A twist on the tile

The day started well with deliveries of Summersville by Lucie Summers and...

Layer cake of Summersville!!

Tula Pink's book! I pre-ordered this book in December so was not impressed when I didn't receive it when it was released. I gave up waiting in the end and re-ordered it from elsewhere. I'm a happy bunny now :)

Tula Pink's book

After browsing through the book and petting the fabric I thought I'd tackle a Tile block. I've re-coloured the original block so that it corresponds with the fabrics I used.

Adaptation of the Tile block

It's a super easy block to make, hooray! I supersized this so the finished block will be turned into an 18" cushion. All you need is 9 - 6 1/2" squares and 6 - 4" squares.

Ruby Star and Echino :) 

I've used Ruby Star Rising, Ruby Star Shining and Echino to create this very funky cushion top. I think I'll hand quilt this one :)  I've taken a few process shots for Catherine and anyone else who might be interested in how I made the block up. The blocks represented by brown in the diagram are essentially flying geese blocks. I marked points half way along 3 sides then joined them up to create the lines to cut on.

I cut all the 4" squares into 2 right angled HSTs to make the flying geese. I'm sure there are more clever and accurate ways of doing this but this is what worked for me. I lined the long edge of the HST up with one of the angled edges of the brown block making sure I had little ears either side like below.

Don't forget the little dog ears :) 

 Sew a 1/4" inch seam then press open.

Repeat on the opposite side to complete the unit. I trimmed the finished blocks as necessary to 6 1/2" square.

Repeat to complete the unit. 

I pressed all the seams open to try and cut down on some the bulkiness. There are four units like this with different rotations as shown in the block diagram.

Finished geese unit

For the central unit the process is exactly the same except all four sides will have HSTs sewn to them to create the finished 6 1/2" unit.

Central block.

 The rest is self-explanatory really :) If you have any questions Catherine just drop me a line and I'll help if I can. I love, love, love the finished block!!! When I have more time I definitely see a quilt using this block in my future! Catch you soon x

Not a quilt

Just for a break from the quilt-fest I've been having of late I broke my no-swaps rule and joined the Fab Little Pincushion Swap (FLiPS)over on Flickr. I'm ridiculously out of practice at making little things so there will be much head scratching before this one gets completed. 

FLiPS in progress

 So after a little lot of faffing around this is as far as I have got. I'm hoping it will transform into something awesome but currently it's in danger of being mediocre!

Hmmm, not sure about this.

I gave creativity the day off today as I'd had an early start to the day, which in my book equals rest of the day recovering, but I'm hoping to come back to it refreshed tomorrow. In the meantime I designed yet another quilt on Touch Draw which I won't show you yet. It lead to the purchase of another Accuquilt die which is a bit naughty but I'm sure I'll justify it to myself eventually ;) In other news, our house is officially for sale...we have a board now! Catch you soon x

Two little dicky birds...

...well not quite but look at the pictures and you'll get my drift.

 Two co-ordinating Freebird quilts for Siblings Together ready for duty :)

The quilts are essentially the same, I've just used a different section of the Half Time Quilt for each one so there is a little bit of difference between them but you'd have to put them side by side to know :) So that's 4 quilts down now, one more to go then I can quilt the one that Mum has made too. Hoping to get them all ready to roll before the end of the month! Catch you soon x

Tiles

I've been admiring Lynne's graphic drawings ever since she started playing with Touch Draw. I bought the Touch Draw app a little while ago and frankly didn't understand why Lynne thought it was so easy to use! I could not get to grips with it at all. Part of that is probably my inability to read instructions before trying things out! Anyway when Lynne promised to do some tutorials on her blog I figured it was worth following them to see if I could grasp the concept well enough to make it use of it myself. I'm happy to report that it appears I'm not totally inept after all!! Here's my first quilt design using Touch Draw!

 When we were house hunting on Friday one of the houses had this fantastic Victorian tiled hallway! "Ooo that'd make a great quilt, take a photo!" I said to hubby. I see more blocks coming from this inspiration photo but I think for a first go with Touch Draw it's not bad!

I'm planning on using feature fabrics in the centre of each block for a bit interest so it should be fun to put together. I might even post a little tutorial for the block construction if anyone's interested!
Catch you soon x

Did I mention Fat Quarterly?

OK, I know I mentioned Fat Quarterly but I'm still super excited to have been included in this issue! Please bear with me :) Here's another peek at the Nightshade Quilt I designed.

Nightshade rocks!

I wanted to see how it would look with other fabrics so I went right ahead and made a little quilt for my gorgeous nephew, Mackinlay! Dr Seuss teamed with some nice bright solids, whoop! Now that's a fun quilt in anyone's book :)

Mackinlay's Dr Seuss quilt

I backed with this fab print from It's a hoot by Momo which is just perfect even if I say so myself. 

Here's the proof, if you need it, that this quilt is fun with a capital F. Mackinlay totally loves it :) 

Catch you soon x

Freebird

First things first, I want to thank you all for the lovely supportive comments you left in response to yesterday's post! You put a big smile on my otherwise frowning face ;-) I've seen the full issue of Fat Quarterly 9 now and it's a real stunner! In other news, I've almost finished the first of the Freebird quilts for Siblings Together. Every time I say Freebird I can't help chuckling to myself like the ageing rock chick that I am :) I used the Half Time Quilt pattern, as I mentioned previously, and the result is fairly cheerful even if I say so myself.

Front of Freebird quilt

 All that remains to be done is the binding. The Ikea fabric that Wendy sent is just perfect for the backing, check out those funky birds.

Rear of Freebird quilt

I've already got the blocks for the second Freebird quilt ready to roll so it should be another quick finish...fingers crossed! Hubby and I are venturing north on Friday for a day of house-hunting so that might slow my sewing progress slightly but it will hopefully be worth it! Catch you soon x

Just saying

I'm so excited to finally be able to blab to you all!! I've had the very great honour of playing with Tula Pink's soon to be released Nightshade. I can't even begin to tell you how over-the-top excited I have been and it's fair near killed me not being able to shout it from the roof-tops. Regular readers will probably know how much I love Tula Pink's style, so to get my mitts on this before the crowds has been epic!! Let me just tell you that it is as fabulous in real life as I hoped it would be from the pictures I'd seen online. Tula has an amazing gift for design and I just love searching her prints for all the hidden details.  

Nightshade by Tula Pink!!

So, you're probably wondering how I got so lucky and the answer is even more exciting for me! I have had the very great privilege of designing a quilt to appear in Fat Quarterly. I still can't quite believe it! Here's a little glimpse of the Not-so-deadly Nightshade quilt :)

Extreme close-up of my Not-so-deadly Nightshade quilt.

Those of you that already subscribe to Fat Quarterly will get to see it in its entirety. I think I'll be able to show the rest of you the finished quilt at some point. I'll love to hear what you think of it! There's also another little project of mine in Fat Quarterly but I'll gush about that one another day :)  So now I've blabbed I can go and chill out. Catch you soon x