SASD 2

Our second sit and sew day was great fun! There were lots of quilts for show and tell, some had risen to the challenge and produced pieced letters, while others sewed some on the day like Davina's 'cat quilt' shown above.

Here are a couple more - no prizes for guessing who made these!

Sorry for the blurry photo Jackie - I haven't got the hang of taking photos on the iPad yet. Liz had made a badge with tiny paper pieced letters as well as the bigger version. She also brought delicious cakes for us to scoff- thank you Liz.

These are inspired by the book 'Word Play Quilts'

Here are more fantastic quilts from our show and tell

 

This stunning VW pillow was made from a Tula Pink free pattern. Download your copy here.

Sorry if I didn't get a photo of every one but they were all fab - u - lous! After seeing Liz's wonderful quilts we decided we want to make our next get-together a scrappy trip around the world day so we're going to collect 16 by 2.5 inch strips and follow Bonnie Hunter's instructions on the day, the date of which is still to be decided.

I will be uploading more photos to our Flickr group. Why not join it and upload your photos too?

Please leave a comment if you have any news or useful links to share.

Hazel

Sit and Sew Day is Nearly Here!

One week to go! I can't wait! We meet next Saturday 16th February at Clifford Village Hall, Albion Street, Clifford LS23 from 10am to 4pm.

I set about making an iPad sleeve last week and decided to add my initial so I would have something for our challenge theme of pieced letters. This makes me smile as it reminds me of Rimmer in Red Dwarf! On the reverse I made a panel inspired by the place mats Janet showed us last time but I used wedges cut with a dresden plate template rather than straight strips.

If you have made some pieced letters please bring them along as well as any other quilts for show and tell. Most of the day will be for you to work on your own project but I'll be demonstrating free motion quilting for those who are interested. If you fancy having a go yourself bring a free motion or darning foot for your sewing machine and a quilt 'sandwich' - good quality wadding sandwich between two pieces of plain-ish cotton fabric at least 14" square plus some plain paper and a pen for doodling designs. I'll bring a selection of threads to play with.

If you'd like to join us for the SASD and haven't already contacted me please email me: quilthaze at gmail dot com

Happy Stitching!

Hazel

 

 

 

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New Projects and Challenges

Hello Hazel here! Are you ready for our challenge? We're asking you to make a quilt which includes pieced letters. It can be any size you choose so you have plenty of freedom in the design and it can include other blocks too. I gave some links to useful websites in a previous post here.

Today I've been playing in Electric Quilt (EQ7) software to make a banner design for YMQG - what do you think?  Electic quilt has  classic pieced alphabets and a foundation pieced lower and upper case alphabet which I used for this design. There are even Greek and Hebrew alphabets if you want something a bit different! I can't live without EQ7 because I use it to design and adapt quilt patterns for my classes and it really is brilliant! You can create your own block designs or use hundreds of pre-drawn ones on a choice of quilt layouts. There are a multitude of possibilities to choose fabrics, colours and sizes of blocks and borders too but it's very easy to use. I can also export pictures of the blocks or quilts to illustrate my instruction sheets. I don't have any affiliation to Electric Quilt but if you're interested check out the Electric Quilt Blog to see some projects designed in EQ7.

With the New Year there are many new projects and challenges out there in blogland. I came across a link to a new 'Skill Builder' Block of the Month on our new member Sarah's blog Duck Egg Threads, which looks fantastic. Sarah's also taking part in the new Craftsy 2013 Block of the Month. Both of these are free so well worth a look!

If you fancy a different challenge how about a Mug Rug swap? Michelle at Quilting Gallery is hosting one. It costs $5 to join but you get two lovely free mug rug patterns included. Visit Quilting Gallery regularly to find a weekly coupon for fabric and pattern discounts and enter the weekly show and tell to be in with a chance to win a prize. 

Have you set yourself new challenges this month? Leave a comment below to share your favourite new projects, swaps and blog hops!

Sit and Sew Day

You are invited to our Sit and Sew Day!

When: Saturday 16th February 2013 10am to 4pm
Where: Clifford Village Hall, 7 Albion Street, Clifford LS23 6HY Click here for a map
Cost: £8 including tea and coffee plus a free raffle with quilty prizes

Come along and spend time sewing with friends! This will be an informal get-together to share ideas and inspiration, see other quilters projects and spend time working on your own projects. We'll have a 'show and tell' of your quilts (finished or WIPs) to get the ball rolling then Hazel will demonstrate some easy free-motion quilting designs for those who are interested. Most of the day will be just for you to sew, whatever you please, with like minded people. There will also be an opportunity to buy some fabrics and supplies for those who wish to do so.

There will have to be a limit on the number of quilters attending so it is essential that you book in advance. To do so please send  an email with your name and contact details by clicking here

Shattered

Hello, Hazel here. My new quilt's name seems appropriate as the New Year has started with some very sad news about a dear friend who had a sudden bereavement last week. I'm thinking of her constantly and send her my love.

I actually started this new quilt before Christmas but then got sidetracked with making other gifts, but have managed to finish the quilt top in the last week. It's from the 'Quilting Modern' book and uses the insert a strip technique to make very large blocks. This measures about 50 by 60 inches and was great fun to do. I used a plain white fabric which I dyed using Dylon machine dye in black. I just added a small amount of the dye and it worked well although it was a little more blue than I would have liked. Perhaps I didn't stir up the dye packet enough. The dark fabric is from the 'Scraffito' range from P and B fabrics which I love.

Because I had to piece the backing and was a bit short of the plain black I planned to use I decided to make a feature of the backing. I'd seen a photo of a quilt on Pinterest which inspired me but I just can't find it again to give you the link - sorry! Anyway here is my version:

I now have to layer this up ready to quilt but can't face crawling around on the floor so I'm going to take it to one of my classes and stay late to layer it on the large tables there. I can't wait to get started on the quilting.

What have you been working on recently? If you'd like to share it with us how about doing a guest blog with a photo or two? Let me know in a comment if you'd like to have a go.

I'll be back soon with more details for the next sit and sew day but to get the ball rolling we'd like to set a challenge: make a quilt (any size) which includes pieced letters in the style of the book 'Word Play Quilts' by Tonya Ricucci. Click Here for photos on Flickr. Here's a link to step by step instructions for all the letters of the alphabet: http://patcherymenagerie.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/red-letter
 If you want to join in please bring your challenge piece to the next SASD on February 16th.

Happy Stitching

Hazel

A Date for Your Diary

It's that time of year when I get out my Christmas quilts for a few weeks and the photo shows my favourite - a panel given to me in a Secret Santa gift some time ago. It was fun to quilt and I really love it. Do you have a favourite Christmas quilt? Like Janet I've made one or two Christmas gifts and will still be working on one or two more this weekend! Here's a little bag I made yesterday from a pattern in a fabulous book: 'A Passion for Patchwork' by Lise Bergene

Now for something to look forward to in 2013 - our next sit and sew day! It will be on Saturday February 16th  at Clifford Village Hall, Clifford near Wetherby. I'll be posting more details in the New Year but our theme for this meeting will be quilting, both with the walking foot and free motion quilting. So put the date in your diary and in the meantime you might want to browse some of the quilt photos I've added to our YMQG Pinterest boards  and my Free Motion Quilting board. This Flickr photostream  shows lots of lovely walking foot quilting designs from the '31 Days of Walking Foot Quilting' I mentioned in a previous post.

Have a lovely Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Hazel

Christmas Gift making.

This is the time of the year when we like to make gifts for family and friends. I always over estimate how much time I will have available for this activity but I do have some completed items to show.

I used some of my Alexander Henry fabrics to make bookcovers for my two sons.

The one on the left is simple applique - broderie perse, if you are posh or just fussy cutting motifs from patchwork fabric for the rest of us!

The one on the right is a single piece of fabric which I have free machine quilted around the skulls - fun to do and very quick. This has given each skull a nice raised appearance.

 Here is a photo to show both sides of the applique bookcover.

 I also have two great nieces whom I try to make hand made gifts for. Their Mum is very appreciative so that really helps! I studied a lot of tutorials on apron making and came up with my own simple version. Each is made from a fat quarter. The applique pockets will help them remember which one belongs to them. I used this great 'wordy' fabric which is so educational! The neck straps contain elastic so they will be nice and comfy.

My simple squares quilt is still 'in progress'. The top is finished and the next job is to make the pieced back. Rob is now home from Uni so I can't always work on it, although he does spend long periods sleeping!!

Wishing you all a Pieceful Christmas and New Year!

Janet x