Sew Home...

Welcome to my turn on Erin Bschlosser's book tour!

I first came across the idea of Erin's book when she approached me for using some of my screen printed fabric panels for one of the projects. I was delighted to see this project made the front cover!

Sew Home is a wonderful resource book for creating lovely handmade projects for your entire home, everything from window dressing to wall art and everything practical and decorative in between. 

As well as the book having 30+ projects, Erin has included some interesting and practical advice on choosing and using fabrics, as well as useful techniques.

Each of the 30+ projects are very well written, with easy to follow step instructions, with great accompanying illustrations. Erin has also shown what techniques will be learned/practiced for each project. It is clear Sew Home is a must have sewing book for sewing everything for the home.

When I am doing a book review I really like to make a project to get a feel for it. With my new fabric having just arrived I wanted to make something with it and so I chose the Knife Edge Throw Pillow to use as many of them as possible.

It is a great quick project to add an instant freshen up to your home. The instructions and accompanying diagrams are perfect and simple to follow. One of the techniques Erin is teaching with this project is inserting a concealed zipper. Unfortunately I didn't have one so did my usual envelope finish but I definitely want to try this.

Erin is very kindly offering a reader a copy of her book (digital copy outside US). All you need to do is leave a comment here telling me what item you would wish you could make for your home. Entry is open until Saturday. Good luck!

Go check out the rest of the book tour on these great blogs and perhaps enter their giveaways too!

Tuesday, September 20 - C&T Publishing & Joanna at Kustom Kwilts and Designs

Wednesday, September 21 - Sew 4 Home & Jen Carlton Bailly

Thursday, September 22 - Brenda at Just A Bit Frayed/Pink Castle Fabrics & Nicole at Modern Handcraft

Friday, September 23 - Janome Sewing Machines & Cristy at Purple Daisies Quilting

Monday, September 26 - Windham Fabrics & Rebecca at Bryan House Quilts

Tuesday, September 27 - Generation Q Magazine, Karen Lewis Textiles & Latifah Saafir Studios

Wednesday, September 28 - Dear Stella Fabrics & Mandy at Mandalei Quilts

Thursday, September 29 - Erin at Schlosser Designs

Oh and if you don't have any luck do go purchase a copy anyway here or here!

x

The Quilt Block Cookbook

Hello and welcome to my turn on The Quilt Block Cookbook by Amy Gibson blog hop!

I am a big fan of Amy's bold, bright, mix up style and knew I would love her new book, particularly as the title itself is so inviting. Cook books and quilt books are my favourite books so combining the 2 had my interest at hello.

Amy opens her book with a list of 'ingredients' - basic blocks that will become the basis to all her 'recipe' bigger blocks. These 25 block pieces become all the ingredients you will need to combine in different ways to make the larger blocks. Genius and simple!

Having taken us through all the 50 recipe blocks Amy then introduces us to her selection of quilts using them. Her sampler quilts show us fresh new ways to combine blocks in really interesting and appealing layouts. A sign of a good quilt book is flicking through and wanting to make everything you see. This is that book.

These 2 sampler quilts, above and below, are case in point. I am in love with both the use of block colour in the quilt above and piecing the blocks on point in the quilt below. So fresh and modern and eye catching.

Another aspect of the book that I absolutely love is the section at the end entitled Perfect Pairings. Again Amy has taken a simple idea of combining 2 blocks together to create really striking quilts. 

It is this idea that I wanted to have a quick try of. I chose Pumpkin Pie block and combined it with a simple plus block, threw them both in the Layout App and voila, instant gratification! 

I have so many of Amy's blocks on my making wishlist, along with her ideas of piecing sampler quilts. I know I will come back to this cook book time and time again and it will become a firm favourite, but thankfully without the usual crumbs and food ingredients that mar my usual cook books!

Thanks for stopping by and if you would like to read more about the book go visit this wonderful line up...

Monday, September 5	Angela Pingel	angelapingel.com
Tuesday, September 6	Aneela Hoey	http://comfortstitching.typepad.co.uk/comfortstitching/
Wednesday, September 7	Joanne Avery	http://www.mybearpaw.com/
Thursday, September 8	AnneMarie Chany	www.genxquilters.com
Friday, September 9	Amy Smart	www.diaryofaquilter.com
Monday, September 12	April Rosenthal	www.aprilrosenthal.com
Tuesday, September 13	Amy Friend	http://duringquiettime.com/
Wednesday, September 14	Lee Monroe	www.maychappell.com
Thursday, September 15	Faith Jones	www.freshlemonsquilts.com
Friday, September 16	Lee Heinrich	www.freshlypieced.com
Monday, September 19	Karen Lewis	karenlewistextiles.com
Tuesday, September 20	Nicole Daksiewicz	www.modernhandcraft.com
Wednesday, September 21	Kari Vojtechovsky	craft-happy.blogspot.com
Thursday, September 22	Amy Sinibaldi	nanaCompany.typepad.com
Friday, September 23	Allison Harris	www.cluckclucksew.com
Monday, September 26	Stephanie Palmer	www.latenightquilter.com
Tuesday, September 27	Erica Arndt	www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com

The Quilter's Planner

I am sure you have all seen all the publicity around for The Quilter's Planner 2017 and I am beyond proud to be part of it.

I loved making the quilt for the planner and am completely in love with the fantastic photography Kitty Wilkin has done with mine and all the other stunning quilts. I want to head out to Maine right now and bask in that beautiful East Coast sunshine.

I couldn't pick a selection of all the photos that Kitty took of my quilt, so you got them all!

The planner is available now so go check out the link here to grab yourself a copy, if only to marvel at all the gorgeous quilty eye candy in there.

Here's a complete list of all the marvellous contributors in the Planner. After you see this i am pretty damn sure you will want to grab yourself a copy...

Amy Friend of During Quiet Time

Amy Sinibaldi of Nana and Co.

Amy Smart of Diary of a Quilter

AnneMarie Chany of GenXQuilters

Cheryl Brickey of Meadowmist Designs

Christa Watson of Christa Quilts

Karen Lewis of Karen Lewis Textiles

Kari Vojtechovsky of Craft-Happy

Katie Clark Blakesley of Swim Bike Quilt

Lee Monroe of May Chappell

Lindsey Rhodes of LR Stitched

Rita Hodge of Red Pepper Quilts

Stephanie Palmer of Late Night Quilter

Yvonne Fuchs of Quilting Jetgirl

Lindsie Bergevin of Design by Lindsie

Summer Sampler 2017 - Week 9

Welcome to my turn on the Summer Sampler with my highly unoriginally named Curved Block! 

You have found me out...I am absolutely rubbish at thinking up names for blocks and quilts so this had the working title of the Curved Block and I am afraid it stuck!

I did toy around with calling it Platform 9 1/4s...but I thought that was perhaps stretching the connection a little too randomly...so Curved Block it is!

I hope after a couple of other curve blocks you are feeling confident and happy with curves and will enjoy making your block.

I have done a little playing around with my favourite Layout App with seeing how, if you were inclined to do so, you could have a lot of fun building up an entire quilt with it, or derivations of it.

I hope you will enjoy making yours and I can't wait to see all the different variations everyone will no doubt make!

Don't forget to post your blocks in the Facebook group here!

Intentional Piecing...

It is always exciting when a quilty friend brings out a new book and Intentional Piecing by Amy Friend is no exception.

I am a big fan of Foundation Paper Piecing and I have long since admired Amy's work in this  field. I haven't always been a big fan. Like most of us I went through the head confusion of it but once I emerged on the other side I just love it.

Intentional Piecing is full of fantastic illustrations and photos of the steps involved with paper piecing and is a terrific resource to consult.

The projects in the book are just the cutest. Amy has always produced such eye catching designs making you want to drop everything and just get on and make.

This exact thing happened to me when I saw the Teepee Quilt. Ah man it is perfection! I dropped everything so fast, printed out the pattern and sewed a block before I realised I should have enlarged the block. I was just way too keen. I will definitely do this properly next time because this is one quilt I am certainly making.

One really interesting thing that Amy is doing with the book is a Stitched Story Telling Event. Her Tell Me a Story Quilt uses fussy cutting fabrics to tell a story. Maybe you have some precious fabrics in your stash that mean something in particular. Whatever you have you can join in and tell a story of your own by fussy cutting those fabrics. Me, I was telling a little story of handprinted motifs. I have been on an amazing handprinted journey myself and wanted to highlight this in what is now going to be a cushion cover for my new sewing room.

All you need to do to join in is share the top image on your blog or on Instagram to spread the word.  For each block you make and share on Instagram (or each time you share the image at the top) using the hashtags #intentionalpiecingbook and #TellMeAStoryQuilt, you will be entered into a draw.  On June 1st, I will draw a random winner from the IG hashtag #TellMeAStoryQuilt to win a bundle of fabrics from SewMeASong that were selected just for this project so that you can make more blocks and complete your quilt top!

Fun huh!

In the meantime go here to see where you can get a copy of the book because you really want this in your stash.

Summer Sampler Quilt a long

The Summer Sampler 2016 is launching and I am very proud and excited to be a part of it!

Katie, Lee and Faith did the first Summer Sampler 5 years ago and it's amazing to think it has become a regular feature.

This year the 3 ladies invited 7 of us to join in in creating a couple of blocks each.

This time around, they are offering the Summer Sampler as a block-of-the-week subscription program. Click here to pre-order Summer Sampler 2016 for $19.99. That's just $1 per block—for a limited time, ending May 15. After May 15, the price goes up to $24.99, so don't miss out on the chance to save! (European Union customers: You can purchase the Summer Sampler 2016—and now all Lee's other patterns—through her Etsy shop. Click here to purchase.)

One block a week will be introduced, starting May 16, running through September 26. Each Monday  you will get a link to download that week's block pattern. The last block will be delivered on September 26, and instructions for three sampler layout options will be delivered on Oct. 2.

The Summer Sampler 2016 subscription includes:
• fully-tested instructions for each weekly block, with step-by-step diagrams
• three sampler layouts and full instructions for each, delivered at the end of the subscription
• digital mock-ups of ways to use each block in its own quilt layout, for future inspiration
• coloring pages for planning purposes
• access to a private, subscribers-only Facebook group, where you can interact with the designers and other quilters

All the other quilters involved are:

Allison Harris of Cluck, Cluck, Sew

Amy Smart of Diary of a Quilter

AnneMarie Chany of Gen X Quilters

Faith Jones of Fresh Lemons Quilts

Holly DeGroot of Bijou Lovely

Katie Clark Blakesley of Swim, Bike, Quilt 

Lee Heinrich of Freshly Pieced

Lynne Goldsworthy of Lily’s Quilts

Nicole Daksiewicz of Modern Handcraft 

It's going to be such a blast and I can't wait to see everyone's take on it. Go join up and buy here (or here for EU) and don't forget to tag any makes on Instagram with #summersampler2016

See you there!

Blueberry Park Take 1...

Hello and welcome to a new feature on what is sewing with Blueberry Park.

When I starting designing fabric it was for my personal use and essentially designed something that I needed and wanted to use with my crafting, whether it was for a feature print or a nice blender.

Like all fabric collections we all use them in such different ways and to see what you all do with Blueberry Park was so exciting and such a thrill. 

It gives me such a happy feeling to catch sight of Blueberry Park in and amongst other fabrics that I thought I would have a regular feature of here on my blog to share some of the things I have loved seeing. I really love that you all love to have Blueberry Park in your stash and pull a piece to mingle with others.

I am starting this week with some glimpses of Blueberry Park in blocks sitting comfortably with other fabrics as well as a couple of peeps' lovely fabric pulls. I always love a fabric pull pic...full of promise!

Take a look at what some IG folks have been up to. All photos are here with the permission of the maker and thank you all for sharing. If you would like to be featured in one of my future blogposts just email (karen@karenlewistextiles.com) a pic of your fabric pull, a snippet of BP in the making and finished works too!

@isabellaquilts

@sewsewlife

@quiltyliving

@srhshlmn

@redpepperquilts

@msmajabird

@lambandwolfie

Quick & Easy Quilts Giveaway Winner

Thank you all for entering Lynne's giveaway. Unfortunately there can only be one winner...

"Love the quilt! I love so many of the quilts I've seen from this book-- some are hard to believe are quick and easy (love when they look so hard, but really they aren't!) Thank you!"

by Sarah J...congrats Sarah! Please email me and I will arrange for the book to be sent to you.

Thanks to all for your kind comments about the quilt I made from the book. It is now complete and ready to go back to Uni with No.1 son on Saturday.

Don't forget to follow the rest of the blog tour. There are more giveaways so go try your luck at one of them!

Quick & Easy Quilts...

Hello and welcome to my turn on my good friend Lynne's blog tour for her new book Quick & Easy Quilts...

I am so super excited to be able to rave about this book. Lynne and Kyle Books have done such an awesome job.

In my humble opinion a quilt book should be full of beautiful enticing quilt photos, projects that you actually want to make and great techniques and diagrams along the way to help making them as straight forward as possible. Quick & Easy Quilts does all this and more.

As you can see from these 4 photos of some of the projects in the book, Jan Baldwin the photographer has done a wonderful job styling and photographing Lynne's beautiful quilts.

These photos are just a snippet of all the fab projects in the book. Lynne has designed 20 projects no less all of which you will ooh and ahh over and want to make.

 The photography is practical too. As well as there being stunning lifestyle shots, each project has a flat shot too which is really important for seeing exactly what the quilts look like. It's such an important feature.

Each project has fantastic clear diagrams to explain techniques and processes. Again for me this is a feature I love to have in a quilt book, as I am much more drawn to following diagrams than text in a pattern. I love that Lynne has put the templates for each pattern within the project rather than all together at the back of the book. It sounds simple but not all quilt books do that and it is so much easier to find what you need.

For this blog hop I was planning on trying out a block or 2 from a project but Lynne's quilts are exactly what they say they are...quick AND easy!...before I knew it I had the whole top for one made and pieced!

I chose Birds Migrating Quilt...or rather my No.1 son chose it...he left for University last September and I had been promising him a quilt to take with him. 2 terms down the line and he was still without one. I was flicking through the book and he stopped me with a "I want that one!" 

I started cutting and piecing that evening and by the following evening the whole quilt top was pieced. It was also made quicker and easier as he said he wanted it exactly the same colours as the one in the book, so fabric selection was pretty straight forward!

I honestly can't praise this book highly enough, and not because Lynne is a good friend, but because it is so good and such a great book to have on your shelves for when you want a quick but beautiful project.

Kyle Books are generously providing a copy of the book for a giveaway so if you would like the chance to win a copy for yourself then just leave a comment below to enter. Any comment will do. It is supposed to be quick and easy after all! I will draw the winner this time next week...Thursday April 14.

Good luck!