Blogiversary celebrations!

It's been 4 years since the birth of our little space in blogdom! How on earth has so much time flown by already? We're rather excited so we're having an extended celebration both here and on our new website :) If you head over to the website and check out the "New" section you'll find the opening act of our celebrations - PDF templates for the Cartwheels block!

If you do decide to head over there you might want to take a pen and paper with you to note down a special code that will come in very handy on Saturday for the next part of our celebrations :) Catch you soon x

Tessellated madness

My hopes for a less stressful week were denied as it turns out that hubby managed to break a couple of ribs and bruise his lung during his motorbike spill last week. After much to-ing and fro-ing to Drs and the hospital he is now more comfortable and, all being well, on the road to recovery! My deadline sewing projects have been screaming at me from the cutting table but I've had to ignore them as I was too tired to concentrate and couldn't risk bodging them. I couldn't go all week without sewing though so I cracked on with my Tessellated Madness epp project. Yesterday I squared it up and quilted it with a zingy green Aurifil thread with my usual crazy straight lines.

Here's a close-up of the quilting:

Then it was a quick job to turn it into a cushion because I clearly don't have nearly enough of those ;)

I used the most awesome print by Anna Maria Horner for the backing fabric along with a flash of solid to conceal the zip!

For someone who has always detested hand sewing I have done plenty of it this past year! Just look at this little lot:

Spring Carnival, Diamonds, kites and stars, Hexiestars and Tessellated Madness

It's official I am that crazy patchwork lady! I absolutely love that riot of colour :) Now that I've finished this Tessellated Madness cushion I'm slightly miffed that you can't really see the tessellated design very clearly. So what does any sane person do in this instance?... they start another one of course! I pulled this fabric stack last night with the intention of piecing a more subtle version. There are some of my favourite vintage style prints here in the form of Dream On by Urban Chiks, Nicey Jane by Heather Bailey, Lecien dots and the ever lovely Kei florals that I got from Polkadotteafabrics. Here's my progress so far:

I'm hoping that the tessellated design will be easier to spot now that I'm using prints consistently throughout the block instead of being scraptastic!

Edited to add: There will be a pre-cut paper pieces kit available for this design in September 2017. You can refer to this post for basic visual guidance if you get stuck. As usual if you make anything with these templates I'd love to see your version! Please use #tessellatedmadness on Instagram or add a picture to our flickr group. Alternatively feel free to email me a photo :) Catch you soon x

Nellie's Knots - Free PDF foundation piecing templates

Please allow me to formally introduce you to Nellie's Knots. I designed this block for the Sew Mama Sew giveaway and it was given this fab name by Sarah. I promised that I'd make the templates available to anyone that was interested, so here I am. I'm not giving a full on tutorial but I will give some very basic instructions. I was slightly miffed by the asymmetry in this original block and that's down to me changing my mind about how I was going to piece it after I'd drawn up the templates! Don't get me wrong I still think it's pretty but my OCD nature was bothered. 

If you also have issues with the need for symmetry you might want to make sure you layout all your paper pieces correctly before starting :) You can use this second mini block that I made for reference.

I found it very useful to layout all the fabric before I started chopping so that I could get the fabric placement straight in my mind. I also numbered each block so that I would be able to match things up after sewing.

 There are two parts to each paper pieced template, you need to cut the template in half horizontally to give an a and b section. Seam allowances are not included so you need to make sure that add a 1/4" around each section as below.

I've prepared templates in two different sizes: 3" and 6". The examples shown here are around 12" and 24" finished, both use 16 templates. You will need to print off Templates A and B (which is just a mirror image of the A template) in your chosen size. Obviously you can add as many blocks as you like :)

As you can see I've played around with fabric placement to give you another perspective on the design. I don't think I've got any more pearls of wisdom. If you have any questions about the blocks feel free to leave a comment and I'll answer in the replies so that everyone benefits from the answer.

You'll find the PDF templates are here.

If you make your own version we'd love to see it! Please use the #NelliesKnots on Instagram or add a picture to our flickr group.
That's all for now folks. I'm off to enjoy the sunshine :) Catch you soon x

Edited to add: You will find a free PDF pictorial guide for Nellie's Knots in our Payhip store and in the Freebies section of our website.