I have been keeping a little secret....

But as it is out of the bag now I can show you what it is -  my quilt pattern Lavender Knots published - yes published in Quilt Now! magazine.   I'm in print!

These are my pics taken in the garden before it went for it's photo shoot at the magazine

It will be no surprise if I tell you that I love both Liberty lawn and Oakshott in equal measure, so the chance to work with both sent me over the moon.  I just about bit Katy Jones's arm off at the NEC Quilt Exhibition when we were talking about it!

I thought about the Liberty fabrics I had - lots of blue, grey, pinks and with the theme of English Gardens it didn't take long to draw up a pattern on EQ with a lavender knot garden inspiration.

The gorgeous Oakshott Amalfi (grey), Lilac and Sweet Pea (purple) are the hedges, holding back the abundance of summer Liberty flowers !

Plus there are a few suprises in this garden....golfers, exotic birds, high heeled shoes and even a tiger or two!  

The lovely Michael Oakshott had run out of Amalfi in the UK but had it sent over from India specially!    Can't thank him enough as I think that grey is the perfect choice for this quilt.I quilted it all in  Aurifil#50 with a small floral design and backed it in some Liberty fabric I found in an antique/bric-a-brac shop!   To keep to the luxurious feel the wadding is Dream Orient - a mixture of bamboo, silk, Tencel and cotton - extremely light and would I guess be lovely to quilt by hand though I machine quilted this one.  

A bit more expensive but I would be happy to use it again!

So subscribers are seeing it in the magazine now but others can buy it in the shop from the 15th!   Thanks Katy for the opportunity! 

Flying Squares!

For some reason I just love the name of this block!  Sounds a bit like a circus trapeze troupe perhaps all dolled up in sequined lycra!  Ok my imagination is working overtime and without any illegal substances I swear!

Here is the block 

And here are the blocks made by yours truly and my wonderful Siblings Together Quilts bee during November and December.

There were no problems in stitching these blocks together into a top.


Indeed I have been waiting for FAL2015 to start up so I could add this quilt to my list and have my first official finish off 2015!

So after going round in organic circles for a while ....

I have finished quilting this one!  Design suggested by backing fabric 

And now to bind it!

Edit  - all finished now 

Another FAL15 finish to be linked at the end of the quarter

Finish Along 2015

We have a new host for 2015 Adrianne of On the Windy Side and a new button of course!   I don't know Adrianne yet but am looking forward to getting to know her.   I certainly love her button!

I had a really successful year of finishing in 2014 so am hoping for equal success in 2015.   My only worry is that I only have nine projects to work on! 

 Hahaha - but I did start with twice that many last year!

There are these nine 

• chevron KLT quilt;
• sewing words;
• tulip dance
• flying squares
• Nordik
• clamshell
• Scraptastic sampler
• Big hexy balls
• vintage circles

I have one more in the planning stage a row on row quilt that I'm making with help from my wonderful Stingy Bee mates!   But I'm sure there will be time to tell you about that one later...

Tulips are dancing!

An old partial quilt top has been dragged into the light!

I have a purpose at last in finishing this quilt as my cousin's daughter is expecting a baby in February.  No better excuse I thought and it has really spurred me on to finish it!  

I have also had some inspiration in how to finish it which was also holding this one up.

This is what it looked like before I got going again

I was a little bit stumped as to how I should fill in those crescent shaped holes!

And this is a photo of it now

The coloured four pointed stars in the middle have been swapped for white ones.   The coloured stars are all on the border with some four patches which will go all the way around ....eventually!  I have started filling in the half diamond shape on the edge with white.   
I can see how it will finish so it's only a matter of getting it done.

Scraptastic Tuesday - Scrappy Clamshells

For a change I have been working on my Clamshell quilt - it has been cut from a whole heap of charm squares with my Sizzix: a fairly random selection of lights and darks, prints and solids.

I have a central panel of 256 clamshells already finished.

And I am wanting to make it bigger so I have turned it on point and am adding four corner triangles.

Yesterday I stitched the diagonal rows for the top two corners - that is another 112 clamshells by hand....

I stitched them like this...

A few people on IG didn't seem to realise how to stitch them this way....nice and quick!

Next step : I need to stitch the rows together ....not such a quick job.

Please remember it is link up time next Tuesday !   Get ready with your scrappy projects - it doesn't need to be a big project.   And I think Leanne has been working on a scrappy quilt too - I think you had better go and have a look...!

FAL - last of this year!

It is the end of this wonderful year of the Finish Along 2014, superbly led by Katy Bear aka the Littlest Thistle and I have managed to squeeze one more finish from my list in the period of time I call No-Man's-Land!

With only five quilts from this quarter finished I am lagging behind my usual standards for this year.  

I did not finish all my UFOs this year but I have finished sixteen out of twenty, plus a few other quilts, started this year.   My Q4FAL post is here.

So about that last minute finish....here it is along with it's scalloped knife edge...

Close up of the quilting which was all by hand...

The quilting from the back where it shows up better...

It is made out of Oakshott and I was inspired to make it by my lovely online friend Mary Dugan aka Molly Flanders and the Flowering Snowball Quiltalong she ran.  I am very late in finishing but I made it in the end.

I am thinking of calling it Trinity as I wanted to make three different Flowering Snowball quilts but combined them in one!  Such a new move for me and one that could save me making a whole host of quilts if I can keep it going.

According to my rules all unfinished quilts from 2014 become UFOs in 2015 - for some reason that makes me quite happy as I can legitimately work on any of them!

It also means I have eight UFOs to finish and that is less than half the number I started the year with in January 2014.  To me that sounds promising....

Linking up to :

Two stars for Scraptastic Tuesday!

Apologies for missing Tuesday - but we are still on holiday here and things work out differently like I sometimes even forget what day it is!  Oops! 

All block names for this project come from the EQ6 block library so if you have the software you should be able to find the patterns in your block library - you can then print them and skip the drafting but it is a great skill to have and with these easy blocks it may even be quicker to draw your own!
9" Mill and Stars

I used scraps for the star and the background  - it is a busy, busy block on it's own but it doesn't stand out in the crowd !  

9" Star of the East

This block has a quieter look as the background is the same throughout and a solid rather than a patterned print.

I love both these blocks and this sampler is a great way to test out whether I'd like to make a quiltful of blocks and to test out how to make them - as usual there are several ways to do it.


To start I drafted these blocks on paper - both are very easy!

9" Mill & Stars - drafting

With a 9" square drawn on your paper (plain or squared) draw in the diagonals.  Mark the mid point of each side of the square - this will be the tip of your kite shape.  Then make a mark 2" from the centre of your diagonal line and join up the dots !  Told you it was easy!  Please note this pattern has no seam allowance marked.  

You may be familiar with this block as a strip pieced spiderweb block and of course it works that way to to use up lots of strips but also looks good using larger scraps.

Piecing
I cut the pattern in quarters on the diagonal and used my pattern to paper piece the Mill and Star block which is a great way to get those seams to match.   Just remember that the pieces need to extend by a quarter inch on the outside edge.  
Alternatively you can redraw and add a quarter inch seam all around the pieces and use them as templates to piece together by hand or machine.

9" Star of the East - drafting

This block has a 2.5" square in each corner, which makes the rest of the block very simple to draw as in the photo.  I have to say I decided it works well with a 2.5" square in the corner but you could of course change that and have a different look.   Again no seam allowances (SA) are included.   I redrew the shapes as templates adding a seam allowance - except for the square which with SA is 3". 

Piecing

 I machine stitched the pieces together (except for the squares) to form an odd half block - so background, star, background, star - then matched the centres and stitched by machine.   

The squares I added by hand,  sort of appliqueing them on, tucking the seam allowance under.  Not a classic way of proceeding but it works!

If I were to make a quiltful of these blocks I'd probably make them bigger and add extra seams in both the diagonals so the whole block could be machine pieced.  

I know that Leanne has a great TaDa moment to show you - love that quilt Leanne and those kittens have grown up so much!   

Hope to see you next week, and as it will be back to school, I might even be on time!