Lily's Quilts

Fab Little Quilt Swap

2012-01-28T08:30:00.000Z

I recently joined a quilt swap on Flickr. Each participant makes a mini quilt (up to 24" square) for a secret partner. I know who I am making for but don't know who is making for me. Two of the things my partners likes are bright colours and triangles so I set off down that route. Firstly, I scribbled out a few sketches to see what looked interesting. Some HSTs. Nice but a bit boring.

A storm at sea quilt pattern variation. Nice but a bit fuddy duddy.

Another storm at sea quilt variation. Nice but a bit simple.

And then I remembered this quilt which Anita had found on the Clothworks blog and pointed out to me a few months before. Designed by Beach Garden Quilts, the quilt is made from their fabulous Eagle Harbor Summer quilt pattern, again using storm at sea as the basic quilt pattern but giving it a fresh twist using solids.

I tracked back to some of the posts I had done on picking palettes in the Dead Simple Quiltalong and found this palette. Kind of fruity, bright, fresh, citrussy but a little bit pale overall so I wanted to start with this and then add some deeper colours too for contrast.

I rummaged around in my Kona Bounty of Basic Boxes and kept pulling FQs, adding and subtracting until I ended up with this mix. I added a few greys in to tone down the sweetness a teensy bit and decided to use mix the whole lot with Kona snow and pepper as background.

I drew the pattern up on squared paper and then drew up little 2" square paper piecing templates. If you look at the picture below, you can see that the quilt is made up of squares, HSTs and then the rest of the blocks are made from two templates: the square within a square and the triangle within a square. All the squares in the quilt below are 2" finished so the quilt will be 24" square.

And now the whole thing is pieced into a quilt top and I need to decide how to finish it. I think I'm going to quilt white echo lines in the white sections and black echo lines in the white sections and then cut to octagon shape so it can be hung straight or on point (are you now tilting your head 45 degrees?).

And I have to say that I am sorely tempted to make a big version of this quilt at some point in the future - 6" squares to make a 72" square quilt, sash up to 80" in shot cottons. Perhaps in a colour scheme something like Oakshott's Twelve Trees quilt kit below.

sneakity peekity

2012-01-25T12:59:00.001Z

Finalemente, here is a sneakity peekity at the foundation paper pieced pillow I made for the upcoming issue of Fat Quarterly, out on 30 January. This issue is packed full of paper piecing projects and all for the price of a quilt pattern. I'd love to see your version of my Summersville Trees pillow. If you make one, please add it to my Flickr group as well as to the Fat Quarterly group page so we can all admire your work.

Take a guess

2012-01-21T17:53:00.000Z

Lu Summers' new line for Moda, Summersville, will be in our shops in the spring. I am on my third project using it so far and have not even come close yet to tiring of it. I don't know if I ever will. Question is, which is your favourite print and which do you think the quilt shops ordered most of?

And that's why I love Sew Fresh Fabrics

2012-01-20T19:31:00.005Z

I find fabric shopping stressful. I'm no good at it and I can't choose things. Even if a real life shop, I get baffled and confused and a bit panicky. I like pre-cuts because someone else did the choosing. For the same reason I like bundles. And I love Peg and Becca at Sew Fresh Fabrics because, not only are they the queens of bundle making, but they are so great at choosing fabrics. I emailed them to order some Echino London fabric for a secret project I have in mind which you will see in June and I said - and add in some FQs that go with it. And look at this. How perfect? Totally perfect and no fabric shopping stress for me.

I would also like to say that, in preparation for that secret project, I invested in this book. Shame on me I didn't know that Lisa Lam, only the international queen of bag making and owner of bag making supplies shop, UHandbag, lives right here in the UK. There were a few bag making books on the shelf of my local bookshop but the others were not a patch on this one. If you now, or at any time in the future, want to make a bag. This is the book to use. It is comprehensive, detailed and understandable by bag-making numpties like me but goes right up to advanced bags, techniques and fastenings for those of you out there who are not bag-making numpties like me.

Still a Sale at Simply Solids

2012-01-20T08:01:00.001Z

Don't forget to pop over to my real life friend Mandy's shop, Simply Solids, if you're looking for any January bargains.

A Twitter Trial

2012-01-17T17:42:00.004Z

OK here's a funny one for you (and for me too). Tracey Pereira, who is a long arm quilter as well as owning a fabric shop called Quilt Me Happy, and I have been chatting about her doing some long arm quilting for me. Since the subject of LA quilting was raised on this blog last week, Tracey offered to answer a lot of the questions, queries and concerns many of your raised and we are planning a series of blogposts to talk about those so please keep the questions, queries and concerns coming.

In the meantime, Tracey and I are going to have a twitter chat next Tuesday morning (24 Jan) from 10am til 11am UK time discussing how she is going to quilt the swoon quilt top I have made for my sister. The idea is that we have the kind of conversation on twitter that she would normally have with her clients in her studio (but she and I live too far apart for that). And if any of you would like to join in the chat, ask questions, give opinions, ideas and thoughts etc. we will be tweeting using the hashtag #LQTPQ (standing for Lily's Quilts / Tee Pee Quilting).

And we'll then put a transcript of our twitter conversation (including any extra tweeps joining in) on my blog so you can all get a feel for how a piecer / LA quilter conversation might go. Does that sound as fun and interesting as Tracey and I think it will be or do we just need to get a life?! I tweet as @lilysquilts and Tracey tweets as @quiltmehappy so make sure you get on over and follow us before Tuesday morning if you're interested in listening or joining in. And following the conversation on tweetchat.com apparently makes it easier to follow what everyone's saying and to chat along. Remember to enter the hashtag #LQTPQ when you get there.

Resolved to Sew 2012

2012-01-17T07:58:00.002Z

Ali at VeryBerryHandmade has a fabulous competition going on right now. Blog about your 2012 resolutions linking back to her "Resolutions to Sew 2012" post which you can find here, leave a comment on her post to say you have done so and stand a chance of winning one of many fabulous fabric prizes.

At the end of last year, I made a few resolutions and I thought I'd see how they were coming along:

1. Join fewer bees, join fewer swaps, take on fewer commitments and commissions. Say no more often. Well since writing that, I have said "no" twice and "yes" three times already. One of the yesses was for charity, one to make a mini quilt, which I just couldn't resist and one to make a quilt for my niece in the swoonalong but I had already committed to make a quilt for my niece so that doesn't count.

2. Get together more often with my sewing gals because they make it all so much more fun. Well they're coming over on Thursday so that's going well so far.

3. Make my husband a quilt because, to my shame, I have made one for every one in sight but not one for him yet. This is an important one. I now have this quilt designed and calculated, the fabrics picked out and it may even be my next project and it may even end up being my first published pattern but we'll see about that.

The other thing you have to do for Ali's giveaway is to pick which of the fabulous fabric prizes Ali has scored for us you would like to win the most. I am going to pick this wonderful bundle of Erin McMorris fabrics from Backstitch.

And, even if you don't have the time or the inclination to write a blogpost about your resolutions, you can leave a comment on Ali's blog and stand a chance of winning one of the fabulous prizes. Go on, you know you want to!

Aurifil Social Quilts Contest

2012-01-16T19:25:00.002Z

Would you like to be in with a chance of winning this:

Or this:

Well then you'd better head on over to the Aurifil Facebook Page and hunt down the Social Quilts Contest and find out who, what, where, when, why and how you can be in with a chance of winning one of these fabulous Aurifil thread prizes.

2012-01-16T14:28:00.003Z

Heather and Megan over are featuring this quilt on their wonderful blog, Quiltstory today. Please click here if you would like to find out more about this mini quilt which I made last year and a little bit about me too.

Swoon all pieced

2012-01-16T08:00:00.000Z

My swoon quilt top is not all pieced. 79" square. 36" blocks with 2" sashing in the middle and 2 1/2" sashing around the outside. I am going to send it to Tracey Pereira of Teepee Quilts, to be quilted and will let you know how that goes and come back and show you her quilting when I have it back. The fabrics are J'Adore Stella FQs by Dear Stella (wonderful Paris prints for my Parisian niece), Lilll and Will and Feather n Stitch FQs both which were December fabrics in Eternal Maker's FQ quarterly club all mixed in with Klona pomegranate from Alice at Backstitch.

It is for my six year old niece and will be backed in this print which I got in one of the fabulous Fat Quarter Shop sales for $5 a yard. My new favourite quilt backings are large scale prints and cheater prints. So the quilt will still look something special when it's turned over.

Dress Up Your Loo Roll

2012-01-15T08:00:00.000Z

In other news, Jane, also known as Quiltjane, is hosting the 'Dress up your roll' competition which is open to bloggers all over the world. First prize is a $100 Fat Quarter Shop gift voucher and there are other great prizes too. Head on over to this post on Jane's blog to get yourself started and this post will give you a loo roll holder tutorial in case you're stuck. Entries have to be in by 1 March so you'd better get going.

Oh, and while I remember, the judging panel is quite something. The judges are Jane Quiltjane, Dan Piece and Press, Katy I'm a ginger monkey and me, yes me. Eeeeep.

Sew Red Blog Hop

2012-01-14T07:29:00.001Z

Last week, Leah from Burgundy Buttons asked me to join in her Sew Red Blog Hop starting next month and it is hard to say no when it's a good cause in spite of my new year's resolution to say no to anything new.

What is the hop about?

Well, it's raising awareness about heart disease! Each month, Sew Red for Women will feature an original quilt block designed ecspecially for you by some of today's most inspiring designers & bloggers and me. We will provide a special link to hop on over to the blogger and/or designer's site for details and instructions for completing the featured block. And you just might learn a thing or two about heart disease while you're there. The hopping begins on February 3rd, which happens to be Wear Red Day!

Who's Partcipating? And when?

February 3
Leah of Burgundy Buttons

March 3
Fat Quarterly's Tacha of Hanies Quilts

April 3
Katie of Swim, Bike, Quilt

May 3
Melissa Corry of Happy Quilting

June 3
Charlie of Qubee Quilts

July 3
Jessica of Twin Fibers

August 3
Melissa of The Polkadot Chair

September 3
Amber of A Little Bit Biased
October 3
Amy of Diary of a Quilter

November 3
Amy of Amy's Creative Side

December 3
Sherri of A Quilting Life
January 3

And last but not least (whatever that even means) me.

What fabric are we using?
We will be using fabrics from Chemistry by Cosmo Cricket and coordinating Bella Solids. Naturally you may use any fabric you like. As the blocks are released, Burgundy Buttons will offer a block-specific fabric pack for purchase while supplies last.

Will there be a flickr group?

We'd love as many of you as possible to join in and support the project and we will be sharing pictures in our own Flickr group right here http://www.flickr.com/groups/sewredforwomen/

We are so excited to bring you this heart friendly hop and raise awareness about heart disease at the same time! Please help us by sharing information about this event on your blogsite, twitter and facebook! Grab a button from the Sew Red for Women Blog and add it to your side bar! And I would love it if as many as possible would sew along with us to help the momentum of the event. Please leave a comment here letting me know if you are playing along.

Swoooooooooooon

2012-01-13T08:00:00.000Z

Well as you probably all know by now, Katy's swoon-a-long, using Camille Roskelly's wonderful pattern is becoming this year's BIG THING. Go here to join the group if you want to swoonalong too. I've jumped in with both feet and am loving this block. I decided to scale it up to a mahusive 36" square and make a quilt for my neice using just four blocks plus some sashing and it will come to 79" square which is a pretty good size really. I have already decided to send it out to be long arm quilted but more of that in another post.

I scaled the block up so that each finished square in the design will be 4 1/2". And I re-drew the block in squared paper so that it was made up of 64 squares (many split into HSTs). Camille's pattern is done differently - and probably 99% of you would say better - in that she uses flying geese, larger squares, rectangles etc. to save on sewing seams. I divided it into 64 squares (i) because I find it easier to cut just two shapes for a whole block; (ii) because I find it easier to keep track of what I'm piecing it's one great big nine patch (well 64 patch); and (iii) because I like the look of seams going around every square. In the picture above, you can see how I broke the block up into squares.

Because the blocks are significantly bigger than in the original design, I re-drew the block with four main colours in the star, rather than two. With squares cut at 5" for the plain squares and 5 1/2" for pairs of HSTs, each colour can be cut from one FQ. Block 2 of 4 is ready to piece, waiting on the dining room table patiently.

Are you swooning along? If so, how many blocks are you making? What is the quilt going to be for? What fabrics are you using?

UK Sewing Blogger Awards

2012-01-12T13:00:00.004Z

Dad you know that Alice from Backstitch and Fiona from The Sewing Directory have got together to bring some recognition to all you hardworking sewing bloggers out there. Vote for your favourite sewing blog of 2011, and they will reward the winner with £50 credit in the Backstitch shop to spend on whatever they wish!

There will also be 2 runners up prizes plus one voter will be picked at random to win a prize too. You can send your nomination using this entry form on the Sewing Directory website, or you can put your nomination on The Sewing Directory Blog or on this Backstitch post in the comments section our posts about the awards. You have until midnight 31st January 2012 to get your vote in. Please do feel free to post about these awards on your blog. And here's a button you can grab if you would like to.

  &<SPAN style="BACKGROUND: yellow" class=goog-spellcheck-word>lt</SPAN>;a <SPAN style="BACKGROUND: yellow" class=goog-spellcheck-word>href</SPAN>="http://<SPAN style="BACKGROUND: yellow" class=goog-spellcheck-word>backstitchblog</SPAN>.<SPAN style="BACKGROUND: yellow" class=goog-spellcheck-word>blogspot</SPAN>.com/search/label/Sewing%20Blogger%202011">&<SPAN style="BACKGROUND: yellow" class=goog-spellcheck-word>lt</SPAN>;<SPAN style="BACKGROUND: yellow" class=goog-spellcheck-word>img</SPAN> <SPAN style="BACKGROUND: yellow" class=goog-spellcheck-word>src</SPAN>="http://www.<SPAN style="BACKGROUND: yellow" class=goog-spellcheck-word>backstitch</SPAN>.co.<SPAN style="BACKGROUND: yellow" class=goog-spellcheck-word>uk</SPAN>/files/<SPAN style="BACKGROUND: yellow" class=goog-spellcheck-word>backstitch</SPAN>/marketing2_12/111228_Awards01.<SPAN style="BACKGROUND: yellow" class=goog-spellcheck-word>jpg</SPAN>" />&<SPAN style="BACKGROUND: yellow" class=goog-spellcheck-word>lt</SPAN>;/a>

Long Arm Quilting

2012-01-12T08:00:00.000Z

Now you in the US may not know this but we in the UK don't tend to send our quilts out to be long arm quilted. Why is that? I don't really know. But my friend Katy sends some of hers out to be quilted and frankly, they look so good that I've been thinking of doing the same. So I wanted to ask you all what you think. Have you had any quilts long arm quilted? Did you have an all over design or custom quilting? Were you happy with the results? Any tips on sending a quilt to be long arm quilted?

Has anyone had a bad experience of long arm quilting? Are any of you long arm quilters and would like to chip in with advice, ideas, suggestions, thoughts?

If you haven't, do you have any questions about long arm quilting you'd like answered? Any questions at all, however stupid you may think they sound. I have a long arm quilter on hand to answer them so that we can find out more and, when I send my next quilt to be long arm quilted (which will be a first for me) I will report back and tell you how I got on and answer any questions you may have about the whole process.

Sale Time!

2012-01-11T13:03:00.001Z

Mandy from Simply Solids has asked me to let you know that she has a January sale going on RIGHT NOW:

We did make pyjamas in the end

2012-01-11T08:00:00.000Z

If you're looking for a quick easy and fun sewing project your kids could get involved in, look no further. My daughters and I chose a couple of flannels from the Fat Quarter Shop (who have an impressive array). We ordered 2 yards of each (for a child up to about 1.4 metres; taller than that, you'd want to order more). Bought a pyjama sewing pattern and set to work.

One daughter was interested in sewing. One thought the idea was a complete waste of time. But the ten year old who was interested was able to pin and cut the pattern and sew the main seams (although needed help with the curved crotch seam). I hemmed and inserted elastic. Each pair took about an hour or two.

For the PJ tops, we bought long sleeved t-shirts, cut out a piece of the PJ bottom fabric, ironed edges under, starched them to make them hold, spray glued them onto the PJ top front and then blanket stitched around. Admittedly the pics I have don't really show off the PJs much but it was Christmas and there always seemed to be so much to do - watching films, eating chocolates and all that crammed in between numerous naps on the sofa.

New plans

2012-01-10T13:17:00.000Z

In spite of the fact that I resolved to take on nothing new this year, I have taken on two new commitments in the past week but with good reason. The first new project is to join Katy's swoon-a-long on Flickr. Camille Roskelly's Swoon pattern was the big hit of last year and looks set to continue the same way this year with nearly 300 quilters already in Katy's Flickr group. The quilt is made up of nine large blocks and ends up somewhere around 80" square.

Katy's starter post is here if you are interested in swooning along too. I had already committed to make a quilt for my French neice and had decided on using my J'adore by Dear Stella fabrics combined with some of the fat quarters which came to me from Eternal Maker as part of their Fat Quarters Club.

After some deliberation and advice gathered on twitter yesterday, I decided to pair the fabrics with pomegranite. Snow was too pale, I am bored of sashing with greys, as much as I love them, and suggestions of pale blues and aquas also seemed a little safe. So I settled on Klona pomegranate which is a bright in-your-face pinky red or redddy pink, a kind of raspberry red. I placed my order with Alice at Backstitch yesterday and today 4 yards of Klona pomegranate arrived together with a handy Klona swatch card for colour matchings solids with your fabrics.

The second is to join a mini quilt swap over on Flickr. I got the invite to the swap on the same day that a deadine for something I was working on was moved back a few months so it seemed like it came at just the right time. Called the Fab Little Quilt Swap, I will need to make a mini quilt by the middle of March. Making mini quilts is a great way to try out new techniques and to make something outside of your usual comfort zone and, since you are making for someone else, you also have to tailor the quilt to their likes and dislikes which is a fun challenge. Here are some mini quilts I have made in previous Flickr swaps.

Have you accidentally joined any new bees, swaps, quilt-a-longs or inadvertently started any new projects since the start of this year?

An interview with Alex Veronelli

2012-01-06T13:24:00.001Z

Alex Veronelli, product manager of Aurifil threads, has agreed to be interviewed by me on this blog and, following on from Sarah Pings and Needles wonderful interview with Melody Miller where she asked her readers for questions, I would love if you would all let me know what questions you would like me to ask Alex. Leave your comments on this post and I will choose my favourites for the interview. I already have a couple of great questions from my friends Jane and Krista and will add those into the mix. Thank you!

And if you're interested in a rainbow charm swap, head on over here to find out more.

Hello 2012

2011-12-31T10:37:00.000Z

It's the first of the month again and it's the first day of a new year and happy new year to you all. Once again it is Fresh Sewing Day and Small Blog meet. Yesterday I reviewed 2011 and now it's your turn. What did you work on in 2011 or what did you work on in December; your choice. Link up at the bottom of this post to share what you've been working on. If you do link up, how about visiting at least four of the other blogs who link up - two above you and two below you - and stopping to leave a comment as well as visiting back anyone who visits you. As always here's the button to grab:

<div align="center"><a href="http://lilysquilts.blogspot.com/" title="Fresh Sewing Day"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5069/5883537449_e85ba77279_o.jpg" alt="Fresh Sewing Day" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

And link up in the second linky if you are a blog with fewer than 50 followers and would like to get to know a few more people out there in blogland. Write a post about this feature, add the button and then link up.

<div align="center"><a href="http://lilysquilts.blogspot.com/" title="Small Blog Meet"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6147/5989823380_a69fafd955_m.jpg" alt="Small Blog Meet" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

Goodbye 2011

2011-12-31T10:27:00.000Z

A year in review. Three fave quilts, three fave blocks, three fave sewing things and three resolutions.

Three fave quilts

1. Hexagon Park because it was my first Moda Bake Shop quilt and I was beside myself with excitement to be accepted.

2. Big Dresden Quilt because it was my first quiltalong and I was amazed at how much fun it is to sew along with lots of other people.

3. The Circle Game Amitie BOM because it was my first BOM and loved it and surprised myself by finishing it.

Three fave blocks

1. Scrappy Rainbow Tree because it led to me being asked to contribute to a new UK modern quilting magazine, more on that coming soon.

2. Rainbow double circle of flying geese, because it led to me contributing to Stash's Modern Blocks Book and seeing my name in print which was very exciting indeed.

3. Lynnebobsquarepants because so many people have gone on to make this block and that makes me very happy.

Three best sewing things of 2011

1. My sewing circle consisting of Mandy Simply Solids, Justine Sew Justine Sew, Katy Im a Ginger Monkey and Brioni Flossy Blossy - being able to talk fabrics, quilting and sewing endlessly with a group of hilarious and fun gals has been too much fun.

2. The people of blogland, flickrland and twitter, the readers of this blog and the writers of all the others blogs who make up this wonderful community where we all meet, share and support each other.

3. My sponsors. They all have buttons down the side of my blog and they have helped me to feed this very expensive habit that I have become addicted to. Thank you each and every one of you for support.

Three resolutions

1. Join fewer bees, join fewer swaps, take on fewer commitments and commissions. Say no more often. Yeah right.

2. Get together more often with my sewing gals because they make it all so much more fun.

3. Make my husband a quilt because, to my shame, I have made one for every one in sight but not one for him yet. This is an important one.

Tomorrow it will be Fresh Sewing Day and Small Blog Meet - come along and link up to your end of December / end of year / start of new year posts and any blogs with 50 readers or fewer, come along and link up to the post tomorrow. And may I wish you all a happy new year.

Daisy for Rene for November

2011-12-30T18:00:00.001Z

Since I've been seemingly colosally underproductive since joining Fat Quarterly at the start of November, I am jumping at the chance to show something new here. This afternoon I made this block for Rene Luv 2 Kreate as her block for the VIBees bee I am in with her and others. She sent us some white and some green and blue fabrics and we were pretty much left to choose what we wanted to do after that. So I designed this 12" block - paper pieced in four 6" square sections with a circle appliqued on at the end. I hope you are all enjoying a relaxing and happy festive season.

Twas the night after Christmas

2011-12-29T20:11:00.002Z

Take a moment to read this wonderful response to my "Twas the Night Before Christmas" post over at my mate Helen's blog. It will warm the festive and crafty cockles of your heart!

Are you a Brit with an Accuquilt Baby Go?

2011-12-27T16:43:00.003Z

If you are living in Britain and have an Accuquilt Baby Go, I have two brand new, unopened Baby Go / Go Cutter dies which I am interested in swapping if anyone else is interested in them. I'm happy to swap for used dies although they have to fit the Baby Go. The two I have are the 3" HSTs (4 HSTs on one die):

and the set of three circles; 2", 3" and 5":

If you are interested in a swap, leave a comment to let me know what die(s) you are willing to swap and which of these dies you are interested in.

Twas the Night Before Christmas

2011-12-24T08:27:00.003Z

Go and find out why we leave pillows out for Santa on Xmas Eve - as a new Xmas tradition starts on the Fat Quarterly blog. And a merry Christmas to all of you and God Bless Us Every One, as Kermit's son says to Michael Caine in one of the greatest Christmas films of all time.

It makes me so happy...

2011-12-22T13:37:00.000Z

It makes me so happy when someone makes something I designed so imagine my delight when this beauty popped up in my flickr group. The quilt is made from my LynneBobSquarepants block, the tutorial for which you can find here. It was made by Becky My Fabric Obsession together with the members of her do. Good Stitches Bliss bee, which is an online bee with lots of different groups within in, all making quilts for charity. If you go to Becky's blogpost you can find out more about the making of the quilt, together with close-ups of some of the wonderful individual blocks. And the icing on the cake is that Becky and her bee members made this quilt for Wrap them in Love. Thank you Becky, you made my day with this beautiful charity quilt.

Lily's Quilts becomes Amy's Quilts

2011-12-21T06:27:00.003Z

Yesterday my sewing space was once again raided by my nine year old daughter. She riffled through my Countdown to Christmas FQs, pulled a few and we got set to make a Christmas stocking. She wanted red and white fabrics to give the stocking a candy cane stripe, she wanted her stripes 2" wide and she wanted a stripy sock top.

We drew a template on newspaper and then drew around it using a sharpy onto some wadding - so we had two interlocking stockings on one square of wadding - one stocking drawn around the template facing up and the other drawn around the template facing down of course. We drew a diagonal starter line on the other side of the wadding using a sharpy and my cutting ruler, I cut the 2 1/2" strips and Amy sewed them onto the wadding using 1/4" seams and flipping and pressing after each seam until the whole wadding was covered. We then cut out the stocking shapes, trimmed along the tops, added 6 1/2" squares of stripey fabric, backed with some fusible fleece. Sewed the two stocking halves together, folded the top in and sewed it down, made a hanging loop with a green Countdown to Christmas cut strip, sewed that in and hey presto. One candy cane striped Countdown to Christmas stocking.

And, in case you wonder the ladies of my quilt guild all look like, here are (from left) Brioni, Justine and Mandy and in the second photo it is me. These photos were taken by Katy at our Xmas sewing meeting last week at my house where we talked all day and didn't sew a stitch. Because she took the photos, you can't see her so you have to picture a tall skinny Gok Wan with a haircut like a wok, big glasses like the 3D cinema ones, a random assortment of clothes and lots of tattoos and a handbag with a chiuaua in. Quite the typical quilter really.

Crazy Cool Sale

2011-12-20T12:00:00.000Z

Fat Quarter Shop are having a new crazy sale every day in the lead up to Christmas but today's is a real beaut. Big discounts on these and other fabrics for one day only:

Summersville

2011-12-19T16:15:00.000Z

I have been desperate to do some sewing with Lu Summers new line for Moda, coming out next spring, Summersville. I managed to get my hands on a few little scraps that Lu had left over from quilt market and have made something for the next issue of Fat Quarterly but I wanted more. So I contacted Moda Bake Shop with a project idea. Now, although they gave the idea the green light, Summersville has not yet been printed so I was back to twisting Lu's arm again. So in the post today, came these precious home prints, kind of a mini-preview of what is to hit our local quilt shops next year. The scale of these prints is perfect; not so big you can't cut them up but big enough to use as feature prints. I'll be putting this project together over the next few days and will let you know when it is scheduled on Moda Bake Shop.

In other news, I want to thank each and every one of you who commented on yesterday's post about Amy's pillow. She was absolutely thrilled to get such enormous support for her project and has enjoyed reading all the comments several times over.

And one more thing, do any of you UK quilters know of a long arm quilter somewhere in the Midlands? I'm somewhere between Derby, Sheffield, Leicester, Nottingham, Manchester and Birmingham and thought I had read about a new one just off the M1 around here somewhere but wonder if I was imagining it.

The best laid plans of mice and men

2011-12-18T17:20:00.000Z

The best laid plans of mice and men get derailed by their 9 year old daughter coming into the sewing room, rummaging around in the stash baskets and announcing she will spend Sunday making a pillow for her teacher. So my Sunday plans of making up a quilt top got elbowed to one side as I helped her ladyship to put together the pillow top she had in mind. I tried to suggest that there are easier things than pinwheels but she had a plan and my opinions were pretty irrelevant.

I suggested she cut the HSTs using the HST die on my Accuquilt Go Cutter. This is a great tool for kids who are old enough to use the go cutter carefully but could not yet be trusted with a rotary cutter. She cut, she sewed, she pressed, I trimmed. At one point she tried trimming, it went wrong, there were tears but we regrouped, retrimmed and were back on track.

We auditioned most of my stash for the sashing and then most of my stash all over again for the backing and hey presto, she got it made in one day. And we hope Miss Smith likes it.

Xmas time in England

2011-12-16T19:05:00.001Z

Well it's Christmas time over here in England right now, gifts have been swapped and mail received. A pin tin, some teensy Christmas buttons, some Cath Kidston candles, some homemade Xmas tree decs and two handmade wallhangings with bells and ribbons on from my real life quilting friend and all round loveliest person ever, Mandy.

An unexpected and fabulous package of text fabrics from my the outrageously talented paper piecer that is Kerry.

Some J'adore Stella fabrics by Dear Stella, covered with images of Paris, from eccentric crazy lady Katy which I think will be going into a quilt for my Parisian neice.

And some beautiful hand printed fabrics from Karen who we also know as Blueberry Park and whose hand printed fabrics are cool, fresh and funky and can be bought in her Etsy shop.

Seasons Greetings to everyone. May your days be merry and bright and may all your Christmasses be white.

Poppyprint comes to town

2011-12-16T09:24:00.000Z

And today we are honoured, excited and privileged to have a visitor from Canada on the blog - only my very special and gifted friend Krista Poppyprint. If you don't know her blog, you need to get on over there pronto. And without further ado ... may we welcome to the blog ... Krista aka Poppyprint...with a fabulous Christmas gift suggestion for any quilters in your life.

We're getting down to the wire, folks. Not many shopping days left now, which is why my quilter's gift idea is IDEAL for last minute {husband-type} shoppers. Like mine. Why? Because he won't have to go near a mall, sewing center or fabric shop**.

Nosiree, for this extra-special-highly-functional gift, your man can go to Mecca. His Mecca. That's right: the hardware store. He'll love you even more just for suggesting it! Before he even reaches the cash-out, he'll be high-fiving other last minute shopping men who are buying their poor wives a cordless drill for Christmas, secure in the knowledge that he dreamed up the most fabulous present ever known to quilting wives.

THE ROLLING TOOLBOX

As a retreat organizer, my tools and supplies are on the move monthly. My retreat clientele are a clever bunch and a couple of years ago, several of the gals started showing up with all of their gear securely packed in these affordable, lightweight toolboxes. I immediately put one on my Christmas list. I'm pretty sure my husband thought he'd hit the jackpot when he saw that my gift was available at Canadian Tire - not only could he complete his shopping, but he could pick up some new windshield wipers for the car, a roll of duct tape and a new outdoor extension cord for the Christmas lights. Score!

house tape measure by Laurraine, pattern available here

These units are like rolling luggage for the traveling quilter. But without the quilt store price tag (again, can I hear a hallelujah from the husbands, please?). The top box has a handy tray for all your marking tools, cutting implements, hand cream, bobbins, pins, measuring tape and emergency mints/chocolate. Below the tray is an open (or slotted compartment, depending on the brand) area for fabric, patterns, rulers, first aid kit.

rotary cutter pouch by Suzanne

The boxes have varying features depending on manufacturer. My box (made by tool giant Stanley) has this fantastic turny tray for hardware bits that is perfect for buttons, snaps, clasps, grommets, D-rings and the like.

Finally, the top box is a detachable stand-alone tool box. Below it you've got another open bin for bulky stuff like a power bar, Ott light, extension cord or more fabric. Although I cannot prove it, a bottle of wine fits beautifully in here, too.

Here you have all three main components of your sewing room on wheels:

I keep mine fairly loaded at all times and it sits right beside the chair in my home sewing room, so all my notions are easily accessible. When at retreat, it assumes the same position:

ooo look, it's Felicity over there on the left!

That's Elizabeth's thread catcher and Anna's 241 bag in the shot as well.

Hi ho, hi ho, off to retreat I go......

photo by Felicity

See how happy I look? See how my arms and shoulders are not laden with heavy and cumbersome totebags and boxes? This could be YOU!

** manquilters, please excuse the implication that you, too, are last minute shoppers based solely on your gender. As creative quilting types, I am making the assumption that all your gifts are completed and wrapped, like mine, and you are hereby exempt from the last-minute-shopper stereotype presented in this post for comedic effect.

Lily's Pyjamas?

2011-12-15T16:40:00.001Z

Not content with making pillows, stealing my stash, monopolising my machine and making a mess in my sewing room, one of my twin daughters has now asked to learn to make clothes. It seemed like PJ bottoms would be a good place to start so we bought this pattern.

And then we strolled together down the Flannel Aisles of the Fat Quarter Shop torn between monkeys:

the Grinch:

And some other De Seuss flannels:

And finally settling on this one.

And twisting my arm to get this one too.

All excited and gleeful about this flannel PJ mum-daughter sewing thing going on, I asked her twin sister if she'd like to choose some flannels to make PJ bottoms too. Not really she said. She'd prefer shop bought. That told me. But just to warn you, Lily's Quilts may become Lily's Pyjamas for a short period.

A quilt in situ

2011-12-14T07:57:00.000Z

I made this quilt for my sister's friend, Carla. It has been shipped, has arrived safely and is now installed in Carla's new Paris apartment. Last night she sent me a photo and I wanted to keep it here for myself really. There's something very special for me to see a quilt I've made in situ and in use. Melody Miller's Ruby Star Rising and Kona coral are the main fabrics and it came out at a whopping 100" X 100" - QAYG in sixteen squares of 25" X 25".

Paper Pieced Union Jack Pillow

2011-12-12T08:27:00.000Z

When Katy came back from Quilt Market, she brought a huge bag of fabric bundles to my house. First of all I tried stealing some of the fabric bundles and hiding them behind the furniture but she noticed annoyingly. Nevertheless her kind side chose to overlook my attempts at petty theft and she distributed her fabric wealth amongst us (Brioni, Justine, Mandy and me) like the true princess she is.

She split her Rouenneries Deux Fat Eighth bundle with me and she loves Rouenneries so I know that was hard for her. I cut into that bundle yesterday and made a companion pillow to my Patriotic US flag pillow made from Etchings wovens a few weeks back. Once again, 28" X 18", the size of a UK bed pillow and my new favourite pillow size. If you'd like to have a go at making one of these, I may well be teaching a fun and informative "Paper Piecing a Union Jack Pillow" class at FQ London 2012. Be there or be square.

Fat Quarterly Newsletter

2011-12-12T07:49:00.001Z

Do you get the Fat Quarterly newsletter? It comes out four times a year and contains more news and stories in addition to those in the E-zine. It's free to subscribers and non-subcribers of the E-zine. The latest one is coming out shortly so sign up here if you're interested in having a read - there is lots of news in there about the recent Fall Quilt Market.

Easy pillows for kids to make

2011-12-11T17:44:00.001Z

My twins are now chopping their way through my stash and have made a couple more pillows this weekend. If anyone's kids want to have a go at sewing, these are quick, easy projects for them to manage with a bit of your help.

For E's I cut a 10 1/2" square and some 2 1/2" strips. She pressed the central square onto some fusible fleece. I then showed her how to pin, sew, flip and press the 2 1/2" strips to the fusible fleece and she kept going until she had an 18 1/2" (or thereabouts...!) square which I backed with a FQ cut into one 9" and one 13" section. I edged one cut edge of the backing with a strip of spare fabric, overlapped the two pieces by about 3-4", sewed the whole thing together right sides together, flipped inside out and voila!

For A's I cut eight 3" strips 22" long from the FQs. We pinned one of the middle strips to some wadding, pinned the next one onto it, right sides together. A then sewed that seam, flipped and pressed and then pinned, sewed and pressed the rest of the strips on. Again, I trimmed to size and made an emvelope back which A sewed on with a simple seam, right sides together. Flip it inside out, stuff a cushion in and voila!

And the winner is

2011-12-11T16:55:00.001Z

And the winner of the Blueberry Park fabrics is:

Congratulations Marilee!

Am I odd?

2011-12-10T19:38:00.001Z

I wonder if I am the only person who prefers someone else to choose their fabrics for them. I've only just realised this fact about myself. If I shop online, I have to buy a whole line or nothing. I can't buy a bit of this and a bit of that, it's just too scary. The same in a shop, I can't just grab a load of FQs and put them all together - it's a FQ bundle, a layer cake, a jelly roll or nothing. So I decided to join a FQ club and see how that went. I saw that the Eternal Maker have FQ clubs so I thought I'd just jump on in. Only of course I was unable to choose which one, so I joined all three. They have a Japanese FQ club, a designer FQ club and a moda FQ club. This is December's designer bundle. Beautiful muted tones with a little bit of quirkiness thrown in.

Because I joined all three, I got a bumper box of fabrics someone else chose for me in the mail this week. I can confidently say that there is not one print in there I would have picked out in my LQS BUT I adore them. Firstly I would say that the buyer at Eternal Maker clearly has a good eye and a definite perspective. These fabrics are what I think of as "cool" fabrics. Like the cool gang at school. When I shop I seem to miss the cool fabrics. Don't ask me why, I just do. I try to be cool and choose the cool fabrics but I just don't. The bundle below one is the Japanese bundle for December. Elephants, robots and the front one is a linen with buttons all over it. Someone in my family might like that made into a cushion. Let's see if she reads this post and notices...

So I'm buying into cool. I'm asking Eternal Maker to bring a touch of cool into my stash. One thing which Eternal Maker do is to include a note with each bundle telling you what is in there. Now I know I should have read those notes and digested them and then told you what was in these bundles but I am ashamed to say I put them somewhere safe and for the life of me I can't find them. The bundle below is the Moda bundle. Now I vaguely remember reading in the note that these were Bunny Hill fabrics which I confess never leapt out at me on the Moda website but, in person, they are so soft, muted, gentle and, you know, cool.

No specific plans for any of these as yet but I like that they add into my stash fabrics that I wouldn 't have thought to add myself.

FQ London 2012 Flickr Group

2011-12-10T07:33:00.001Z

Are you coming to the Fat Quarterly Sewing Weekend in London next June? Click here to buy your tickets which have gone on sale today. And come and join the Flickr group here so we can all chat, get to know each other, squeal and get excited and a little bit silly.

I'm a good girl

2011-12-09T07:40:00.000Z

Yes I'm a good girl. I've been sharing. My twin girls wanted to do some sewing so I allowed them to pick freely from my scraps boxes. And I had to leave the room because I wanted to spend the whole time saying - OK any piece but not that piece. Or that piece. Or that piece either. Especially when she grabbed one of the only existing pieces of Summersville on the whole planet. So I left the room and left them hacking into my scraps with the 5" square cutter on the Accuquilt Baby Go Cutter. It's hard to share.

Anyway, as you can see, one pillow is finished. 18" X 28", backed with Julia's wonderful fusible fleece and made to the size that we Brits use as a pillow to put our heads on in bed. We call these pillows and we call the square pillows that you scatter over sofas cushions. I pronounce that "cush-un" but my husband is Welsh and pronounces it "cush-in". So he laughs at me and I laugh at him and my little Welsh neices used to spend happy hours making me say "cushion" and "curtain" when I should have been saying "cush-in" and "cur-tin".

Amy is posing here with the back of her pillow in our conservatory. I only point that out because for some reason, I get a great reaction from the US when I say that we have a conservatory. You in the US think it makes me posh to have a conservatory. Whereas conservatories are ten a penny in England. We almost all have them. Plastic additions to our houses which take up 90% of our gardens. You should know that I am posh though. Practically as posh as the queen.

London 2012

2011-12-08T19:24:00.001Z

Want to come along to the Fat Quarterly Sewing Weekend in London next June? Click here to buy your tickets which have gone on sale today.

On Moda Bake Shop Today

2011-12-08T06:00:00.000Z

Today a quilt of mine is over on Moda Bake Shop. I say that, casual as can be but it still does give me a thrill. Here's a sneak peek of the quilt but you'll have to click through to see the whole thing (and please do and please also leave a comment if you have a minute because it's lonely over there all by myself).

It was a funny one, this quilt. When it's all folded it is my favourite quilt of all. And when it's all scrumpled up on the sofa with one of the kids snuggled under it, it looks wonderful. But, when hung up and photographed, I don't think it works so well. I'm not really sure why. I love Malka's line and I can spend hours with this quilt on my knee admiring all the different prints but does the whole quilt work together? I don't really know.

A December treat for you

2011-12-07T07:19:00.001Z

Karen from Blueberry Park and I have been chatting lately and I kind of twisted her arm to let me give away some of her hand screen printed fabric to you as a little Christmas present. If you don't know Karen's shop, then it's worth taking a look at the beautiful things she has for sale there.

She blogs at Blueberry Park blogspot.

And she also has an Etsy shop where she sells the beautiful things she makes. Like these hand screen printed fabrics.

And she has very kindly agreed to give one lucky reader a set of four hand screen printed fabric sheets. All you need to do to be in with a chance of winning is to head over to her Etsy store and choose which four you would like; colour and pattern. Mr Random will pick a winner some time on Sunday, probably after I've had my Sunday lunch, fallen sleep on the sofa in front of some dreadful trashy Christmas film and woken up two hours later, dazed, confused and a little bit grumpy. When I say a little bit ...

Fresh Sewing Day and Small Blog Meet

2011-11-30T15:18:00.001Z

It's the first of the month again: Fresh Sewing Day and Small Blog meet. I am trying to work out what I have achieved this month and, frankly I have as good as nothing. My mosaic is empty. So this is the achievement I am going to share this month. Joining the Fat Quarterly team. I was nearly hysterical with excitement when they asked me to join them, it took me all of two seconds to accept and I confess I am just as excited now as I was then.

So what did you achieve this month? Link up at the bottom of this post to show me what you've been working on. If you do link up, how about visiting at least four of the other blogs who link up - two above you and two below you - and stopping to leave a comment as well as visiting back anyone who visits you. As always here's the button to grab:

<div align="center"><a href="http://lilysquilts.blogspot.com/" title="Fresh Sewing Day"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5069/5883537449_e85ba77279_o.jpg" alt="Fresh Sewing Day" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

<div align="center"><a href="http://lilysquilts.blogspot.com/" title="Small Blog Meet"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6147/5989823380_a69fafd955_m.jpg" alt="Small Blog Meet" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

Next go and visit and get to know at least four other linked blogs - starting with the two above you in the linkys and the two below you. Visit those blogs, leave a comment, click to follow and visit that blog regularly over the next few weeks. Visit more if you have the time. And also visit back any new bloggers who come to visit you and get to know them and their blogs.

A little extra part of this feature is now going to be the Am I A No Reply Comment Blogger section. Yup, each month you will have the chance to test whether you are a no reply comment blogger right here on this post. I get so many comments that I cannot reply to and often I don't think the commenters know that I can't reply. So, if you've ever left a comment on this or any blog and not received a reply, you might be a no-reply-comment-blogger and I and other bloggers can't reply directly to your comments. To find out if you are, leave a comment on this post with your email address in the comment - separate it out into sections to avoid being treated as spam (eg. lilysquilts @ gmail . com). I can then either reply directly to your comment or let you know via the email address you provided that you are a no reply comment blogger.

Advent Giveaways - one a day

2011-11-30T15:10:00.001Z

Fi over at the Sewing Directory has teamed up with Abakhan Fabrics to bring you a giveaway every single day from 1 December right up to Christmas Day. Just head here each day from tomorrow to view what prize is on offer and how to enter, plus you can check the winner's list to see if you won any prizes the previous days. Prizes include gift vouchers for the Abakhan site, loads of fabric, sewing supplies, ribbons, buttons, sewing patterns, craft books and more.

J'Adore Paris

2011-11-30T07:20:00.001Z

When I mentioned Moda's Etchings by 3 Sisters on my blog a while back, my sister asked for something for Christmas made from the blue Paris map fabric so I've made her these two pillows, to her size specification, but I have no pillow forms in that size so have had to photograph them flat.

They are dead simple but I really just wanted the pillows to be all about the fabric and not some kind of patchworky extravaganza because not everyone likes their house to be filled with an abundance of overly patchworky patchwork. My house is getting that way and I wonder if it's becoming abnormally so yet. Has my house become "weird quilting house" as my son predicted 18 months ago? In other news, I am going to be getting my grubby little hands on some of this Dear Stella line "J'Adore Stella" which I have been eyeing for a while at the Fat Quarter Shop.

I have no specific plans for it as yet but I have a sneaking suspicion my sister may end up with more Paris themed pillows before too long. Look at this wonderful Paris map print.

And these Eiffel Towers.

These cyclists.

And these birdcages which I know Leila will love.

At this rate, my sister's flat will turn into weird patchworky Paris pillows apartement. Get me, French n all.

Pillows Galore

2011-11-29T17:50:00.001Z

I'm on a pillow making frenzy at the moment. I can't get enough of the fusible fleece from Julia at Gone to Earth which makes pillow making so easy and the pillows so soft and sleepable-on. I decided to make my parents a Christmas pillow instead of the usual Christmas card this year. I used shot cottons on a background of a somewhat busy dotty fabric which I had thought was going to be the most useful dot ever when I bought it but it turned out to be too busy for most jobs. As a blizzard though, it's just the ticket.

To get those wavy / snowy quilting lines, I drew straight lines an inch apart with my hera marker. Then I straight line quilted along those lines at full pelt yanking the pillow back and forth like a cartoon character would drive, more or less aiming for the hera marker line but not worrying too much about it. I then went back and did the same in between all the lines. It's a quick way of quilting and my new favourite.

This pillow had my first envelope back. I overlapped the two halves of the back by 4" and edged the upper edge with some binding. Much quicker than zips and buttons and it gives a nice finishing detail on the back. I copied this idea from Katy but don't tell her I said that because she'll get all big headed and pleased with herself.

I have also rashly ordered a FQ bundle of Countdown to Christmas from the Fat Quarter Shop (taking advantage of this week's 25% of everything sale) with the intention of making all my children and my long suffering Welsh husband pillows for Christmas but whether I will pull that off I don't know. Do they really want Christmas pillows anyway or is that just me getting all romantic thinking they'd be thrilled with a homemade gift from me when really they'd prefer something from the Apple store.

Layer Cake £20; Jelly Roll £20; Charm Pack £6

2011-11-28T13:57:00.001Z

Sale MADNESS at my mate Mandy's shop, Simply Solids. Do not hesitate. Stocks will not last at these prices.

Houston, we have a winner...

2011-11-27T16:51:00.001Z

Yes, after waking from my nana nap, I have asked Mr Random to choose a number from the 177 entries for the fusible fleece giveaway generously sponsored by Julia at Gone to Earth and he has chosen:

And that is (and I am always thrilled when Mr Random picks a friend):

Gill, I will email you privately for your details to forward to Julia and congratulations!

Looking like Ronnie Barker in my new bins

2011-11-26T20:01:00.001Z

It took me about an hour standing all alone in the opticians looking at myself in the mirror to pluck up the courage to actually order these glasses. Still starting slightly when I catch myself in a mirror but I'm getting there. I'm going to wear them all day every day until I am no longer feeling self conscious in them. Oh, and for any non-Brits, "bins" are glasses and this is Ronnie Barker, one of the funniest British comedians ever.

Fusible Fleece Giveaway

2011-11-25T08:50:00.001Z

A while back, I made this pillow using Etchings Wovens and a fusible fleece which I bought from Julia at Gone to Earth. I have since made more pillows with this fleece which I can't show you because they're Xmas presents but I love it so much and it makes pillow making so easy and the resultant pillow is very cosy and soft if you're in the mood for a Sunday afternoon nap which I often am.

I asked Julia is she might give some of this fusible fleece away and she has agreed to do so. So, here's a quick Thanksgiving / Black Friday giveaway of 2 metres of this wonderful fleece for you to try your hand at making pillows (or bags or other items) with. Just one quick easy comment to be in with a chance of winning. Just let me know what you would make with it and Mr Random will draw a winner on Sunday, probably just after my afternoon nap.

New Backstitch Flickr Group

2011-11-24T17:25:00.001Z

Do you shop at Backstitch?

Did you, like me, buy this bundle?

Or this one?

Well, pop on over to the newly formed Backstitch Filckr group and go upload your projects there.

Save The Date

2011-11-24T11:06:00.001Z

20% sale

2011-11-24T06:34:00.001Z

This weekend there is a 20% sale at Fresh Squeezed Fabrics using the code christmashop20.

How about a Secret Garden full yard bundle:

An Outfoxed half yard bundle:

Or a bargain-acious Lucky Dip 8 FQ bundle for only $12:

Kona Winner

2011-11-23T11:55:00.001Z

I am going to announce the winner of the Kona Bounty of Basics boxes from the colossally generous Robert Kaufman now and do my regular Christmas Gifts for Quilters later on. And so, without further ado, the winner of these:

Was picked by Mr Random:

And is:

Congratulations Regina!

Start of a new quilt

2011-11-21T14:12:00.001Z

Well I've just got some fabrics in for a new project. a FQ set of Echo by Lotta Jansdotter from Alice at Backstitch which I am head over heels in love with. This is the fabric line of this year as far as I am concerned. Being naturally uncool in person, I like to try to gravitate towards the cool kid fabrics so that, by magic osmosis, my projects will look cooler than I really am. My kids tell me it's no longer "cool" to say "cool", especially the way I say it with the "l" clearly pronounced on the end. Apparently I am an epic fail in both my pronunciation and use of the word "cool".

I also bought some yardage for backing of Cameroun Jungle - Alexander Henry - from Sew Fresh Fabrics. Those ladies are so clever. I told Peg and Becca what fabrics were going on the front of the quilt and what the design was and asked them to suggest a backing with the same sort of feel and I think they made a wonderful choice, as always.

I've started this new project three times so far and not liked what I've made any of those times so I'll keep on going and hope that, by the time it appears in the next issue of Fat Quarterly, it will actually look the way it looked in my head when I started out and not an epic fail.

Are you up for a challenge?

2011-11-21T08:09:00.001Z

I am organising my first Designer Challenge over at the Fat Quarterly blog. Fancy a Design Challenge using a sample pack of Aurifil threads? Well head on over to here.

Quilt Album re-draw

2011-11-17T17:14:00.001Z

When I originally drew the winner of Quilt Album, the computer program designed for you to catalogue all your quilts on the computer, I chased the no-reply comment blogger who won around the internet and have failed to get anywhere so I have decided to have a re-draw.

Mr Random has chosen:

Congratulations Mary! In the meantime, if you would like to invest in a copy of Quilt Album and catalogue your quilts and even make business cards and greetings cards from them, the makers have given me a discount code to give you a $5 discount on the program. You could even make Christmas cards with your quilts on. Just click through using the button below and use the code shown in the button to obtain the $5 discount.

Looking for something to make for Christmas?

2011-11-17T09:40:00.001Z

Well then head over to Kerry's shop and pick up the second in her series of winter paper piecing patterns - this time it's a candy cane love heart - the pattern shows you how to piece the block to make whatever you want with but also shows you how to make the tote.

And if you missed the first one, it was winter woolies.

Going to Harrogate

2011-11-17T07:38:00.001Z

Anyone going to the knitting and stitching show at Harrogate next week? I'm going with Katy, Brioni and Justine. Sadly our fifth partner in crime, Mandy, is unable to come with us so the gang won't quite all be there.

I'll be stopping at stand B240 to see The Button Company and Eternal Maker who sell fabulous modern fabrics, buttons and also my thread of choice Aurifil.

I'll also be stopping at stand B575 to see my local quilt shop, Quiltessential, run by Ann and Darren, the nicest LQS owners in the world, and that's no exaggeration. Look at this quilt Darren designed and made.

I'll stop at B245 - Oakshott shot cottons because their stand is always inspiring and I adore their shot cotton bundles.

And I'll stop at B692 - Sunflower Fabrics because Maggie is a hoot, her quilts are beautiful and she puts together fabulous Liberty and other fabric packs.

Are you going to be there? Let me know so we can bump into each other. And what stands will you be making for?

Christmas Gifts for Quilters 7 (+ mahusive giveaway)

2011-11-16T07:01:00.001Z

MAHUSIVE giveaway today. Ma-double-husive. Ma-Kona-husive.

So, once again, here is a button you can grab for your blog. The button links back to the original intro post for this series and, over time, that post will link to all the subsequent posts in the series so just leave the button lying around when friends and relatives are around and hope that they click through and get some great ideas of what to get you for Christmas. And just in case none of your relatives are showing any interest in any of these great ideas, there's a giveaway at the end of the post. Colossal giveaway. MAHUSIVE giveaway. MA-DOUBLE-HUSIVE giveaway.

<div align="center"><a href="http://lilysquilts.blogspot.com/2011/09/christmas-is-coming.html" title="Christmas Gifts for Quilters"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6176/6213980856_a52f333b9e_o.jpg" alt="Christmas Gifts for Quilters" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

But before we get to that, the winner of the Fat Quarterly year's subscription has just been picked by Mr Random and notified. Congratulations to you Sana Saroti. If you weren't the winner but did enter, the latest edition came out yesterday - all about colour - and you can buy it or your very own year's subscription here.

And this week, some suggestions for the quilter who has everything. Even if the quilter in your life has these things, he or she will not complain at getting more of them. Yes, I am talking about the king of the stash, the Kona solids!

For a small gift, Kona's charm packs come in five colourways; classic, dark, dusty, pastel and bright and you can also buy single-colour charm packs of the some of the most useful colours.

An alternative small gift of the most useful of all quilter's tools, the Kona colour card. Though you can't see it in the photo, each swatch of colour is an actual piece of fabric so you can colour match to perfection.

Want to spend a bit more? How about Kona layer cakes or jelly rolls. These come in the same colourways as the charm packs and in single colours of the some of the most useful colours.

Looking for something slightly bigger again? What about the Kona FQ bundles. These come in beautiful colour groups.

And finally, the undisputed king of any stash, the Kona Bounty of Basics Boxes. One dark, one light. Need I say more? I have no words. If you bought these for a quilter friend / relative / neighbour, they would love you forever. Well maybe that's a slight exaggeration but they'd be happy as happy can be.

To be in with a chance of winning these two boxes (yes, you heard me right, one person is going to win both of these boxes), three chances in three comments.

1. Comment to tell me what your current favourite Kona colour is.

2. Comment to say you follow this blog.

3. Comment to say you spread the word (twitter, facebook, blog etc).

Good luck and a winner will be drawn this time next week (23 November).

Fat Quarterly - Out Tomorrow

2011-11-14T19:22:00.001Z

Issue 7 of Fat Quarterly is out tomorrow.

This issue is all about COLOUR. Over 100 pages with no adverts, just articles, quilt and project patterns, designer challenges, interviews, book reviews and giveaways. Here is one of the quilts featured in this issue, designed and made by Brioni.

I'd love to know what you think. Do you buy Fat Quarterly? If not, why not? And if you do, what do you like about it and what would you want done differently? What would you want more of and what less of?

Sneak Peak

2011-11-13T10:27:00.001Z

Here's a little sneak peak of my next Moda Bake Shop quilt. 70" X 90", which is the size I make most of my quilts. Made from A Stitch in Color, a new Moda line which previewed at Quilt Market, it is colour mixed with colour and then a bit more colour added for good measure. If you like A LOT of colour, you'll like this one. If you like to wear sunglasses when looking at a quilt, you'll love this one. As you know, I am very scared of colour but I confess I do love all these bright wild colours jangling together and making me feel like I'm not in grey, damp, drizzly England but in the Copa, Copa Cabana, the hottest spot north of Havana, she lost her music, she lost her Tony now she's lost her life. Wow, such a happy song ends in tragedy.

A couple of quilt blocks

2011-11-12T08:46:00.000Z

And through all the excitement of this week, quilt blocks still need to be made. One I think is OK to show on the front page of this blog and the other is not. This one was made for my very special friend Krista Poppyprint, in our Stash Trad Bee where we make traditional blocks from our stash. I'm going to show you mine first and then everyone else's because they're so cute. In turn the rest were made by Amy During Quiet Time, Tiffany A Fabric Affair, Kerry VeryKerry Berry, Krista Poppyprint, Ayumi Pink Penguin, Corey Little Miss Shabby, Gayle Brindley and Angela Cuttopieces.

The other block I made was in response to a request from Chawne who is making a whole quilt of blocks with just one rude word on them. Dan and I have made a block each and no doubt more will be appearing around blogland, tweetland, facebookland, flickrland and whatever other quilting lands there are out there. But the word on the blocks is rude so I would prefer not to show it on the face of the blog as I don't want to offend anyone unintentionally. However, if you would like to see these two blocks, leave a comment on this post answering this simple quilting question and I will send you the link. I am posing a question that I am hoping random passers or curious children by won't know the answer to so I don't inadvertently give them the link. What out-of-print fabric line by a big name fabric and quilt designer is coming back early next year, eagerly awaited by 99% of the modern quilting community? Leave your email address in the comment if it is not linked to your blogger profile. HINT

11/11/11 11% X 11 days

2011-11-11T16:15:00.001Z

It's 11/11/11 and to celebrate Mandy is having an 11% sale for 11 days. Lots of new pre-cuts in: Ruby, Flora, Cape Ann and more. Echo is in and soon to be listed.

There's a buzz in the air...

2011-11-10T11:16:00.000Z

Look what I got in the mail this morning. Some teeny tiny scraps of Summersville, a new Moda line designed by Brit designer, Lu Summers, coming into the shops in April. I have been begging Lu for some scraps for a while now and finally she succumbed to my nag-a-thon and mailed me a little care parcel to shut me up. So I need to design and make a little something with these for the next issue of Fat Quarterly. Not the one coming out next week, the one after that.

So you can see all the prints in one place, I have borrowed the mosaic below from Brenda at Pink Castle fabrics whose Summersville order is already placed. Brenda said to me, " I think it's going to sell well. It's not like any other line out there so there's not much competition and it's a fresh looking line. Perfect for summer and it comes out right before."

Do you remember when we first saw glimpses of Sherbert Pips. Or Ruby Star Rising? I feel the same excitement about Summersville - it's new, different, modern and fresh. And I feel the same buzz around Summersville on Flickr, twitter and in quilt blogland.

I predict this will be next year's BIG HIT. I predict it will sell out fast and that people will panic buy. And the shops will wish they had ordered more. I predicted this about Lotta Jansdotter's line Echo and Alice at Backstitch tells me today that her stocks are running dangerously low and it's only just come in.

I already have quilts and quilt blocks designed around Summersville in my head. You will see them here on the blog or in Fat Quarterly or on Moda Bake Shop or maybe on all three. Why am I blogging about this? I guess because I felt this excited when I first saw Sherbert Pips and when I first saw Ruby Star Rising but then I didn't think my opinion on what was going to be a big hit was worth anything. Now I feel like if I am excited about a new line, I'm going to stick my neck out and say so.

There's another line I feel this excited about but I'll save that for another post. There is a little hint in the picture above. Can you identify these fabrics, all your fabricaholics out there. I feel as excited about this line as I did when I first saw the Ghastlies. What about you, what are the lines you are eagerly awaiting (and yes, I will allow you to include re-prints in case anyone has a particular re-print in mind!)?

My proudest and happiest moments...

2011-11-09T21:34:00.000Z

1. Being captain of the Athletics team at my school and going up in Assembly to collect the trophy.
2. Becoming a lawyer, a real life lawyer.
3. Marrying my long suffering Welsh husband.
4. Having each of my four kids, two boys then twin girls.
5. Reading this post today. I am still pinching myself and waiting for the call where they say - oops, we didn't mean you, Lynne, we meant to ask the other Lynne, you know, the cool one, to join us.

Christmas Gifts for Quilters 6 (+giveaway)

2011-11-09T09:34:00.002Z

<div align="center"><a href="http://lilysquilts.blogspot.com/2011/09/christmas-is-coming.html" title="Christmas Gifts for Quilters"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6176/6213980856_a52f333b9e_o.jpg" alt="Christmas Gifts for Quilters" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

The winner of the Hurricane FQ solid bundle from Alice at Backstitch is:

And she has chosen the beautiful Sea bundle:

Now this week's suggested Christmas present for any quilter friend of yours will come as no surprise. How about a year's subscription to the wonderful e-zine Fat Quarterly. Do you know Fat Quarterly? When I was in the infancy of my quilting last year, I started to notice sneaky little pictures coming up on Flickr of projects that were going into a new modern quilting e-zine.

The contributors were a gang of the cool kids on the block of modern quilting. That team has changed over time and now consists of John, Katy, Tacha, Brioni and now ... drum roll ... me.

The e-zine comes out quarterly and there is usually an annual bonus issue for subscribers too. It is packed full of projects, ideas, tutorials, information, challenges, interviews and is fun, informative and inspiring. To my mind there is not another quilting magazine out there yet that comes close to how current, modern and inspirational this magazine is. Issues can be bought from the Fat Quarterly website where you can also buy an annual subscription. The e-zine is then delivered straight to your in-box to be read from your computer, laptop, iPad or, if you prefer to read it the old fashioned way (I know I do), you can of course print it out.

And so I am giving away today one annual subscription to Fat Quarterly and the winner will be drawn this time next week (16 November). To be in with a chance of winning:

1. Comment to say you follow this blog.
2. Spread the word about the giveaway - facebook, blog, twitter etc.
3. And an additional chance to enter for bloggers, Grab the button and put it on your blog:

<div align="center"><a href="http://www.fatquarterly.com/" title="Fat Quarterly"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6049/6328636110_ce145b12f5_o.jpg" alt="Fat Quarterly" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

LQ @ FQ

2011-11-06T10:28:00.001Z

LQ @ FQ. Can you guess what that means? Here's a clue:

Here's another clue:

YES! You got it! I have joined the team at Fat Quarterly and I am excited way beyond cool levels of excitement. I am as excited as I was the Christmas morning many moons ago when I got the Formula One lego set. The previous year I'd asked for it but my parents couldn't afford it so they got me the tractor Lego set instead and I ashamed to say I went to my bedroom and sulked.

I am as excited as I was when Nigel asked me to marry him although in fairness I had told him that if he asked I would say yes and then spent the next few months waiting for the big moment every time we went out for dinner so in fairness, it wasn't completely unexpected.

Although I have to be honest, not quite as excited as I was that day many eons ago when I came home from school and my little sister was bursting with excitement and trying desperately to hold in a BIG SECRET. "Mummy's bought us something but I'm not allowed to tell you what it is because it's a secret," long pause when her face got redder and redder and the excitement took over her, "WOMBLE PANTS!". Can you imagine that? My two sisters and I were each given a pair of knickers with a womble on the front and I had Orinoco. You have to admit that would take some beating.

How do you FMQ?

2011-11-05T12:59:00.000Z

Do you FMQ? If so, I have a list of questions as long as my arm. What needles do you use? What size thread? What tension settings? Does thread break? Do you prefer polyester or cotton thread for FMQ? Do you change the settings from one thread to another? Do you have the same thread top and bottom? Do you get loops on the bottom?

I feel like I am beginning to master the mechanics of moving my hands and feet in some kind of unison and producing OK if somewhat amateurish scribbles but, since the quilts are modern, I figure scribbling all over them is OK. Feathers, swirls and twirls I will leave to the professionals for now.

Where I struggle is if things go wrong, I don't know what to do to fix them. I know this is a very open ended post really but I'd really love you to shower me with your tips for fixing FMQ issues - any little tip you have that makes your machine FMQ more smoothly. Or any great sources of information. Not sites with beautiful patterns to copy but sites or even books which give you the lowdown on fixing FMQ issues and setting your machine up to FMQ smoothly and happily.

Scribble scribble scribble

2011-11-03T14:40:00.000Z

I'm not saying I'm any good at FMQ but boy is it fun when you just scribble like a madwoman over some already scribbly fabrics. This is my next Moda Bake Shop quilt so I can't show you more than a bit of scribbling but let me tell you that Malka Dubrawsky's new line, A Stitch in Color is A RIOT. Put your sunglasses on for this quilt, pull out a Hawaiin shirt and make yourself a pina colada. Is anyone else now singing - if you like pina coladas, gettin caught in the rain - or is that just me?

Christmas Gifts for Quilters 5 (+giveaway)

2011-11-02T09:59:00.003Z

So, once again, here is a button you can grab for your blog. The button links back to the original intro post for this series and, over time, that post will link to all the subsequent posts in the series so just leave the button lying around when friends and relatives are around and hope that they click through and get some great ideas of what to get you for Christmas. And just in case none of your relatives are showing any interest in any of these great ideas, there's a fabulous solids FQ stack giveaway at the end of the post.

<div align="center"><a href="http://lilysquilts.blogspot.com/2011/09/christmas-is-coming.html" title="Christmas Gifts for Quilters"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6176/6213980856_a52f333b9e_o.jpg" alt="Christmas Gifts for Quilters" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

Now, onto giving fabrics for Christmas presents for quilters. I can never have enough fabric but it's hard for non-quilters to choose those fabrics for me (and probably hard for quilters too). So what options do you have - well solids and blenders will always be useful to modern quilters as will funky new lines that perhaps they haven't yet managed to get their hands on. So today we have a few suggestions for Christmas gifts from Alice at Backstitch, a UK fabric shop.

For a small present, how about a FQ stack of fabrics in a certain colourway as a great stash booster such as this Lemon Drop Bundle:

For a medium gift what about an FQ stack of this fabulous new line Echo from Lotta Jansdotter (say that name aloud, it sounds so nice). I predict this will be one of those lines which will sell out worldwide quickly and we will all spend the next ten years paying exorbitant prices for little pieces of it on Etsy. Here is the Vanilla Coke FQ bundle:

And finally a no holes barred gift, one of Alice's Hurricane bundles, the ultimate solids stash builder:

And Alice has very kindly agreed to give one of my readers a Hurricane tonal solids bundle. Now I just need to point out here that Alice is happy to mail this bundle in the UK but for those of you outside the UK, you will need to pay the costs of postage to Alice by paypal before the bundle can be mailed so bear that in mind when considering whether or not to enter the giveaway. For a chance to win:

1. One comment letting Alice and me know which of the hurricane tonal bundles you would like to receive if you win. Click here to choose which you prefer of mute, pastel, haybale, berry and neutral.
2. One comment to say you follow this blog.
3. One comment to say you have spread the word - twitter, facebook, blog etc.

And the winners are ...

2011-11-02T08:27:00.000Z

We have two winners. The winner of a copy of Quilt Album is:

And the winner of a copy of EQ7 is:

I will get in touch with both of you - for Quiltalbum I will need and email address and for EQ7 a postal address. Congratulations to both the winner and the next instalment of Christmas Gifts For Quilters will appear later today or possibly tomorrow.

Fresh Sewing Day and Small Blog Meet

2011-11-01T07:21:00.000Z

It's the first of the month again: Fresh Sewing Day and Small Blog meet. I managed to achieve precious little this month. I made this block for Amy Badskirt - my final block in the Ringo Pie bee I found so difficult. She asked for films, cameras, photos and I made this block since Amy so often takes photos of fabrics and Liberty fabrics are the perfect scale for this. Thank you Katy for sharing your stash with me so generously.

I made a patriotic pillow with Etchings wovens and may well make more since it is my favourite thing I've ever made. It's what quilting is all about to me - faded fabrics which look as though they've been in the family for years and designs harking back to a long tradition of American quilting history.

I pieced my Dead Simple Quilt Palette top which will be quilted once I get my hands on some batting.

And I've got a couple of Moda Bake Shop projects on the go using Malka's A Stitch in Color new line for Moda which I will show you as soon as they're finished and the tutorials go up on the MBS site.

So what did you make this month? Link up at the bottom of this post to show me what you've been working on. If you do link up, how about visiting at least four of the other blogs who link up - two above you and two below you - and stopping to leave a comment as well as visiting back anyone who visits you. As always here's the button to grab:

<div align="center"><a href="http://lilysquilts.blogspot.com/" title="Fresh Sewing Day"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5069/5883537449_e85ba77279_o.jpg" alt="Fresh Sewing Day" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

<div align="center"><a href="http://lilysquilts.blogspot.com/" title="Small Blog Meet"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6147/5989823380_a69fafd955_m.jpg" alt="Small Blog Meet" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

Carla's Quilt for the BQF

2011-10-28T05:52:00.000+01:00

It's that time of year again - Amy's Bloggers' Quilt Festival. If you haven't joined in before take a leap of faith and go for it. Write a post about a quilt you've made, add in the button from Amy's Creative Side and go and link up. You get to meet a lot of new quilters and often get new visitors to your blog which is fun for everyone, especially new bloggers. Click on the button below to link up to all the other quilters taking part in Amy's wonderful festival.

The quilt I'm showing this time round is one I have just finished and mailed to France. It was made for a friend of my sister's who has been more like family to my sister than just a plain old friend. My sister lives in France so has none of her side of the family around to help with children, life, the universe and everything but Carla has been like family for her so it was a real pleasure to have a chance to make a quilt for her new apartment.

Carla asked me about six months ago if I would make a quilt for her and we agreed on Ruby Star Rising, which is to say I kind of nudged her in that direction and she happily liked the suggestion.

We decided to mix these up with some Kona solids: candy green, coral, ash, charcoal, amber and cyan.

The prints looked to me like they really needed showcasing so I decided to make each of them a picture on a sort of wall of portraits. Each one was framed with a skinny strip of colour then a charcoal picture frae and hung on Kona coral wall paper. I Quilted As You Go - sixteen 25" square blocks to make a whopping 100" square quilt. Criss cross quilting on the pictures to give the impression of glass. Straight line quilting on the charcoal frames and squiggly quilting on the coral wallpaper.

The only picture I have of the whole quilt was of it sitting on my lawn, taken from the attic bedroom and before the quilt was bound. To give an impression of the size of this quilt, all my children are in this photo but are the size of ants so you probably can't actually see them. The quilt has now (last week) arrived in Paris and will soon be installed in Carla's new flat at which point she has promised me she will take photos for the blog of the quilt in its new home but for now this is all I can show you.

Modern Blocks Book

2011-10-27T17:46:00.002+01:00

This book is now available to buy from Amazon (and no doubt other book sellers).

Here are a couple of pages from the book showing the two blocks I contributed: Just Jack, a 12" union jack block.

And Windmill, a 12" double circle of flying geese block. I chose the name windmill because it was catchier than "Double Circle of Flying Geese" and because my Mum spent many of her working days in charge of the Windmill and Watermill section of the British Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings. Occasionally she comments on my blog under the psuedonym "Windy Miller".

There are lots of other wonderful blocks in the book some of which you can see on the front and back of the book. And if you put your reading glasses on and go grab a magnifying glass, you can even see my name on the back of the book which, oddly, was pretty exciting for me. I have never been in print before so I'm ready to leave multiple copies of this book in multiple locations around my house for people to stumble upon and say: "Oh look, she's got the same name as you".

Christmas Gifts for Quilters 4 (and giveaway)

2011-10-26T15:50:00.001+01:00

So, once again, here is a button you can grab for your blog. The button links back to the original intro post for this series and, over time, that post will link to all the subsequent posts in the series so just leave the button lying around when friends and relatives are around and hope that they click through and get some great ideas of what to get you for Christmas. And just in case none of your relatives are showing any interest in any of these great ideas, there are two giveaways at the end of this post so chance your arm at winning something for yourself.

<div align="center"><a href="http://lilysquilts.blogspot.com/2011/09/christmas-is-coming.html" title="Christmas Gifts for Quilters"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6176/6213980856_a52f333b9e_o.jpg" alt="Christmas Gifts for Quilters" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

This week's suggestions are two wonderful computer programs tailor made for quilters; one to plan and design your quilts and one to catalogue them. The first is EQ7, a computer program which enables to you design your own quilts, design blocks and print your own quilt patterns.

Or you can use quilts and blocks in the program's database and then add in fabric swatches from EQ7's library, from fabric companies' websites or scanned from your own fabrics to see how a quilt would look made up in the fabrics of your choice.

Although designed for Windows, I understand that there is a Yahoo group for EQ7 Mac users who run EQ7 on their Macs using Windows and Parallels. Check this out before buying the program if you are a Mac user.

The second program is Quilt Album which is a computer program designed for you to catalogue all your quilts on the computer. Perfect for those os us making quilts faster than we can keep track of them... You just drop in a photo of the quilt and then add information about the quilt; when it was made, who for, who quilted it, the size of the quilt etc. All your quilts can be catalogued and kept track of in one place on your computer. As well as keeping track of your quilts on the computer, you can also print out album pages so you have a hard copy album. You can even print out greetings cards and business cards with your quilts on them. This program is designed to work both on Macs and on PCs.

There are giveaways for both of these programs at this end of this post but, in the meantime, if you would like to invest in a copy of Quilt Album, the makers have given me a discount code to give you a $5 discount on the program. Just click through using the button below and use the code shown in the button to obtain the $5 discount.

And, in case you friends and relatives are not taking the hints in these Christmas Gifts posts, there is a copy of each of these programs up for grabs this week and three chances to win one of them:

1. Leave a comment to say you are a follower.

2. Leave a comment to say you spread the word (twitter, facebook, blog etc.)

3. Leave a comment telling me what your favourite sewing notion is.

Winners will be picked this time next week (2 November) so tune back in to see if you were one of the lucky ones.

And the winners are...

2011-10-26T10:13:00.004+01:00

The winners of Kerry's wonderful paper pieced winter woolies pattern are:

The Christmas for Quilters and Giveaway post will be delayed until tomorrow or later today as I have been stricken with the winter sickness bug, details of which I will keep to myself. I am all better now though. I will be contacting the winners of Kerry's giveaway to get your email addresses so that the pdf can be emailed to you.

Quilting the Circle Game

2011-10-23T12:28:00.000+01:00

Some of you may remember the Circle Game quilt I've been making for a year now - a BOM from Amitie Textiles in Melbourne. The finished top looked like this.

Well I've taken my mate Trudi's advice and stay-quilted it with a few straight lines just to hold the whole thing in place. Having done that, I've taken out the basting pins and bound the quilt with a scrappy binding before embarking on FMQing. I prefer to quilt my quilts without the batting hanging out at the sides because it gets up my nose and makes me sneeze.

I normally can't afford designer fabrics for the backs of quilts but splurged on this quilt because so many hours and hours have gone into it. So, instead of my default backing of an old sheet, this one is backed by the Michael Miller Going Coastal print, the bottle tops, which I am in love with.

So far I have FMQed three of the circles. I've invested in a whole stack of Aurifil colours for this quilt and am just going to go crazy on it. Anything goes. No rules. Using the Bosh Bash Bosh school of quilting where you just make it up as you go along. For better or worse.

And here, in case you're interested, here are my FMQ rules and guidelines.

1. Shoulders down, music on, smile, chillax, enjoy, however rubbish your quilting is looking.

2. Do not unpick. NEVER. If it goes wrong, keep on smiling and keep on going, just pretend it never happened. Once it's washed, you will never notice that little bit where your brain sent error messages to your arms. Only unpick if you get major bird's nests on the back because your tension's gone haywire.

3. Keep reminding yourself that this is not going into a quilting contest, will not enter a show and will never be judged by anyone who knows anything about quilting. Unless you're a professional quilter in which case you won't be reading this drivel anyway. Well you might be reading it but you won't be learning anything from it. And also remember that anyone who knows anything about quilting will see it and be kind anyway because they know how hard FMQ is.

And that's what it's all about

2011-10-22T19:07:00.001+01:00

Remember the Penguin Books quilt I made for my big sister?

Here is a photo she sent me today of my niece and nephew pulling rude faces possibly at her but more likely intended for me.

And that's what it's all about.

A revolution in pillow making...?

2011-10-20T06:35:00.001+01:00

Whilst tweeting with Julia from Gone to Earth last week, she mentioned that she had a new product in the shop. A fusible fleece which piqued my interest so I ordered some to see what could be done with it. Here's the pillow I made.

I started with this beautiful mini quilt made by Tia Camp Follower Bag Lady which I saw and instantly told Tia I needed to pretty much downright copy. And seeing as my Etchings Wovens FQ stack was calling out to me, I rustled up a pillow.

18" X 28" - it is the size of a standard UK pillow (and I mean pillow) so no cushion insert shopping needed - just steal a pillow from one of my many children, they'll never notice. Six wonky 6" stars, 2" scrappy stripes and hey presto. And then came the magical bit. I cut off a piece of the fusible fleece, ironed it on, quilted and bound and hey presto. No basting pins to take out as you go, no puckering because the fabric was attached to the fleece all over, no messy basting spray or pins and also no backing fabric because the back of the fusible fleece is nice and smooth. The fleece also quilts beautifully, and, from a quick afternoon old lady nap before pick-up time, is very comfy to nap on too.

I hear that people also use it for bags, mini quilts, purses, pouches and even door stops. If you're in the UK and want to try some, get in touch with Julia at Gone to Earth. I apologise for not researching stockists around the world but google "vilene fusible fleece" and you should find it. And, if you Etchings, you might also be interested in knowing that Julia has just taken delivery of some of the Cabbages and Roses Northcote Range new line - it will be listed very shortly in her shop. These are Moda fabrics designed in Britain for a Brit Shabby Chic look, I fell in love with them when I was working on my hexalong and managed to get my hands on a layer cake. Here they are made up in a fab union jack quilt.

Christmas for Quilters 3 (+ giveaway)

2011-10-19T06:12:00.000+01:00

So, once again, here is a button you can grab for your blog. The button links back to the original intro post for this series and, over time, that post will link to all the subsequent posts in the series so just leave the button lying around when friends and relatives are around and hope that they click through and get some great ideas of what to get you for Christmas. And just in case none of your relatives are showing any interest in any of these great ideas, there's a brand new paper piecing pattern giveaway at the end of this post (and hopefully all the CG4Q posts will have giveaways).

<div align="center"><a href="http://lilysquilts.blogspot.com/2011/09/christmas-is-coming.html" title="Christmas Gifts for Quilters"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6176/6213980856_a52f333b9e_o.jpg" alt="Christmas Gifts for Quilters" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

This week I wanted to suggest a Christmas gift I only found out about last night. Now you will have noticed the new trend on flickr and in blogland for paper pieced blocks and bees with themes such as kitchenalia, mail, doors, windows. There are a few people at the forefront of this trend, principally in my mind, Penny Sewtakeahike, Ayumi Pink Penguin and Kerry verykerryberry. Kerry has been drafting her own patterns for a while now and is about to start releasing them for sale in her Etsy shop. There will be whole series of these patterns with different themes, all of which will make wonderful gifts for quilters. Kerry's first pattern is the paper pieced winter woolies pdf pattern; hat, scarf and gloves. Here is a wonderful wall hanging Kerry made using this pattern.

And another fabulous version made yesterday by Amy of During Quiet Time.

If any of you would be interested in winning this pattern, I managed to twist Kerry's arm into letting me give three away as part of my Christmas for Quilters giveaways and the requirements of the giveaway are at the end of the post. If you have already bought the pattern by the time the giveaway ends and then win one, Kerry will let you have her next pattern free instead. So if you just can't wait, feel free to go ahead and buy the pattern now.

And now I need to pick out four international and four Brit winners of the various and hugely generous Aurifil gifts bestowed on you by Signor Aurifil, Alex Veronelli. All the winners were picked by Random Number Generator.

Firstly, the winners of the Ultra Collections:

The international winner is:

The Brit winner is:

Secondly the winners of the Designer Collections:

The international winner is:

And the Brit winner is:

And finally the winners of the boxes of six Aurifil spools:

The international winners are:

And the Brit winners are:

Congratulations to all the winners. Please email me with your name, your comment number and your mailing address so that the Aurifil threads can be mailed out to you.

To enter today's giveaway to have a chance of winning one of Kerry's paper pieced winter wollies patterns, you have three chances. The giveaway will close a week today (26 October) at which point the next CG4Q post will go up and a new giveaway announced.

1. Comment to say you follow this blog.

2. Comment to say you've spread the word about the giveaway (blog, facebook, twitter, google+ etc).

3. Comment to let me know what other paper pieced designs you might like to see Kerry produce in the future.

Dead Simple Quiltalong progress and news

2011-10-13T09:47:00.002+01:00

With inspiration drawn from this Design Seeds palette.

I made the 300 charm square 70" X 90" sized quilt and pieced it in twelve 5 x 5 charm squares.

Whilst browsing blogs the other night, I popped in to say hi to Rachel Stitched in Color (a wonderful, inspirational blog if you don't already know it) and she was featuring a UK palette site which I hadn't known about and will share with you here as I already have plans for an all-solids DSQ based on one of Emma's beautiful palettes. Take this one for example.

As you know, there was a time when my Dead Simple Palette bundle went missing and took a detour via HM Customs and Excise. While we were panicking that it had gone for good, Peg and Becca from Sew Fresh Fabrics put me together a back-up bundle inspired by this palette.

It arrived yesterday and here is it in all its glory all ready for another Dead Simple Quilt at some point in the future.

And oddly, I had treated myself to a FQ bundle of Etchings wovens from Fat Quarter Shop which also arrived yesterday and take a look at the colour scheme of that bundle. Weird, huh? Seems I like grey, red and aqua more than I knew.

And if you are quilting along and have blogged about it, I would love it if you would add a link here to your QAL blogpost - I love reading about how people are doing with this QAL because it's so different to my other quiltalongs.

Christmas Gifts for Quilters 2 (+giveaway)

2011-10-12T06:55:00.000+01:00

So, once again, here is a button you can grab for your blog. The button links back to the original intro post for this series and, over time, that post will link to all the subsequent posts in the series so just leave the button lying around when friends and relatives are around and hope that they click through and get some great ideas of what to get you for Christmas. And just in case none of your relatives are showing any interest in any of these great ideas, there's a multiple mega Aurifil giveaway at the end of this post (and hopefully all the CG4Q posts will have giveaways).

<div align="center"><a href="http://lilysquilts.blogspot.com/2011/09/christmas-is-coming.html" title="Christmas Gifts for Quilters"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6176/6213980856_a52f333b9e_o.jpg" alt="Christmas Gifts for Quilters" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

Firstly I have an early Christmas gift for one lucky reader which is this 14 FQ bundle of metro living circles from the very generous Peg and Becca at Sew Fresh Fabrics.

Mr Random Number Generator has picked

And I am thrilled that he picked Nancy whose blog With Thread in Hand is always a fun and entertaining read if ever you have a moment to pop over there. Nancy, congratulations and I'll be in touch with you for a mailing address.

So here are three Christmas gift suggestions from the lovely Alex Veronelli at Aurifil threads. For a stocking filler, why not just wrap up one spool of any colour, any weight of Aurifil thread. On the 50wt spool, which is my favourite for piecing, the spool carries 1,300 metres of thread.

For a medium sized present, Aurifil do a whole range of mini suitcase collections. Take a look at Pat Sloan's collections of her favourite colours of either 40wt or 50wt threads. the 50wt are ideal for piecing or applique. And the 40wt ideal for quilting.

And if you are feeling incredibly generous, how about Mark Lipinski's Ultimate Collection of 48 spools of thread all contained in one large double sided suitcase. I wouldn't even open this case up and get the spools out, I'd just carry it around with me all day. OK maybe I'd open it up sooner or later but just look at those beauties.

Now the lovely lovely Mr Aurifil, Alex Veronelli, has been incredibly generous to us once again and has given us EIGHT GIFTS:

1. two Designer Collections;
2. two Ultra Collections; and
3. four boxes of six spools of 50wt thread,

half for international readers and half for UK readers.

To enter this giveaway, you have three chances. The giveaway will close a week today (19 October) at which point the next CG4Q post will go up and a new giveaway announced. At the start of each comment please mark "BRIT" if you are living in Britain or "INT".

1. Comment to say you follow this blog and add "BRIT" or "INT" to your comment.

2. Comment to say you've spread the word about the giveaway (blog, facebook, twitter, google+ etc) and add "BRIT" or "INT" to your comment.

3. Add the Aurifil button to your blog's sidebar and let me know that you did and add "BRIT" or "INT" to your comment.

<div align="center"><a href="http://www.aurifil.com/Aurifil/Home.html" title="Aurifil"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6011/5987957796_f69fcca17b_o.jpg" alt="Aurifil" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

Hand Sewn Birthday Lovelies

2011-10-11T12:32:00.004+01:00

I may have discreetly mentioned in passing that it was my birthday a few days back and some of my friends made me some lovely hand-sewn beauties for that great occasion. Krista Poppyprint has made these pincushion thread catchers for pretty much everyone else in quiltblogland so I was beginning to wonder if I was ever going to get one but, lo and behold, it arrived in my letter box last week. Laura Gunn poppies, a bag to catch threads held open by some kind of magic or perhaps a strip of plastic, some of that grippy stuff you get on the bottom of slipper socks to stop it falling off the side of your sewing table, ground glass inside. How did I ever live without one? Or, as I said to Krista last week, how did I ever lie without one? Through your teeth she said because she's a comedian. She also gave me a necklace with some rude words on it so I won't show that here but it kind of implies that I might occasionally be a bit moody AND I NEVER AM. GOTTIT?

And then my real life mate Mandy (owner of Europe's premier online Kona solids shop, Simply Solids) who actually lives in my village and is actually responsible for getting me into this whole quilting mess in the first place, came round on THE BIG DAY for an afternoon or sitting in the sunshine, drinking coffee and putting the world to rights and gave me this wonderful Tufted Tweets purse.

And also this festive brooch. As well as a Fa La La charm pack because she knows I love charm packs and she knows I love Fa La La. She's psychic like that.

And then Katy who's a ginger monkey, also graced me with her presence during my birthday week (although not on my birthday itself as on that day she was struck one of those illnesses that requires you to stay close to the toilet). She brought me this fabulous dresden pillow which is now being used for my nana nap after Sunday lunch.

And a miniature cushion either for pins or for the Borrowers, I can't remember which. That print in the middle is an original Aneela Hooey spoonflower print so this may one day appear on antiques roadshow as a little piece of British fabric design history. If it's worth more than a fiver, it's sold. I don't mean that Katy.

Thank you ladies for my wonderful birthday bounty and next year, Krista, I hope you will make the effort to deliver yours in person as the others did. It's not much to ask.

Time for some Christmas Fabric?

2011-10-09T19:47:00.004+01:00

If you fancy joining in with a Christmas fabric charm swap to make all those fun Christmas projects with, head on over to see Emily at Strawberry Patch and sign up. Click on the button below to find out more:

Dead Simple Quilt - Layout

2011-10-08T07:30:00.001+01:00

The starter post for this Dead Simple QAL is here and please feel free to join at any time. I would love to see links to blogposts, palette and progress pics so please upload all of these to my Flickr group. And now we are going to sort out the quilt layout. There are lots of different ways to do this - putting all your squares on a design wall or on the floor or on a sheet or on the bed. Once your squares are laid out, ask friends or family for their input, take photos and look at the layout on your computer screen, look at the layout through the wrong end of a pair of binoculars.

The quilt I am making in this QAL is made of 25 FQs each cut into twelve charm squares. I cut all the prints without very geometrical designs on the Baby Go Cutter using the charm square die.

Fold your FQs into six, lay them on the cutter and, hey presto, you have twelve charm squares. This is a quick and easy way to cut a lot of fabric. I cut the stripes and geometric dots on the cutting mat though to ensure that the alignment was bang on.

Given that my quilt will be made up of 300 charm squares, organising and keeping track of a layout pattern would be difficult. So I decided to sew the charms into blocks of 25. There will be twelve of these squares and I will put a charm from each FQ into each of these blocks. Since I find random placement very hard to do, I devised a dorky way of placing these charms in a random-seeming manner. I drew up a series of sudoku squares where each of the numbers 1 to 5 appear in one column and in one row. I assigned a colour to each number and then placed the charm squares in the order marked on the sudoku.

I then sewed the charms into rows, pressing the seams in each row in alternate directions so that the seams nest when the rows are sewn together. If you are a real beginner quilter on this project, grab a few scraps, cut them into 5" squares and make nine patches until you are pretty confident that your cutting, seam allowance and seam matching are pretty accurate. I pin the points where may seams match and find this helps with the seams meeting although some people prefer not to pin. I am also not excessively fussy about every single seam meeting to perfection - that decision is up to you but try to keep the piecing process enjoyable and you may not find it as enjoyable if you are unpicking more than sewing!

This gives me one block of 25 charms and I will make eleven more of these to make the finished quilt. Here is a mock-up I made of the finished quilt - I made a mosaic in big huge labs and inserted the original block twelve times but rotated in different directions.

The original idea for this quilt was the romantic notion of quilts being made in days of yore made up of squares cut from old sheets, shirts, dresses and other scraps of fabric from family life that were too worn to be any use as clothing any more. But of course, I don't have a pile of beautifully matching, 100% cotton, partially worn and used, old shirts, sheets and dresses so my fabrics were bought for the purpose and hand picked by Peg and Becca from Sew Fresh Fabrics for me. But I am still happy that the mock-up mosaic I made gives me the same scrappy, random, made-from-old-scraps feel that I was looking for but also pulls the colours from one limited palette. I can't wait to see how you all put this quilt together - whether you go random or more planned or make a different quilt altogether with your palette fabrics.

Nice things happening

2011-10-06T13:01:00.000+01:00

A few nice things happened today and yesterday. Firstly my Dead Simple Palette Quilt bundle arrived from Sew Fresh Fabrics so I can start cutting into it and get going on my Dead Simple Quilt. I emailed Peg and Becca this pic.

And here is the wonderful and fabulous and delicious bundle they have put together for me which I love so much I am going to carry it around with me today as if I was a weird fabric-obsessed person.

Then finally Etchings yardage came into stock at the Fat Quarter Shop. I've been stalking the FQS for a whole month now and instantly clicked to buy this for the back and binding of my hexalong quilt.

This for the framing of the hexagons on the front of my hexalong quilt.

And this bundle by accident as I hadn't planned to buy it and have no concrete plans for it other than to carry it around with me for a few days.

And then I want to have a little self indulgent moment as yesterday two milestones were reached. This one on Google Friend Connect.

And this one on Google Reader.

And finally a birthday present arrived from my fabulous friend Krista Poppyprint but that deserves a post all of its own, not to be stuck down the bottom of this one so tune back soon for gift envy.

Christmas Gifts for Quilters 1 (+ giveaway)

2011-10-05T11:35:00.002+01:00

The giveaway is now closed.

So, to kick off Christmas Gifts for Quilters, here is a button you can grab for your blog. The button will link back to the original intro post for this series and, over time, that post will link to all the subsequent posts in the series so just leave the button lying around when friends and relatives are around and hope that they click through and get some great ideas of what to get you for Christmas. And just in case none of your relatives are showing any interest in any of these great ideas, there's a fabulous FQ bundle giveaway at the end of this post (and hopefully all the CG4Q posts).

<div align="center"><a href="http://lilysquilts.blogspot.com/2011/09/christmas-is-coming.html" title="Christmas Gifts for Quilters"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6176/6213980856_a52f333b9e_o.jpg" alt="Christmas Gifts for Quilters" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

To kick us off, I had a chat with Peg and Becca from Sew Fresh Fabrics to see what three gifts they would suggest a friend or relative of a quilter might like to give, something small, something medium and something large. And here's what they said. For a small gift, how about a gift certificate. This listing is for $25 but you can buy a certificate for any amount.

For a medium gift, how about a modern stash builder bundle of oval elements 14 fat quarters.

For a large gift how about a bundle Peg and Becca have tailor made for this post. It's another modern stash builder: 18 half yards of their favourite dots, checks and tonals.

And Peg and Becca have decided to give you one of their modern stash builder bundles. They are going to give to one lucky reader a 14 FQ bundle of metro living circles.

To enter this giveaway, you have three chances. The giveaway will close a week today (12 October) at which point the next CG4Q post will go up and a new giveaway announced.

1. Let me know what you would like for Christmas.

2. Comment to say you follow this blog.

3. Comment to say you've spread the word about the giveaway (blog, facebook, twitter, google+ etc).

A new thread

2011-10-04T16:59:00.000+01:00

Firstly thank you all so much for taking the time to stop by and say Happy Birthday - you all made my day yesterday.

So I have started on a quilt for my as-good-as teenage neice. For data protection reasons, my sister, her mother, has asked me not to reveal her name to you so we will just call her "my neice". She sent me a swatch of her wallpaper.

And a sketch of her design to work from.

I decided to raw edge applique the circles and letters as setting them in would not look as perfectly perfect and would also be a right kerfuffle. I was all set to blanket stitch around them in a heavy thread (you know I love a blanket stitch) when it occurred to me that perhaps my neice wouldn't like that folksy look. So I got in touch with Alex Veronelli (the lovely man from Aurifil) and asked for his advice. He suggested I try their new nylon monofilament invisible thread. Well, I confess I have tried nylon monofilament threads before and not liked them because they were kind of shiny and also melted under the iron.

So I did a little tester with blanket stitch and a straight stitch on a spare piece of fabric and, after playing about a bit and finally re-setting the tension to close to zero, the stitches looked perfect and as good as invisible. I then put my iron on full heat and let it sit on the stitches for five whole seconds. Lifted the iron and they were still there. Did the same for ten whole seconds. Lifted the iron and they were still there. I suspect Aurifil would not recommend such an excessive amount of heat but I was very happy with the results.

The thread comes in two colours - clear and smoke (which I guess I would use on darker fabrics). It comes in regular sized spools and in cones for long arm quilting. On my machine I used the regular sized spools and have sent the long arm spools off to my mate Trudi to try out and she will let you know what she thinks of the thread in due course.

Happy Birthday to me

2011-10-03T06:35:00.000+01:00

Some people choose not to tell people it's their birthday and hope people remember. This is a risky strategy. I prefer to tell as many people as possible and then, when they wish me happy birthday, I can pretend they remembered. Well today it is my birthday. I'm mediumly old but in my head I look like a supermodel so, as long as I stay away from mirrors, it will be a glamorous birthday for me once again.

Whatever happened to the Dead Simple Quiltalong?

2011-10-02T11:34:00.000+01:00

In case you were wondering why the DSQAL went a bit quiet, I am afraid that the dog ate my homework or rather than British postal system swallowed up my bundle. Peg and Becca from Sew Fresh Fabrics put together a bundle for me based on a palette I chose, mailed it to me and then it made a detour via the Bermuda triangle and Peg, Becca and I have been tearing our hair out waiting for it to arrive.

Finally, we declared it missing, presumed lost, last week and a back up bundle has been assembled and dispatched by Peg and Becca and, as soon as that bundle arrives, we will kick back into gear and assemble our quilt tops. In the meantime, Peg and Becca just couldn't wait and whipped up this Dead Simple Palette Quilt. Made from a terrain charm pack and solids picked from their shop to co-ordinate with terrain, this was the kind of thing that drew me to them in the first place. They take lines of fabrics and make up bundles of co-ordinating solids, like this wonderful mix of a FQ bundle of Little Apples with co-ordinating solids - now there's a palette quilt all ready to go.

So please bear with me and, as soon as either the original or the replacement bundle turns up (probably both on the same day), we will kick straight back into action and get those quilt tops assembled.

Fresh Sewing Day and Small Blog Meet

2011-10-01T08:14:00.000+01:00

Yowzers September flew by with me achieving pretty much nothing. I did make this cushion cover with zippered back and I am pretty proud of that.

I took this palette:

Picked these Kona solids and mixed in some matching prints:

Sewed together strips and quilted then added a quilted and zippered pillow back made from the green Cosmo Cricket circa 9134 dot, bound in the same dot and put a tutorial for the whole thing right here.

So what did you make? Link up at the bottom of this post to show me what you've been working on. If you do link up, how about visiting at least four of the other blogs who link up - two above you and two below you - and stopping to leave a comment as well as visiting back anyone who visits you. As always here's the button to grab:

<div align="center"><a href="http://lilysquilts.blogspot.com/" title="Fresh Sewing Day"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5069/5883537449_e85ba77279_o.jpg" alt="Fresh Sewing Day" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

<div align="center"><a href="http://lilysquilts.blogspot.com/" title="Small Blog Meet"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6147/5989823380_a69fafd955_m.jpg" alt="Small Blog Meet" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

Oh and, before I forget, it's my birthday on Monday 3rd - some people like to keep quiet and hope that people remember - I prefer to remind people that way you can all pop in on Monday and wish me a big fat happy birthday and make me feel like you all remembered from last year and make me feel like I'm the popular kid in the playground.

Christmas Is Coming

2011-09-29T13:05:00.002+01:00

Christmas Gifts for Quilters post 1
Christmas Gifts for Quilters post 2
Christmas Gifts for Quilters post 3
Christmas Gifts for Quilters post 4
Christmas Gifts for Quilters post 5
Christmas Gifts for Quilters post 6

Really? Did I really just mention Christmas in September? That's not good. But I have a plan you will like. Coming up soon, once a week or so, will be a series of posts giving the people in your life ideas for presents for you for Christmas. So you just leave your laptop lying open on my posts and wait for your significant others, friends and family to take the hint and buy you the kinds of things you would really like to receive rather than yet another cardigan two sizes too big, more soap, more candles or more pyjamas.

Why am I doing this? Because over the next few months, blogs will be full of wonderful things to make and do for OTHER PEOPLE because that's what motivates quilters, making other people happy, giving other people nice things, making nice things for other people. Well Lily's Quilts would like to do something to redress that balance. On this blog, it's all about paying a little bit back to the quilters.

And in the spirit of it all being about US, there will be giveaways so that, even if your family won't buy it for you, you might be able to win it here. See this box of Aurifil? I have one of those to give away for example.

Quilting shops, fabric shops, fabric companies and notions companies, please feel free to come forward with ideas from your shops and companies and, if you'd like to give some away, the more the merrier, just get in touch with me at lilysquilts @ gmail . com. And readers, please add comments to these posts with things you would like to receive for Christmas so I can add those to the ever-growing list.

Now in each Christmas post there will be three sizes of gift. A small gift the person you work with might like to give you, a larger gift perhaps from someone in the family or a friend whose children you look after more than you would really like to. And finally the BIG GIFT. The one that someone who is either really rich or who really loves you might buy you.

Blocks, blocks, blocks and more blocks

2011-09-23T20:56:00.002+01:00

I've been feeling a bit grotty for two or three weeks. Nothing major or dramatic but just lots of life's little upsets that all combined together to make me feel stressed and anxious and I can't really get down to proper sewing when I feel like that. Things are resolving themselves so I'm starting to feel a little sunnier. But in the meantime, I got on with a few bee blocks because those are kind of small self contained projects to keep me ticking over.

Natalia asked for a simple stack of books block and I've put this one first in the post so it will come up in thumbnail in those blogs where I'm in the sidebar with small pics. If you spot it in someone's sidebar in thumbnail, please tell me I didn't make Wall-E. It's no use. I already know I accidentally made Wall-E. If you squint you'll see him - he even has a little scarf on I think.

Melissa asked for a road vehicle for her son's trains, planes and automobiles quilt so I made her a Land Rover Defender in camouflage. I live in the countryside and all the local farmers drive Land Rovers. They are properly manly cars that can drive up the side of hills and through streams with large boulders in them, through thick snow and across the desert. This car says "I am a man and proud of it".

Amber asked for a Christmas block so I made this block which was inspired by a Christmas card I bought for my parents years and years ago which looked a lot like this. My two sisters and I have an informal competition each year to send my parents the best Christmas cards - only decent cards make it to my parents' mantlepiece so it's a tense moment when you find out whether your card made the cut each year. I think I made it that year.

Yvonne sent out some Three Sisters Oasis fabrics and asked for a flower so I used my favourite stitch on my machine which is the blanket stitch. I like it because it's really really neat and makes me look good. My blanket stitch isn't that neat but as long as I don't tell anyone I did it on the machine, people can reel in awe at the neatness of my handwork. It's a win win.

It was my month in the Ringo Pie bee and I asked for Design Classics. Everyone else made amazing blocks which I showed you in previous posts but I didn't have a clue what to make. I was going to make one of those old green telephones I grew up with but I thought that would be too hard. I was going to make my favourite car, a Fiat 500, but I thought that would be too hard. Then finally I realised I could make a union jack. As I've made and designed about eleventy twelve UJ blocks, I can practically do these in my sleep so this was a quick easy block for me to do. It was about 4" X 6" but set into a 12" white block but I've been getting so carried away recently with whiting out the background of my photos that actually it just looks like it's floating away down the blog here.

Angela sent us some yellow and grey fabrics and we could make whatever we wanted with squares and rectangles so I made a block I've wanted to make forever, the brick wall block - I also want to make a brick wall quilt but that'll have to be added to the mile long list of quilts I want to make one day when I have some spare time...

And finally, Reene sent out some Hope Valley and let us make whatever we wanted at all so I dragged out my Baby Go and its equilateral triangle cutter and cut a few little triangles and framed them in this kind of wonky random thang.

Corey asked for quilts on a line and I made this somewhat over the top psychedelic block. I'm not quite sure what I was thinking. The trouble is Peg and Becca from Sew Fresh Fabrics keep sending me these wonderful fabrics and I just love them so much, I get overexcited and kind of throw them all in together and perhaps sometimes less is more.

This last block feels a bit Magical Mystery Tour to me. If you don't know what I mean because you're too young, please keep that information to yourself because my birthday is coming up shortly so I will be getting even older before too long.

Dead Simple Quilt Cutting Fabrics

2011-09-23T07:56:00.002+01:00

The starter post for this Dead Simple QAL is here and please feel free to join at any time. I would love to see links to blogposts, palette and progress pics so please upload all of these to my Flickr group which you can find here. Once your fabrics have arrived or you have pulled from stash, you are ready to start cutting. If you want someone to put together a bundle of fabrics for you, get in touch with Peg and Becca from Sew Fresh Fabrics. My bundle is a currently winging its way over the Altantic and is a mix of 25 FQs, both solids and prints but you could of course make up your fabrics from all prints, all solids or all scraps from your stash.

There are two sizes of quilt you could make following this QAL - 50" X 70" and 70" X 90". And there are two sizes of "blocks" within the possible quilts - 5" charm squares or 9" squares obtaining by cutting a fat quarter into four squares (I will call these quarter fat quarters or QFQs). Here is a reminder of what you need to cut for each type of quilt. For a small charm square quilt, you will need 16 FQs cut into 192 5" squares to make a quilt 12 X 16 squares and 54" X 72".

For a small 9" square quilt you will need 12 FQs cut into 48 9" squares to make a quilt 6 X 8 squares and 51" X 68"

For a large charm quilt you will need 25 FQs cut into 300 5" squares to make a quilt 15 X 20 squares and 70" X 90".

For a large QFQ quilt you will need 22 FQs cut into 88 9"squares to make a quilt 8 X 11 squares and 68" X 93".

So,once you have your fabrics, come and show them to us in the Lilys Quilts Flickr group and I look forward to seeing stacks of squares of beautiful fabrics appearing too when you're ready. Don't feel rushed or behind - my fabrics haven't arrived yet so you'll be ahead of the game if you're ready for cutting!

Any desperate housewives out there?

2011-09-22T06:37:00.001+01:00

Jane (Want it, Need it, Quilt!) is running a really fun program of block tutorials called the Desperate Housewives Quiltalong at the moment. You can make some or all of these 8" blocks, as desired. This week it's my turn and I will be showing you how to make a paint chips block.

1. Pick 15 fabrics in five piles of similar tones (eg bluey purples) but different values (darker, lighter). I used Kona solids for this block but you could also try it using prints.

2. Cut a 2 1/2" X 1 1/2" rectangle from each one. From the background fabric (mine is white), cut 2 WOF strips 1" wide and then cut these as follows: 10 pieces 1 1/2" long; 6 pieces 7 1/2" long and 2 pieces 8 1/2" long. Lay out the coloured rectangles in the order in which they will lie in the block.

3. Sew the coloured rectangles into rows with the 1 1/2" white strips as separators.

4. Sew these rows together using 4 of the 7 1/2" strips as separators.

5. Sash the whole block by sewing the 2 remaining 7 1/2" strips down the sides then the 8 1/2" strips along the top and VOILA you have an 8" paint chips block.

If you make this block, I would love it if you would add a picture of it to both the Desperate Housewives Flickr group as well as my Lily's Quilts Flickr group. To find all the other block tutorials from this Desperate Housewives series, click on the button below.