:: march :: in a nutshell...part i

hey there! where has March gone?! 

it started with a birthday just a week after my sister's. here i am with one of my oldest friends...her birthday is 2 days before mine we have a lot of life to live this year as it's our last before the big one. what big one i hear you say? well let's put it this way, it was my sister's 50th the week before and she is a year and a week older than me...you do the maths.

amongst other things this month...which i promise to come back before march actually ends to tell you about...there was the great british studio clean up. this place was a mess. actually a mess is what a teenager's room looks like. this was a war zone.

it took me many many hours of sorting, decluttering, chucking, more sorting, more decluttering, more chucking...you get the picture, but finally i have a studio that i am proud of and delighted to be in. it has made my other resolutions of not hoarding and of finishing started projects much easier to carry out because i can see them. there is no hiding in this space any more.

these are just a couple of peaks of pretty corners in my studio, but i won't show you any more as all will be revealed in a mag coming to you in the near future and i would hate to ruin your mag flicking fun.

the tidy up uncovered all sorts of things including this gorgeous kei geodots that i had bought from the lovely aussie lasses, Danielle and Jeanetter at polka dot tea fabrics. 

if you haven't come across kei fabrics before, they have that similar buttery feel to liberty lawns and voiles. divine and a joy to sew with.

when i bought the fabric i wasn't quite sure what i was going to make with it. i bought it in the winter and being definite spring/summer fabric i put it to one side (hence getting lost in the mayhem) until warmer climes and inspiration hit.

it is very unlike me to wait patiently to decide what to do but i was determined to with this fabric, as it needed to be right. it was a treat purchase so i didn't want to mess up.

when i found the fabric and had tidied my sewing books to be on view i knew i wanted to make something out of the japanese stylish sewing book which i had never actually used, despite wanting to several times.

thanks to a translation from Kerry i set to work with a bit more confidence. it was a relatively easy make...once i was reading the instructions in english rather than japanese...and was wearing my new top a day later.

i'm really really pleased with it. the fabric was a pleasure to sew with and feels lovely to wear and i would definitely sew this pattern again...with a couple of alterations the next time, but all in all it has the tick of success. i will also definitely be heading back to Polka Dot Tea Fabrics for more of their delightful Keis and other fabrics.

so that's a little bit of what i have been up to this month and i promise to be back before the end of the month to give you a run down of what else i have been up to in march...there i've said it...i had better keep my word.

x

:: finishes ::

i know it is only march but i am giving myself a huge pat on the back on how driven i am by keeping to my new year's resolutions of tidying the studio and getting projects finished before starting new ones. at this point ruby will be coughing **modest**...

but seriously, as you are well aware, i am always distracted by something new and shiny, so to even finish 1, start 2 (oh ok maybe still 3 or 4...) is a huge achievement.

i am not wholly sure if finishing a gift counts but still...a finish is a finish.




it was my sister's 50th last week and the quilt was gifted last friday night. as you can see, she absolutely loves it...or maybe she is a good actress. either way it was a success and i was ready to move on to the next...

i can't believe i allowed my studio to get into such a terrible state. the advantage to having it tidy is i can actually see what WIPs i have. previously they were hidden under piles of, well quite frankly, piles of who knows what. it was a disgrace.

with 2 of my WIPs now staring me in the face i'm onto getting them finished.

finish number 1 is my kiss quilt...
this has now been quilted and waiting for the final job of binding. i'm hoping that will be today.

finish number 2 is my beautiful Bee a Brit Stingy hourglass quilt top that is sitting under the machine as we speak.

3 quilt finishes in a week? what is the world coming to? 

to be honest, if the year finishes here, it will have been a successful one.

:: spring clean up sale ::

this is the week of the massive spring clean in my studio and with that comes a spring clean sale. i am determined to make my space inspiring, calm and uncluttered and that means i need to cast off some precious items.

if you follow me on instagram you will know that i have started the spring clean sale with a few smaller items. (check them out here, here, here and here if you haven't yet seen).

but now it's time for the bigger things...some quilts.



1. star of the show...my pixelated piece. measuring a whopping 80 x 80" would make a great show stopper on any bed. 

it is £250 including shipping within the UK. if you are interested but are outside the UK i will quote you a shipping price.


2. a giant hexie quilt...SOLD

3. my neutral improv piece a la Lu Summers. would make a great piece of art for your wall. measuring 21 x 18". £35 within the UK. please ask for shipping price outside UK.

4. tumbling tinsel wall art piece as seen in Fat Quarterly the scraps issue. measuring 26 x 26". £35 within the UK. please ask for shipping price outside UK.



if you are interested in any of the pieces please leave a comment here or email me on info@blueberry-park.co.uk

thanks for looking x

:: origami est :: ...is the best...

 do you know my friend origami_est?
if you don't you should.

esther and i met over instagram and after oohing and ahhing over each other's work became good internet buddies. she is, as you would expect from her name, an origami artist and an incredibly talented one at that.

esther's work is very intricate and quirky and she has such an amazing eye for detail and presentation. above is a pic of her bunny garland kits. how cute?? not only is esther's handwriting to die for (i actually have an obsession with pretty handwriting...it isn't a talent i was blessed with and am in awe of anyone who is) but the instruction cards are printed on polaroid-esque cards with dymo labelling. honestly it is all killing me!

i bought a few of these kits for ruby and nieces and g-d daughter's and the like and they really are the sweetest thing. ruby and a pal made these below over half term last week. we still have the (hand felted) tails and ribbon to attach but they are just the cutest.

esther has kindly bought papers from me to use to make her origami pieces (including this pretty brooch) and has most recently made these lovely envelopes with my allotments. i just love them!...and if you do too go here to get some yourself.

the other wonderful thing about esther ("is esther's a wonderful thing...") is that all her selling is completely altruistic...as she gives all her proceeds to Stop The Traffik, a non-profit organisation that aims to stop human trafficking.

i really really hope to meet esther in real life someday soon and if i could i would go to her workshop at Smug in Camden Passage on 6 April. please go if you can and go support a girl who is worth supporting and is extremely talented and lovely to boot.

quilting for a cause...

every now and then a cause comes along that pulls at the heart strings.

this is one of those times.

alison of little island quilting wrote about her visit to a home where 90 mexican street children live and i couldn't help but want to be involved. it is impossible to help every cause that comes along but this was certainly one i could.

rather than repeating alison's post about what she is doing go here to read about it and here to read what you can do to help.

in short, all you need to do is make one 12 1/2" backed and quilted block and send to Alison. obviously you could make more...i certainly am going to try...but if we each make one imagine how many of those deprived children could have their very own bit of comfort. 

if you feel you can help, go to read more about it on alison's blog and either leave a comment with her or here with me to get the details of where to send your block/blocks/quilts to.

x x x

:: giant vintage star quilt ::

i have been having a rather lovely vintage kind of week...

the very very lovely and talented Cathi sent me a big pile of her vintage fabric scraps...one girl's trash n all that...and i have been having copious amounts of fun with them.

i had a design brief for a magazine project (you know the one) that i thought my precious vintage fabrics would be just perfect for...you will see more of that in a couple of months and i am so pleased with how these pretty fabrics joined together to make heart-warming comforting items.

the big play though, in more ways than one, was the vintage giant star quilt i made...

my goodness i absolutely love this quilt.

i think it may even be my most favouritest quilt i have ever made.

it is based upon jeni b's gorgeous quilt and can obviously be made in a multitude of fab fabrics but seeing jeni's beautiful vintage one i knew it was perfect for my pile of vintage fabrics.

and even though it is a super large quilt (almost 80" square) being just 28 pieces sewn together it is obviously extremely quick to make the quilt top.

quilt top made, backing bought (a fresh orange gingham) i ventured on quilting this giant.

it took a while to baste but that gave me time to decide how i was going to quilt it.

now i am by no means an experienced quilter. i am quite a dab hand at simple straight line quilting, which i absolutely love, but this quilt needed a softer quilting to compliment the bold star. i was quite nervous about venturing with some curly loopy fmq...i could quite easily ruin the whole thing.

thankfully i didn't and thankfully it turned out even more magical than i could imagine.

to finish off i bound it with a scrappy binding made up of some of the leftover vintage fabric pieces which turned out subtle enough but with a little bit of quirky character.

my only sadness about this whole thing is hubs, whilst he wowed at it, said it was no way going near our bed...way too flowery.

i may just have to sneak it on one night while he is away...and just leave it there.

big thanks go to my lovely tall friend helen for modelling the quilt for me...she came round this morning for a run...little did she know. 

aurifil giveaway winner...

fantastic response to the aurifil giveaway although i am not surprised...i'd want to win it too!

but again only one winner i'm afraid...

 Katy said...

I've not been sewing long enough to have a huge thread stash, but I bought a variegated spool (code 4666) of 28 weight to hand-quilt one I made as a pre-birth present for my niece, and I really liked the feel of it. I keep meaning to try it for piecing too. Thanks for the chance to win some.

thank you for entering and well done, Katy.

 Please email me your mailing address and i 

will send off your aurifil goodies. 

x