It’s been a super busy year, but we’re now in wind down mode, which means I can get to make some fun stuff. I sold out of all my appliqué quilts this year so that’s first priority.
I have a bin full of flower bits, I always seem to make flowers so no use fighting it. My templates are card stock cut into pedal and leaf shapes of all sizes. I made a large one last year that I love! It makes big happy flowers I often use on pillows, but couldn’t wait to use them on a quilt!
What will the quilt look like? No idea. Right now it’s 12.5 inch squares with big flowers
I’m using all Liberty, Work with what you love!
With the scraps from cutting out the flowers I’m making 3.5 inch squares with tiny flowers. I used the bondaweb method for those, too little to turn. I’m not a fan of this method as it looks so flat, But it uses up scraps. no plans for these square, just making them lol.
The huts still open until next Sunday, it’s sad when it closes for the winter.. hopefully that will change for next year.
Its still winter, however the snow is finally melting and the hut is accessible! I moved in some stock today, cleaned a few shelves and had more shelves delivered by Ikea today.
Above: Snow is melting!
This year will be a bit different. As we negotiate our way around a new world with a hostile neighbour to the south, I will be making changes. Some American brands and names will be disappearing from the hut, Poppie Cotton and most Riley Blake are leaving exceptions are Beverly McCullough & Minki Kim. Notions by Riley Blake like Vintage Trim, rulers, pins will also disappear. The notions are all made in China, the prices will be rising and its time to find new things!
Above: Liberty Of London’s new collection Flower Shop!
You will be seeing more UK brands, Liberty of London of course and Makower. I’m on the hunt for more non-American brands but it is honestly not easy. I don’t think I realized how dependant the quilting world is on the USA until now. It has felt like the world of stitching, making, has turned into a rut of buy and stash. It seems gone are the days of using quality materials to make fun, cherished projects. Time for a change!
There’s new kits for this year, this ones in works and should be ready for spring! Lots of happy Liberty flower prints just in time for flowers to start blooming!
Here’s a super easy block perfect for scrappy projects. Can be used for pillows, runners, quilts, just adjust the measurements to suit your project. I will be making variations of this block on up coming projects
I am not a Christmas person, but I do love to decorate for winter. It adds personality to this old Victorian home during the bleak season. I’m obsessed with trees & mushrooms as they can stay out until Feb.
This runner was made with the liberty of London lines Merry & Bright and Woodland Christmas. There is no set pattern but here’s what I did, get creative and have fun.
Runner back ground was a 9 inch cut from a half yard piece of fabric, so it’s about 20 inch long once finished
To make the trees and mushrooms: Take some lightweight interfacing and draw triangles in various sizes, trunks, mushroom bottoms and tops making sure there’s around 1 inch between shapes. Cut the shapes leaving 1/2 inch around the drawn lines so you can sew and trim. Place on fabric with the fabric right side up,you will “trap” the fabric in the interfacing. For the trees and mushroom tops sew around the whole shape. Trim to 1/8 around the shape, make a slit in the centre of the interfacing and turn the shape right sides out. For the trunks and mushroom stems, you can leave the top open and turn through that. The tops will be tucked under the trees and mushroom tops to hide them.
Once they are turned tight side out, iron.
Lay out your back piece and place the trees and mushrooms where you want and pin in place.
Sew them by machine or hand to the background. I like to use the blanket stitch in my machine.
Once you have sewn them all down, add a boarder and finish as desired.
For appliqué shapes I like to draw the shapes on card stock so I can keep the templates. Mushroom and trees are easy as there’s no set shape. I have videos on my YouTube channel on how to make & sew the appliqués and how I finish runners
I have been wanting to play with my winter Liberty prints for a long time, but I couldn’t come up with design I liked. While going through the Liberty website for inspiration, I found some patterns! Free ones! This quilt is three blocks, the tree is from one quilt, the star is one from another and the last block is.. scraps from making the stars!
Here are the links to the free downloadable patterns:
Use the star block instructions. The pattern also has stars that are in a snowball that can also be used.
Scrap Snowflake Blocks:
Here is my YouTube video on how to sew scrap blocks when making flying geese for the stars:
I made 6 star blocks and used the scraps to make these fun snowflake blocks. Make 30 pinwheel blocks from your star scraps. Trim to 3 inches. To make the block, sew a patchwork of 5 pinwheels and (4) 3 inch squares of a background print per block.
All blocks I added a 2 inch boarder around and ended up trimming to 8 inches. It would be 9 or 8.5 but I mess one one up and just went with 8 inch
I made 42 blocks all together. The layout can be any combo of the blocks as it’s a snowy forest kinda look, feel free to add in other 8 inch blocks.. it’s your quilt, have fun!
Its been a crazy summer as usual here, being on a major tourist route makes summer time fly by. I love meeting visitors from all over the globe, it makes it all worth it.
As my shop is so small, I have been thinking of ways to showcase new fabric collections, it has to be small as doing full quilts are hard to show off and June – Sept its very hard to even get a full quilt made. The solutions is pillows! I have been playing with fun blocks that use squares and strips, blocks that showcase the prints and can be beginner friendly. I have free pattern cards at the shop or you can use the post here to make the pillow or make several and make a quilt!
This pillow is made with the Woodland Walk Collection by Liberty Of London
Its spring and spring means pretty flowers! Here is how to make a quick and easy runner.
Tulip Blocks: I made 5, you can make as many as you want. Material for each block:
Size: 5 inch x 9 inch
Background (white): (1) 3.5 inch (2) 1.5 inch squares (4) 2.5 inch squares Draw a diagonal line on all background squares.
Tulip: (1) 3.5 inch (1) 2.5 X 5 inch
Leaf (green): (2) 2.5 x 5 inch
Stem (green): (1) 1.5 x 5 inch
Sashing: (6) 2 inch x 9 inch Strips in background (I used off white). (2) Strips of 2 inch background as long as your finished runner for top and bottom boarders.
Backing: as big as your finished runner. I used less then 1/2 yard.
Place the 3.5 white square on top of the 3.5 inch tulip square. Sew 1/4 inch away from the diagonal line. Repeat on the other side of the line. Cut on the line to make 2 half square triangles.
Place the two half square triangles side by side, make sure the bottom points are in line with each other, fold over top the other and sew the center seam.
The top of the tulip will look like this
Place the 1.5 inch white squares on top of the bottom corners of the 2.5×5 inch tulip piece. Sew directly on the line. Cut 1/4 inch away from the sewn line and fold the corners back. Place the 2.5 inch white squares on the 2.5×5 inch leaf piece as shown. sew directly on the line, cut 1/4 inch away from the sewn line and fold back the corners.
Tulip top: Sew the two pieces together as shown. Leave/stem: Set up as shown and sew together. Last sew the top tulip flower to the bottom stem/leaf section. They may not match perfectly together, center the center of the tulip flower in the center of the stem, this will center it all. Sew the sections together Trim to 5 inch wide / 9 inch long.
Sew the 2×9 background strips in between each tulip and the ends. Sew the top and bottom strips on.
Place on backing with good side down, sew all the way around leaving a turning gap. Turn right sides out, iron, sew close to the edge all the way around. Add trim like ricrac if desired.
This is what designing looks like.. a mess lol. I started off wanting to use up some of the Primrose Hill fabric I have, that’s the bottom fat quarters in the picture. I made a flower block and found a leaf block I liked. I did all the calculations etc and started to iron so I could cut… then it hit me, can I make this from fat 8s so it’s more scrappy and cheaper to kit?
After another cup of tea, more calculations later I’m cutting two quilts today! The Lori Holt prints in that colourful pile will be cut to fat 8s then cut into the pieces needed to make sure my calculations are correct. I want to have more kits available this year in fun patterns that use a good amount of prints in an affordable package. Cross fingers this works out!
The greatest thing of New Years is learning from last year and move on. The past is to learn from, aside from re-enactment, I love my wartime knit ware and would dress 40s style anyday!
Our first adventure of the year was to Shediac and Bouctouche. The lobster in Shediac had a Santa hat on, very festive! We toured around town then headed north. We hadn’t been up that way yet.
We stopped by the little lookout in Bouctouche for a walk, Ellie loved looking through the puppy look puts in the gazebo, we had to look through each one! We say huge anchors, smelled trees then headed home. It was New Year’s Day so nothing was open but it was good to explore, the drive is beautiful!
New stuff on my work table for this year are a few stuff toys, Patchwork placemats, and pillows with anchors. The new items break up the repetitiveness of bag making lol, yes lots & lots of my signature zippy pouches are in the works too
There’s the working on pile and stock pile .. going to need more bins!
The aim this year is to have enough that I’m not sewing every night in the summer. Hopefully it works out.
Sew Fundy 