Blueberry Park Makes 3...

So you have all been super busy over the summer and August's IG #blueberryparkmakes was full of gorgeous creations.

It was honestly so difficult to pick, but rules are rules soI could only pick 4...

clockwise from top left we have...

@greenandbell ~ Rebecca's scrappy improv quilt is an absolute delight...so much beautiful piecing for the eye to gaze over.

@nohatsquilts ~ Sarah is the queen of miniature piecing and I just love these pants!

@lisasew ~ lisa came to one of my first screen printed workshops and designed and printed up the central panel for her sewing machine cover...love it!

@isobel_hill ~ Isobel's drawstring bag is a win on every level...cute bag...gorgeous colours and hexies...ticks all round!

Thank you everyone for making and tagging your pics. I just love seeing your makes. Go check more about these and others in the group and keep making with my fabrics!

x

4 quilts...

 by the end of the month...not too much to ask is it? 

time will tell and we will just gloss over the fact that 2 of the 4 weeks remaining are school holidays and my time isn't quite my own.

{1} a blueberry park creation...

{2} grey abbey by cloud 9 commission...

{3] oakshott colourshott 

{4} summertime concoction

i have started all 4 in the hope that each one will be that bit closer to finishing as the month progresses.

right, i had better crack on then...

see you on the other side...or part way through for progress reports.

so what have you planned for April?

a nice day for finishing a quilt...

2 miracles happened today...

1. i finished a quilt that had been sitting on a pile waiting patiently for its turn since january and...

2. it was sunny enough to take a stroll across the road to the park to shoot a few pics of it.

the quilt in question was my scrappy trip along quilt below, which was my xmas vacation project last year. 

oh so embarrassing to be about to embark on this year's xmas vacation and still have it unfinished. having found an unusual free gap in my week i finally set about to finish it.

there is actually something rather nice about revisiting an unfinished project...memories are wrapped up in it...you get to revisit and rework with fabrics that you may not be anymore.

advantages galore...and that's my story for being a lazy a*** and i'm sticking to it.

im so so pleased with how it's turned out and hopefully ruby, who it was originally made for, is still keen on it too.

i had a fun little photo shoot in the park...dodging the dogs and the wind (weather wind not the dogs' wind) and to show you a few more of the photos i have attached a little flipagram here, which may or may not work. i have never made one before, but have fun with it if it does!

what finishing this quilt has taught me is...

1. i can be a finisher...

2. i actually enjoyed being a finisher...

3. i really really must finish more things before i start anything new.

that last one is my new year's resolution...good luck with that huh?

oh and that first picture at the top?...

that's a sneak of a commission that i have been working on and is about to head off to its destination. just as soon as i can i'll tell you more about that one!

with a little help from my friends...

it all started back in September when i was queen bee for bee a brit stingy flickr group...a fab bee filled with lovely british quilters.

i have never been in a bee before so i wasn't very sure what to expect or how it was all going to play out.

my first dilemma was what block to choose. the bee started in january and some peeps had already picked some blocks that i may have chosen so that was those out. some demanded a more cohesive palette, some were too large and some were just too fiddly.

i eventually decided on this hourglass block and requested low volume, 1930s, liberty, vintage type fabrics.

to be honest i wasn't entirely sure how it

was all going to pan out. when i create my quilts i spend forever picking fabrics moving them around until they don't jar in my eye anymore and remove any fabrics that just don't sit well. in the bee group we are all very different, have different styles, different fabrics to pull from and i was a little nervous with how this would work for me.

but apparently what i love most about this is that it is full of little jewels of fabrics that normally i don't get to see in my own work, from overtly pretty florals to more muted geometrics. every single block that arrived filled me with EEEEEEKS!

honestly they are a magical bunch this crew.

i'm not even sure you can tell how wonderfully everything gels here, but in the flesh it is all so alive. the bee group made about half the blocks and they all look stunning with the ones i made.

it's all been a great big success in my eyes and hopefully we'll do it all again next year. (i hope so because i have already picked my block...)

and if you want to see how everyone else's quilts turned out go and check out the group here. there are some stunners.

the only question that remains is...

how on earth shall i quilt this thing??

fickle with fabric

 i don't know about you but every now and then a fabric collection comes out that blows me over and i can't imagine there ever being a more perfect fabric line...ever...

and then a different one comes out.

i know...i'm fickle.

i was blown over by cloud 9's simpatico and more recently rashida coleman-hale's tsuru for cloud 9, not to mention heather moore's cut out and keep. ok so i love cloud 9 fabrics (can't wait for Eloise's bark and branch and heather's up up and away) and it goes without saying that i adore everything lotta lansdotter has produced so far.

did i also mention my love for carolyn friedlander's architextures?

see...fickle.

but i think a collection has finally come along that couldn't possibly be more perfect. i don't think i will ever feel the same about another collection...ever.

have you seen tule by leah duncan? i have always been a fan of leah's and am absolutely wrapped at the thought of this collection and what i will do with it.

not only are the colours spot on but the entire collection is so fresh and contemporary yet classic.

i simply can not wait for it. 

and because i simply can not wait (it's out sometime this month for goodness sake) i had to buy these from a previous line of leah's.

i'm not even sure what i was thinking as i bought these on etsy to be delivered to my aunt's in USA...you know how i let her personally bring me over some fabrics to make her feel like she's being kind and doing me a favour (it's good to make people feel wanted). well that's all very well and good but she isn't coming until the end of october.

all very well and good scratching the leah-duncan-must-buy-fabric-now itch but i will be able to get my hands on tule way before i get the above.

still, you can never have too much of a good thing.

so we've established that i am fickle with fabric but think i may have found the one. do you have a collection that has blown you over way more than another? only to be usurped by the next collection on the block?

do tell.

future of blogs...

 here's a thing...

do blogs have a future?

or have the likes of IG taken over?

i am a huge fan of IG and use it daily...several times a day...and as a consequence i feel that maybe we get all we need from sites like that. 

a quick fix of visual information. 

and when we blog we are repeating what we have posted there. or is that just me getting lazy? or am i over using and over posting on places like IG leaving nothing fresh for my blog?

take this quilt for example. those that follow me on IG have seen all these pics. so do you want to see them again here?

i have to admit that i do like my blogs to have pictures...pretty pictures and i think this is why IG works for me. i can see what people are up to and interact with them in real time.

IG generally gives me all i need and i think there are plenty of others like me about as it seems visitor numbers on blogs have dropped off as have comment postings.

what do you think? i'd love to know. do you still read blogs as avidly as you once did? or do other sites do it for you?

necessary scratching of itches...

 i have been so busy screen printing recently and engulfed with the current major project that I haven't had time to do any piecing whatsoever...

none...

not one stitch.

but don't worry i have made up for that this last day or two. 

i got to the end of a big deadline yesterday that left vital space in my head to think about some of the projects that needed attention.

the triangular hexie project at the top was the first itch to be scratched. you know when you don't even realise things are in your head until they come pouring out?

next up are my blocks for the lovely nicky.

nicky is queen bee in august for our bee a brit stingy and was kind enough to give us an early heads up what with the holidays n all.

i can not tell you how delighted i am that she did this and it has meant, having now done them, i have no bee commitments until september. thanks nicky! it leaves me bee guilt free for the rest of the summer.

having sorted out these next blocks above for another project my head is even more free to concentrate on other things. my little head can only hold so much in it at once you know and ticking off each thing leaves just enough space to cope with other matters.

as they say...every little bit helps. (do they say that? or did i make that up? they should say that...) 

last up was further experimentation with the triangular hexies that i started at the top. it's beginning to look a little like it did in my head, which is a good thing as far what i was aiming to do. i am now awaiting delivery of the fabrics that this is supposed to be made with. another exciting project that has space to develop.

so itches have been scratched, satisfaction has been achieved, space in the brain has been created and so it is back to focussing on the major project in hand until the next little creative time out.

paid to play...

 you have heard me say it before and you will doubtlessly hear me say it again...

I LOVE MY JOB!!

what's not to love? people pay me proper money to play with fabrics - money i can spend in shops, money i can barter for goods we need, money i can pay bills with...PROPER money!

the latest playing i have been paid to do is this disappearing 9 patch baby quilt.

i am a little bit in love with the disappearing 9 patch and having made my pillow for the pillow talk swap in it recently i wanted to give a quilt a try. i thought it was a perfect block for busier fabrics. 

 i know i am a little bit late to the D9P party - only by about 3 or 4 years - but it is such a great block it definitely needs a revival.

i love the randomness of D9P. i love how you can pick any 9 blocks, sew them together, cut them up, repeat repeat again and shuffle all the mini blocks around and have something that works.

back to the job bit...

the customer wanted a mix of jewel, liberty type fabrics and was happy for a big mix up so this layout was perfect.

there is repetition with the majority of the fabrics, which in the midst of all the craziness gives a cohesive feel, but i included a few snippets of my favourite fabrics that i had enough for just one square in the whole quilt. i put in my absolute favourite piece that had been sitting on my desk. it is a little sample square that Ayumi had sent me with a recent order. sadly she didn't have any more, so that's it now, gone.

i so enjoyed making this quilt and piecing a D9P. i am most definitely going to put it on the list of throws to make for us. it won't pay me in money but it certainly will in joy, which is almost as good...almost.

i am going to leave you with a question which i would love you to link to...

did you do D9P back in the day? if so would you share a link to your makes? i would love to see. if you didn't is there another quilting pattern you have recently discovered where you feel you are a bit late to the party?

if i knew how to do one of those clever linky things at the bottom of the post here i would, but i can't, so please leave your links in the comments and can't wait to see!

swoon...

 being the world's best starter and the world's worst finisher it will come as no surprise that i have started yet another quilt.

to be fair i am on a mission to make a quilt for our bed. i keep thinking i have found the perfect quilt design but then as i get going on it it doesn't seem quite as perfect as i thought so i give up.

i really thought this low volume scrappy trip along above was going to be just right...

...wrong! even though it is low volume there is just too much going on.

the same happened with the + and x quilt below.

way too busy!

it was back to the drawing board but not before i made myself sew up these scrappy and plus blocks into squares big enough to make cosy floor cushions.

now i can relatively guiltlessly get on with the job in hand of making the right quilt and i actually think i am there this time.

i had bought camille's lovely swoon pattern a while ago and had a lightbulb moment of thinking this would be just the right quilt, particularly if i kept it simple.

the first block i made at the top went pretty straight forwardly. i used my 2 favourite fabrics of the moment - architextures' crosshatch in grey and pb&j's raspberry jam in picnic. the background is the crosshatch in white...plain but with a little added interest.

i was really pleased with the result of this first block and started pulling fabrics for the rest of the quilt.  whilst our room has a strong Orla Kiely wallpaper with a shot of chartreusy yellow i initially wanted to keep the quilt neutral.

not according to my sub conscience as before i knew it i'd dragged out some yellows. looks like it was going to have yellow in it after all.

just to make sure yellow was going to work i made up another block. 

nice...

i was liking...

but now i have a dilemma...a big dilemma...

i laid the blocks out on the bed just to see if it was working for me and boom how good do the blocks look as pillow covers??

aaaghhh!

do i stop at these 2 blocks and do something else for the quilt?

but what else would work in this room?

what would you do??

a little sweetheart...

 this week has been all about trying to catch up as well as throwing myself into all that is comforting.

 cracking on with this quilt and pattern ticked both those boxes.

you may remember these cushions i did back in january...

as i was doing them they sparked an idea for  my next quilt pattern. it was the perfect week to throw myself into some gratuitous sewing as well as feeling virtuous as i was actually ticking something off the list, rather than the usual adding to it.

so please let me introduce the sweetheart quilt!

the pattern is now available in my etsy shop along with the popular giant hexie quilt pattern and for a limited time i am offering both patterns for £7 instead of the usual £4.50 each.

you gotta love a bargain ;-)

that done i have a day to catch up properly with all that has been hanging over me and i haven't had the oomph to deal with.

today is different...today the oomph is back (see what i'm doing here with the positive thinking?...i'll let you know if it really is or whether i am just all talk as usual!) 

a fabric kinda week...

it's been one of those weeks...

a fabric kinda week...

the best kinda weeks ;-)

first up, i had a delivery of delicious green konas from the village haberdashery (more on what they are for another time...unless you follow me on IG...and then you will know)

second up, some scrumptious oakshotts that have been made into something for a commission - again more about that another time.

also this week i had delivery of several fabrics from 2 new collections that i think rate as 2 of my all time favourites. they are so beautiful.

firstly i ordered a couple from the much (by me) awaited new Cloud 9 collection - Tsuru by Rashida Coleman-Hale. boy is it beautiful. 

the bottom one is to make some pj bottoms for moi and the top is a little extra sneaky peak. i think i am going to be needing a lot more of these as well as the others in the collection.

finally but by no means least, by sheer quantity, let alone sheer beauty are these little bolts (there really isn't a lot of fabric on a bolt...ahem) of beyond stunning Architextures by Carolyn Friedlander. if i could have done i would have taken these to bed with me last night...

i know this appears like a lot of fabric, but it is necessary, all has a purpose, all is already cut into...as i said...all necessities.

my week in pictures...

what a week.

it's quite amazing what you can fit in when you have to.

first up, the week here in the uk has been hit by mega snow which meant kids have been off with snow days. 

second up, I have been avoiding the issue of tax form deadline looming which always means throwing myself into other suddenly way more important jobs.

thirdly, my poor frail father went for a fall and broke his hip at the beginning of the week which has meant lots of round trips to the hospital visiting and shuttling mum to and fro.

it's quite a wonder i have done anything more than get dressed this week, but looking back on it a fair amount of activity has actually taken place...

1. a snowy walk around the lake...

2. trying to stick to my january fitness regime, but not easy to drag myself out of my cosy bed in this cold...

3. starting to organise my new spring collection with a canvas and linen foldover bag...

4. getting through a few more blocks for my low volume scrappy trip along quilt...

5. a nice little selection of fabrics sitting on my desk at the mo waiting to be tested...

6. beautiful views all over at the start of this week...

7. getting details for some new designs...

8. dumpling pouches galore! just loving making these little pouches (courtesy of michelle patterns)

9. arm warmers made out of an old favourite jumper that simply couldn't bear to throw away.

i hope you have had a good week with not too many stressful interruptions and

have a great weekend x