as the starting point for smaller projects e.g Santa's sack, cushion cover, table runner. Simply refer to the individual block construction diagrams for cutting instructions and you're good to go. I'm going to turn this little chap into a Santa sack for Mackinlay.

 

 

The blocks are really simple and lend themselves to being blinged up if that is your thing. Yvonne went to town on this little nutcracker block.

 

 

To celebrate the release of this pattern we're offering it for sale at a 50% reduction until the end of November, so grab a bargain now! You can find it in our Etsy and Payhip stores.

 

We'd love to see any projects you make with the pattern so please do send us a picture or use the hashtag #easypeasychristmassampler on social media.

Catch you soon x

New additions

We've had a very special addition to our family! My gorgeous sister-in-law, Jade, gave birth to another handsome little man on Friday. Meet Harrison Joshua, little brother to our gorgeous Mackinlay.

I promised Jade a handmade baby changing bag which seemed only fair when she was creating this handsome little bundle. My energy levels have been extremely low recently so it was a case of doing little bits of construction as and when I felt up to it. I revisited an old favourite pattern for the purpose. The slouchy mama bag is voluminous which is just what you need when you have lots of baby stuff to cart around. I used one layer of interfacing and two layers of batting in the exterior shell and quilted a grid pattern using Aurifil to provide a sturdy exterior in the hope that it will live up to daily use.

I pulled lots of fun prints from Tula Pink, Cotton + Steel, Rhoda Ruth and paired them with this gorgeous deep orange kona solid. I figured the prints were grown up enough to be suitable for mummy and interesting enough to entertain small boys on bus trips.

I used some of this awesome tiger print from Tula Pink's new Eden range and felt very proud of myself for sharing one of my favourites ;) It's not as selfless as I'd have you believe really, as I have yardage of this print for a dress!

I added my first (and probably last) concealed interior pocket so there would be somewhere safe to put keys/purse etc. if Jade wanted to leave here handbag at home. I can't even tell you the amount of swearing that was involved in putting this pocket in. No idea why it was such hard work as it's simple enough in theory! As is usual when I make something like this I fell in love with it but I'm sure Jade will love it too and I'll still get to see it often...

While I'm on the subject of bags, there's a free pattern designed by me on the Quilt Now blog for this simple patchwork tote bag.

I hope all is good in your corner of the world. Catch you soon x

Month 8 - Trellis block

I'm late again with this month's installment of the Nellie's Niceties Mystery BOM. This month is a foundation pieced block that I've called Trellis for fairly obvious reasons.

Trellis is a 12" block and even though it is foundation pieced it still goes together very quickly. As usual it looks pretty in a multi-block setting.

Here's one I made earlier ;)

If you fancy having a go yourself you'll find the info sheet, colouring block and templates here.

If you decide to join in I'd love to see your versions and it would be great to be able to share some more of your work here along with our Flickr group and of course on Instagram #nelliesnicetiesmysterybom #trellisblock. Tell your friends, the more the merrier :) 

Catch you soon x 

Wow...

...how has it been almost a month since I last blogged here? I'd like to say I've been so busy sewing that I haven't had time to blog but the truth is I've been exhausted so not a lot of anything has been going on. Fortunately I was busy earlier this year so I've still got things that I can share here until my energy levels rise again. Issue 14 of Quilt Now heralds the start of the new mystery BOM designed by yours truly. This time around I'm using Kona solids from the Emily Cier bundle for the magazine quilt. There is only one block to make each month so I'm hoping that it will be easier for some of you to quilt along with me, The first block is a simple Quarter log-cabin. Here's the solids version...

...and a mini-quilt using some prints from Gardenvale by Jen Kingwell.

I'm going to quilt along too this time so I'll have a different version of the finished quilt for myself at the end of it. Each of the blocks would look equally fabulous in multiples so I'll share a couple of ideas with you each month.

    

If you decide to join in I'd love you to use the hashtag #quiltnowbom on Instagram or Twitter so that Quilt Now and I can find your blocks. There are a few blocks on there already which makes me a happy bunny :) 

Hoping all is good in your corner of blogland. Catch you soon x

Running late - Month 7 Crossroads

Time has flown past again. It appears I've missed our 5th blogiversary! I'll have to remedy that very soon with a giveaway but for now I'm belatedly sharing this month's Nellie's Niceties Mystery BOM block.

Shock, horror, it's another EPP block. I've called this one, Crossroads.  

It's a 6" block that produces a pretty secondary pattern as usual when used in mutliples.

The pieces sew together very quickly which makes it a satisfying "sewing for fun" project. Here's one I pieced last night.

I'm intending to make another 3 so I can make a 12" block out of them for my sampler. If you fancy having a go yourself you'll find the templates, info sheet and colouring sheet here.

If you decide to join in I'd love to see your versions and it would be great to be able to share some more of your work here along with our Flickr group and of course on Instagram #nelliesnicetiesmysterybom #crossroadsblock. Tell your friends, the more the merrier :) 

Catch you soon x 

Tropical Storm

I said I'd be back with more info on the projects I've contributed to Issue 13 of Quilt Now so, here I am with the next update. Tropical Storm is my take on the traditional "Storm at sea". I used all solids to showcase the impression of curves that the design yields. This is the quilt top before I sent it off to Trudi to work her magic on it.

Trudi quilted an all-over circular pattern which really tied in beautifully!

One of the best parts of contributing to a publication is seeing how the artistic professionals style my work. This is pretty much perfect in my opinion :) You can just about see the Cotton and Steel backing I used.

There was a bit of a hitch with the editing of the pattern for the magazine and the block construction diagrams are missing, so I'm including pictures here for anyone who might fancy having a go.

Block 1 construction diagrams

Block 2 construction diagrams

I'll be back soon with the other two projects I contributed. Catch you soon x

Mystery BOM Month 6 - Fiesta block

This month's Nellie's Niceties Mystery BOM block is yet another EPP block. Sorry if EPP is not your thing but I'm in a hand piecing groove at the moment :) I've called this one Fiesta. It's a 6" block, slightly tricky but still fun.

As is typical for my designs there's a nice secondary pattern in multiples.

You'll find the free templates, info sheet and colouring sheet on our website. Here's proof that the block actually works in fabric ;) 

If you decide to join in I'd love to see your versions and it would be great to be able to share some more of your work here along with our Flickr group and of course on Instagram #nelliesnicetiesmysterybom #fiestablock. Tell your friends, the more the merrier :) 

Catch you soon x 

Let's go fly a kite - Mystery BOM month 5

This month's mystery block is a 6" EPP block that I've called Let's go fly a kite.

As you'd expect there's a cute secondary pattern when combined in multiples.

You'll find the info sheet, templates and colouring sheet on our website. The block goes together in a couple of hours and should be suitable for everyone from confident-beginners upwards. I should probably have ironed mine before taking a photo but that was too much like hard work ;)

I thought you might like to see my sampler progress so far, please excuse the masking tape.

If you decide to join in I'd love to see your versions and it would be great to be able to share some more of your work here along with our Flickr group and of course on Instagram #nelliesnicetiesmysterybom #letsgoflyakite. Tell your friends, the more the merrier :) 

Catch you soon x

Mega Giveaway!

I'm a day late in posting this but I think you're going to agree that it's worth the wait :) To celebrate our 3rd blogiversary we are offering our most extravagant prizes ever and you all know we've been pretty generous in the past.
First up is this fabulous stash of Liberty Lawn and Liberty Rossmore cord along with some beautiful handmade cards. Feast your eyes on this!

Here are a couple of close-ups so you can get a better idea of what's on offer. The fabrics all come from Yvonne's personal stash...

 and the cards and lined envelopes lovingly handmade by Yvonne. I will just point out that Yvonne's card making is legendary amongst our family and friends and it is virtually impossible to part with the cards once they are no longer on display. I have drawers full of cards which I can't bear to throw away!

Secondly we are giving away a Lap-size quilt kit for the soon to be released Sneaky Stars Quilt! This prize is 3 and a half metres of Kona solids of your choice along with the pattern to make the quilt top. The winner of this prize will be given a code to redeem on Simply Solids site. Just so you know, this is not a sponsored prize, we're paying for the kit and the postage :)

So, what do you think of that then?! As we are being super generous we're going to offer you up to 2 chances to win.
First chance - leave a comment here letting us know you are a follower, new followers are more than welcome, the button's up there on the right-hand side ;)
Second chance - share the love and let others know about the giveaway on your Twitter/Facebook/Blog etc. then come back and let us know that you have. (I'm going to try to post this on Nellie's Niceties Facebook page so you can share it from there if you're on there)

There will be 2 winners chosen by Mr Random Number Generator. The first number generated will choose which prize they want and the second will have to make do with the remaining prize ;) What a hardship!
The giveaway will run until Saturday 10th August 2013. Comments will be closed at 2pm BST and the draw will take place soon after that. I'll post the winners on the Sunday barring disaster.
What are you waiting for, get entering ;) Catch you soon x

Edited to add: Please make sure I have a way to contact you if you are a winner. There are lots of no-reply blogger comments and I'd hate to have to re-draw if I can't contact you :) 
Edited on 10/8/13: Draw now closed. Thanks for taking part. Winners will be announced tomorrow.