Milk churn patchwork quilt

March 24, 2016March 24, 20163 Comments

What do you give someone when you want something that says “you’re special”, something that says “thank you”, something that says “I love you”? For me, the answer is usually always a handmade quilt (sometimes it is cake but that is another story).

Earlier this year, it was my privilege to make a custom order quilt for a couple who have a jersey cow stud. When I showed my client a fun quilt pattern featuring rows of milk churns (remember those?) we knew we’d found the perfect design. I mean, dairy farmers and milk churns, what could be more appropriate?

Milk churn patchwork quilt

The fabric collection is Milk Cow Kitchen by Mary Jane Butters for Moda. Nostalgic, a bit kitsch, the collection features tiny jersey cows, vintage cars, kitchen utensils, milk bottle tops and my personal favourite, lots of moos!!. There is even a recipe for strawberry jam.

Milk churn patchwork quilt detail

To make the quilt I used this free pattern from the Fat Quarter Shop. I did change the pattern slightly by adding an extra column of milk churns to make it wider and I changed how I added the sashing. The milk churn lids were made as larger strips that are then cut down making it much quicker and easier to put together than it first looks.

Milk churn patchwork quilt detail

The finished quilt was professionally long-arm quilted with an overall pattern called Cloud Nine.

Milk Cow Kitchen patchwork quilt backing

Milk churn patchwork quilt backing

And for the backing, I chose this green Lulu fabric from the Up Parasol range by Heather Bailey. It is one that I wish I had been able to buy more of as it really is the most lovely light olive green.

The 100% cotton wadding in the quilt makes it irresistibly soft and warm and gives the quilt a beautiful drape. At 70 inches by 64 inches, it is a very versatile size and perfect for a bed or a sofa.

Today I received the good news that Royal Mail and Australia Post did their bit and delivered the quilt safe and sound to its new home. And I’m very pleased to say that it was a very welcome present that will be much loved for many years to come. A special gift for a lovely couple.

Checkerboard quilt – a work in progress

March 10, 20162 Comments

Strangely I seem to have a number of half-finished quilts cluttering up my workroom. I’m not sure how this happened. Best not to dwell on the how and instead focus on getting them completed.

With this in mind, over the past week I have been working on a checkerboard quilt top that had been languishing on my dining room table for (many) months. I had decided to use a jelly roll for the patterned sections and then very quickly wished that I hadn’t. Don’t get me wrong. I love using jelly rolls. Sadly this one seemed to have more than its fair share of strips not cut on the grain and many were slightly wider than 2 1/2 inches. After a bit of judicious cutting, thankfully this wasn’t too much of a problem.

Rather than cut out individual 2 1/2 by 2 1/2 inch squares, I used this strip piecing tutorial by Red Pepper Quilts. I selected 33 strips from my jelly roll, cut them in half on the fold line and then attached a 2 1/2 inch wide strip of plain fabric to the long side. Although not really necessary, I cut the jelly roll strips in half to reduce any potential problems if the strips were wonky. I really needed only 32 jelly roll strips for the quilt. The extra one was to allow for any cutting errors (sad to say, there was one) and also ensured I had plenty of options when putting the quilt top together so that similar/same patterns weren’t right next to each other. The sewn strips were then cut down to 10 1/2 inches long and then sewn to another pair of sewn strips. Although these strips were slightly shorter than the 11 inches recommended in the tutorial there was more than enough fabric available when cross-cutting the strips.

Checkerboard quilt strips

I worked on a quarter of the quilt at a time as I don’t have a large enough space in which to layout the full quilt design. Making up blocks of 16 squares each as per the tutorial made it much easier to nest the seams together and the reverse stayed very neat and tidy too.

Checkerboard quilt blocks

My quilt top is now complete and ready for quilting.

Checkerboard quilt top

I love the colours in this one. They are so soft and pretty. And the white squares make it look lovely and fresh. Here is a close-up so you can see all that prettiness in detail.

Checkerboard quilt top detail

It reminds me of meadow flowers strewn across a white sheet and I don’t even mind the greys in this one. Now I just need to choose the backing fabric and the quilting pattern. Decisions, decisions.

Oh, and in case you are wondering, I used an Ambleside jellyroll by Moda – a very pretty, country cottage collection of rose, daisy, gingham and lace designs – and Bella Solid in Off White for the plain squares.

Back with more soon.

When it rains, look for rainbows

October 2, 2015October 2, 2015Leave a comment

Is there anyone who doesn’t love rainbows? They are so beautiful; a symbol of hope and a promise of better things to come.

Rainbow over rooftops

The beautiful colours of Fancy by Lily Ashbury simply lent themselves to a rainbow quilt. Even the press information about this collection described it as being like “rays of sunshine on a cloudy day” and “gorgeous, lush, and drenched with colour”.

The collection was missing a purple so I hunted though my fabrics to find something suitable. This was harder than it might seem as purple, particularly a dark reddish purple, is not a common colour in quilting fabrics (they seem to tend toward lavender and bluish purples). Thankfully I found two.

Purple fabrics

The sharks tooth is a fabulous match as the pattern mimics others in the Fancy collection. The second had little birds on it. At first, I wasn’t sure if this would really work with the other fabrics. But then I remembered that in the song, “happy little bluebirds fly beyond the rainbow” so it was obviously meant to be.

The spectrum of colours made a coin quilt design an obvious choice for me. I had so much fun making my last off-set coin quilt, I decided to use this as the basis for my rainbow quilt. For this quilt, I used a jelly roll and simply removed any duplicate fabric strips. The fabrics were used in the same order they were presented in the jelly roll and the same design was used across a row in each of the five columns. A Flurry spot (Dashwood studios) in light teal was the perfect choice for the background.

I had no dilemmas about what to use for the backing fabric. It just had to be unicorns. I mean, what else would you expect to find behind a rainbow? Visitors to my Bucks Open Studios event were asked to help me choose which unicorn fabric to use.

Unicorn fabric from Far Far Away collection

Unicorn fabric by Heather Ross

It was an even split between the green and the purple colour ways of this lovely whimsical design by Heather Ross from her Far Far Away collection.

In the end, the decision was taken out of my hands as I could only source enough of the green colour way to complete the backing. Either one would have worked however the green is a beautiful, soothing colour that is the perfect counterfoil for the riot of colours on the front.

The lovely, swirly Curlz (it’s my favourite) was used as the quilting design and a glorious sunshine yellow from the Linen Cupboard collection was chosen for the binding.

Off-set coin rainbow quilt

This cuddly, warm quilt in cheerful, sunny colours cannot fail to banish dark days and rainy skies.

Festival of Quilts – a picture post

August 13, 2015August 13, 20152 Comments

On Sunday I made the journey to Birmingham (UK) for the Festival of Quilts. It was almost overwhelming seeing so many gorgeous quilts on display (not to mention the shopping opportunities – but more on that at another time). Rather than give an overview of the show, I thought I would share some of my favourite quilts. They may not have been THE prize-winning quilts however they were all winners in my book.

I loved the calm serenity of this quilt from the pictorial quilts section.

Quilt 67 – Marshwood Vale by Kate Dowty

The sunny outlook and bright colours of this pictorial quilt I found very appealing. You could find something new in this quilt each time you looked at it.

Quilt 60 – Good Morning Gorran by Brenda Thomas

This close-up shows the amazing detail – all done a small domestic sewing machine. Respect!

Quilt 60 – Good Morning Gorran (detail) by Brenda Thomas

Here is one of my favourites from the contemporary quilt section. A quilt covered in little dresses. So cute! And I loved the hats and shoes quilted in the background. Can never have enough of those.

Quilt 718 – Nostalgia by Jannie Bloemers

Quilt 718 – Nostalgia (detail) by Jannie Bloemers

This quilt by Andy Brunhammer from the Art Quilt Category looked fairly nondescript until you looked at it through a camera. Suddenly, the image revealed itself as the face of a sleeping woman (Bette Davis, no less). How is this effect achieved? I have no idea although it has “something to do with pixels”.

Quilt 563 – Sleep Jezebel by Andy Brunhammer

I loved this tiny quilt by Joanna O’Neill. It reminded me of the seven basic plot outlines – wo/man against something/someone, rags to riches, a quest and so on. It is now difficult to think of a book that would not be improved by the addition of at least one cat.

Quilt 8 – A Tale Worth Telling by Joanna O’Neill

As lovely as these quilts were, I still prefer a quilt that can be used as more than a decorative piece. I like quilts that keep you warm at night, share your picnic and that you can hide under during the scary bits in Dr Who (I still have nightmares about those statues!).

This scrappy quilt, in which “no yardage was harmed in the making” was a delight. Such a glorious collection of colours.

Quilt 327 – No Yardage was Harmed in the Making of this Quilt by Alison Robins and Krista Withers

I also loved the blues and metallic gold fabrics used in this traditional sampler quilt. Can you believe it was her first quilt?

Quilt 474 – Learning Curve by Janet Ann Bowden

And this one with a simple but very effective design of squares and half-square triangles.

Quilt 721 – Bank Holiday by Ruth Burdett

Any of you who follow my Facebook page will have seen that I also entered a quilt in this year’s show. Here it is on display.

Quilt 328 – Pot Luck Coins by Jen Kelson and Jenny Otto

And I received some very nice comments from the judges too. All in all, a great day out.

Bluebird Park quilt – a tutorial

August 7, 2015May 1, 20187 Comments

This quilt I made was one of the most popular at my recent exhibition for Bucks Open Studios. I have to confess, it is one of my favourites too.

Bluebird Park quilt

A number of people have contacted me since asking for the pattern. The world definitely needs more quilts so here is a tutorial to enable you can make your own version.

What you’ll need:

1 layer cake* (I used Bluebird Park by Kate and Birdie for Moda)

0.5 metre fabric for binding

3.5 metres backing fabric (more if you need to match patterns)

Wadding or batting approx. 60 inch by 66 inch (I used 100% cotton Quilters Dream Select)

Co-ordinating cotton thread

Cutting instructions:

To make the quilt top, cut each of the fabric squares from the layer cake into a 6 1/2 inch square, a 3 1/2 inch square, and two rectangles, each 3 1/2 inch by 6 1/2 inch. The picture below will make it clearer as to how to cut your fabric.

Cutting diagram for Bluebird Park quilt

You don’t need to always cut the largest square from the top left if the design placement would work better if, for example, the large square was cut at the lower right. You just need to ensure that you get all four shapes. Before cutting, I also checked that my layer cake squares were exactly 10 inch square. It is probably not essential to do this so if you’re more of a “let’s get stuck in” kinda gal, then just get cutting.

Whilst you have your rotary cutter to hand, from the binding fabric cut 6 strips, each 2 1/2 inch wide, across the width of the fabric.

Sewing instructions:

Once you have cut up all your layer cake squares, you can start to have some fun. You now sew your layer cake squares back together using a different fabric design for each of the four positions in the cutting diagram.

Using a 1/4 inch seam, sew a rectangle to a large square and press the seam toward the square. Then sew another rectangle to a small square, pressing the seam toward the small square. Finally sew the small square strip to the large square strip, nesting the seams where the points of the two squares meet. This large square forms the block for the quilt.

The quilt is comprised of 42 blocks which means you will use all of the layer cake. If you wanted your quilt to go on a single bed, then I would make it as 7 rows with 6 blocks in each row. If you wanted your quilt as a sofa throw like my version, then lay it out as 6 rows with 7 blocks across each row.

Here is some printed card that I cut up to show the layout for the blocks.

Bluebird Park quilt block layout

I couldn’t show the full quilt layout however there is enough that you should be able to see the repeat of the pattern. The first four blocks in rows one and two form the repeat. So row four would have the same block placement as row two. This means your first block on row four would have a small square in the bottom left, the next block would have a small square in the top right, the third block would have a small square in the bottom right and so on.

*Update: the block orientation of the first two blocks on the second row is not correct. The large square and small squares should be diagonally opposite each other. The small squares in the first two blocks on the second row are in the correct position however the large squares in these blocks need to be moved from bottom to top and top to bottom respectively. Many apologies for the error.

If you are using a directional fabric, such as Bluebird Park, you might want to lay out your quilt design before making up your blocks so that you don’t end up with bikes riding sideways or rabbits standing on their heads (unless you don’t want your quilt to have an obvious up or down).

Once you are happy with your block placement, sew blocks together for each row and then sew the rows together. You will now have finished your quilt top, yay!

Sew your backing fabric so that it makes a piece at least 4 inches bigger on all sides than your quilt top. Baste the backing, wadding and quilt top together then quilt as desired. Finally sew your binding strips together to make one long strip and attach it to your quilt.

Congratulations! You now have a lovely soft and cuddly quilt.

I hope you enjoy making your own version of my Bluebird Park quilt. If you have any questions regarding the instructions, please do contact me. Have fun!

* layer cakes are produced by Moda and comprise 42 10 inch squares from a single fabric collection.

Pot luck off-set coin quilt

April 27, 2015June 1, 20156 Comments

It must be pretty obvious by now that I love, love, strip quilts. I love the simplicity of them and how they really show off the fabrics. My latest strip quilt is a variation of a design called chinese coins, or stacked coins.

You can see where the pattern gets its name as the coloured fabric columns look like piles of money. Often the fabric coins are stacked exactly on top of one another. In this case, as the coins are off-set, they look as though they have been piled higgledy pigglegy.

A single jelly roll, from the Pot Luck collection by American Jane for Moda, was used to make the quilt coins. I love the retro look of these designs and colours. To me they seem very reminiscent of the 1950s.

For the back I used a fantastic giant text print called Nummer, from Ikea of all places. Many quilters use it and this was the perfect project for me to try it for myself. I think it is the perfect partner for the quilt top; the large writing works so well with the little numbers on the tape measures.

The quilt was professionally long arm quilted with a design called feathers. I chose it because of the tiny chicken fabric. After washing, the quilt did shrink a bit but I don’t care. It is still a great size (about 60 inches square) and I love the textured look and feel that the quilting creates.

Rae’s quilt – a remake

April 15, 2015June 23, 20152 Comments

Those loyal followers of Dashwood Studio will remember this lovely quilt, appropriately nicknamed the Stacked Books quilt.

The very talented Rae from Fabric HQ designed and made it to show case Dashwood’s beautiful Retro Orchard fabric collection.

This quilt has been admired by many and a number have asked for a pattern so that they can make their own version. As it was made with no thought of making more, sadly there was no pattern. So Rae asked me to draft one up from the original quilt.

Cue much measuring and many calculations,

Selecting and cutting fabrics for a test version,

And finally piecing and machine quilting.

Here is the final test version, made up in Origami Oasis with Flurry in green used for the contrast strips and binding.

Even if I say so myself, I think this version looks just as pretty as the original. Stacked Books is a terrific design that easily lends itself to other fabric combinations. It is a great usable size too, being approximately 1.2 x 1 metre, and would make a fab throw or child’s play mat.

If you’d like to create your own version, Fabric HQ will be running a class to make this quilt later in the year. Keep an eye on their website or sign up for their mailing list to be notified of the class dates.

Fleurologie quilt take 2

February 20, 2015May 26, 20152 Comments

A rare sunny day this week was too good to miss. It was the perfect excuse for me to take a stroll along the canal nearby and photograph my latest quilt.

Bella Solid in off-white was used for the sashing between the blocks of colour cut from my last Fleurologie layer cake. I just love the Fleurologie fabric collection. It is bright, colourful and just so pretty. This is the second quilt I have made using it.

This one however is very different in style from my first Fleurologie quilt. The white sashing makes this quilt more subdued whilst the hot pink binding (as seen earlier with the corner trimmer) provides a strong border to the quilt that frames it perfectly. I spent ages checking various fabrics at Fabric HQ before deciding that this pink – Kona Solid in Bright Pink – was just right.

The pattern, called Ruby, Pearl and Opal, is available free on the Moda Bake Shop website. Although there are a number of small pieces in the pattern, it was an easy design to put together. It would be a good one for beginners to try as there are no seams to match up (yay!)

I even broke out of my comfort zone and made the “equally snazzy pieced backing” which I agree does look rather lovely.

For the long arm quilting, I chose a design called Curlz. I haven’t used it before but certainly will again. It gives a lovely overall texture to the quilt with just the right weight to it.

So there you have it; a beautiful quilt measuring 146cm x 177cm. One that any girly girl would love.