Stop Press - News Day!

Wow I have managed to post again with some news, just as I planned, which, for me, is a big achievement!

So what's news this week? Well this is a little late in coming but is no less exciting for me, or other longarm owners who have a computerised system.  Back in January Handi Quilter launched Pro-Stitcher Designer which I have to say really does make me excited and I am not someone who even really like computers!!

Pro-Stitcher has, until now, used Art and Stitch as the digitising software if you wanted to design your own quilting patterns.  I upgraded my machine in August to an Amara with Pro-Stitcher and I had Art and Stitch included.  However, I made a conscious decision not to try to learn that aswell as learning everything about Pro-Stitcher and I had earmarked this New Year to start my digitising design journey.  But then Pro-Stitcher Designer was launched and, once I received my Educator version, I  had to give it a go, didn't I?!

I found the package to be very user friendly and intuitive and not more than 10 minutes later I had a design and a stitch out!!  In my haste to stitch out I just threw a scrap of fabric on top of my other practice piece!

This is a design I could do using rulers but I just love the precision that Pro-Stitcher can achieve and have lots of line quilting running around my head now.

Then for some wavy lines ....

I am going to really enjoy playing with thread build up in some of these patterns.  Handi Quilter recently released a new update to Pro-Stitcher which includes the ability to be able to have Designer installed on the PS tablet and so go between the two packages whilst at your machine - it's going to be so great to use it this way if just a little tweak is required.  Update can be found here - PS Software Update - Beta.

Just to note that this has not yet been released in the UK but when it is it will be available from Pinhole Quilting, date TBC!

*** STOP PRESS ***

Dates have just been released for 2 days of Pro-Stitcher Training, which I am delighted to be teaching, at Pinhole Quilting 

in June 2020.

For further details head on over to the listing ....

Stop Press - News Day!

I often have things to say and then the moment's not quite right and then too much time has passed and then I just don't!  So I thought I would try to make a habit of sharing any news on a Tuesday!  You can also stay up to date with any news by getting my Newsletter - usually once a fortnight - delivered straight to your inbox - sign ups are just over there on the left!

My exciting piece of news this week is .....

Oh and I am so excited!!!!!!

I have worked at the Festival of Quilts for the last three years on Pinhole Quilting's stand, both demonstrating the machines and teaching one on one sessions.  Last year I had the opportunity to be a classroom assistant in the Handi Quilter classroom.  This was the first time they had a classroom at Festival and I was lucky enough to assist some lovely international Handi Quilter Educators, Diane Henry and Denise Best from the States and Sue Pattern from Canada.  I had a blast and learnt so much from them.

This year I will be teaching in the classroom along with some other wonderful ladies ..... more on that soon!

I love the poster for this year's event - it's a gorgeous quilt from Sarah Hibbert, @quiltscornerstone, with fantastic quilting by Christine Perrigo, @ccpquilt  Sarah is having a gallery at Festival this year which I can't wait to see.  If you are planning on going this year I would definitely recommend popping by her gallery - not only are her quilts wonderful she is a really lovely lady!

Teeny Tiny Rainbow - A Finish

There have not been many finishes around these parts lately so I am very happy to have a ta da moment for you.  I give you Teeny Tiny Rainbow ....

and as you can it is a little more than a ta da moment - it is also a celebratory moment!

This little mini quilt started life as part of  Sugar Bowl Crafts Scrap Busting Sewalong.  The challenge that week was:

How many squares can you get into a 5" square?  

Well I was always going to go small and so managed 100!  I knew that there was method using gridded fusible interfacing but, of course, I didn't want to wait to get some so I used old dressmaking interfacing I had on my shelf and the squares from my cutting mat.  It worked OK but is a bit wonky in places but I absolutely loved the result.

I knew I didn't want this little block to sit languishing on a shelf so I decided to add the white border and then randomly added the second border.  The charcoal and white bits are as they are because they were leftovers from my Mini to Maxi - Churn Dash.  Nothing like using all scraps!

It was only as time marched on that I realised I could turn it into a quilt and enter it into the miniature category.  The quilting happened by chance and I am not sure if it is how I would quilt it if I did it again.  The rainbow squares finish at 1/2" and so I decided to just so some outline squares as stitch in the ditch.  This was actually a first for me on my longarm and I have to say I didn't dislike it as much as I thought.  However it was 5" square not a full size quilt!  

Then came a change in plan because I realised that you could see the charcoal fabric behind the white fabric as a dark strip down the middle of the skinny white borders.  Aaaaarrrgh I had planned to quilt the borders with 1 or 2 lines of white stitching extending into the charcoal area and to the edge.  Now I couldn't do that because, to hide that mistake, I needed to quilt a dark line in the middle.  This was done several times and included lots of unpicking but in the end I just had to go with it.  Because of that I decided to quilt straight lines in the resulting charcoal spaces.  I like the difference between lines and grid and the change in direction to the diagonal.  This is something I would use again.

Quilt Stats

Finished Size:  11" x 11"

Fabrics Used:  multicoloured scraps for the rainbow centre and Kona Charcoal and White for the borders

Quilting:  was done on my Handi Quilter Avante longarm machine and I used Glide 40wt thread in Shadow and 60wt thread in Sterling

Wadding:  The Warm Co Warm and White

So the ribbon?  Well it was entered into the Miniature Category at the British Quilt and Stitch Show whichwas held in Uttoxeter over the weekend.  I was delighted to hear it had won 3rd place and also pleased to see that both this and the 2nd placed quilt were modern quilts.  It is lovely to see the rise in the number of modern quilts in all categories now.  Long may it continue!!

Festival of Quilts :: A year on ....

↓↓↓  For big news scroll down  ↓↓↓

Yesterday I dropped my show entries at the NEC for Festival of Quilts 2018.  It is always so funny to see it empty - a far cry from what it will look like on Thursday morning!

When I got home, my daughters said they remembered going there last year with their dad to drop my quilt.  It took me a little while to remember why they had gone and not me ..... oh that's right I had the little matter of a quilt to finish for the In the Spotlight Gallery, which I didn't have to hand in until the Tuesday evening and so it wasn't finished until the Tuesday lunchtime!

Where to Next?  in progress

I love quilting words onto quilts

I can't believe it's been a year already and soooo much has happened.  Last Festival was my first time demonstrating on the Handi Quilter longarm machines for Pinhole Quilting. Whilst I knew and loved my machine, I have to admit to being somewhat nervous at the thought of setting up and demonstrating at such a big show.  I needn't  have worried I really enjoyed the experience and signed up for more!  

My trusty Handi Quilter Avante - I love it!!

So I am back again this year and not only demonstrating.  A couple of weeks ago I received great news ..... 

I HAVE BEEN MADE A 

HANDI QUILTER EDUCATOR 

- ONE OF ONLY TWO IN THE UK!!!!!  

I am thrilled.  I have started teaching at the Foundation and Intermediate classes run by Pinhole Quilting for their Handi Quilter owners and I love it.  It has been fabulous to help these people on their own longarm journey, which actually never stops, and to see that 'ah-ha' moment when something really clicks.  Further teaching news will be up here shortly!

I have met some wonderful American HQ Educators and Ambassadors over the last year, Debbie Brown at FoQ 17, Laurie Tigner last November when she taught 4 days of classes in Worcester, and Kimmy Brunner and Kelly Cline, who were the tutors at the UK's first Longarm Quilting Academy held in February.  It was a pleasure to be the classroom assistant for their sessions and I learnt so much.  I would highly recommend any of the teachers above if you ever get the chance to take a class with them.

I have written my first quilt pattern, which is available over here, and I am running a QAL for it starting on 05 September - wow that's only 4 weeks away!!!!

On the family front, we have done our first full academic year of school, after years of home education ..... and we survived!  There were lots of sporting fixtures, a Y6 residential for a week to North Wales when there was still snow on the ground, productions, SATs, leavers activities and much more.  It has been wonderful to see how the girls have settled into school and made great friends.  My youngest goes up to secondary school in September so we have more big changes coming our way!

It is always good to look back at what you have done because more often than not, whilst you are in the midst of it, you don't really appreciate all that you have achieved.  I am looking forward to September and the start of a 'new year' to refocus after this hot, hot summer, make plans and put some long held ideas into practice.  I hope you will join me! x

What the Judges said ....... Pt 1

Last year I joined in with the wonderful Sewcial Bee Sampler SAL hosted by Maureen Cracknell and Sharon Holland.  

Whilst I was making this quilt, with a limited palette of Kona solids, I did quite a bit of unpicking! The solid fabrics were rather unforgiving when points didn't line up so I came up with a new practice - if required, I would unpick twice and the third time, whether perfect or not, the seam would stay.

 

I think limiting myself two only unpicking twice saved my sanity!

I entered Wasabi on the Side into the British Quilt and Stitch Village show last weekend and was pleased to read the Judges' comments. It was obviously worth the time to unpick when needed because both Judges gave me an EXCELLENT for 'Quality of Construction - Piecing' along with EXCELLENTS for 'Quality of Execution' and 'Borders, Edge Treatment, Finishing and Hanging'.

I love the texture the matchstick quilting gives this quilt and remember how I was surprised at how long it took to quilt!

British Quilt & Stitch Village :: A Review

Today I have a post published on the UKQU website.  I am reviewing the recent British Quilt and Stitch Village in Uttoxeter, click here if you weren't able to go and you would like to know more about it .... and of course to see lots of lovely quilts!

I had three quilts entered into the show and was really happy to come 3rd with Where To Next? in the traditional category.  It's not really a traditional quilt but it didn't fit the other categories either!

And some close ups of the quilting, just because ....

I do love quilting words - one day I would like to quilt a whole quilt with words, telling the story of the quilt perhaps ....

I still look at this quilt and wonder how I ever made it - that's what a deadline will help you achieve!!

Modern Plus Sign Quilts Book Hop :: Day 3

Welcome to my stop on what is sure to be a fabulous Book Hop, organised by Cheryl of Meadow Mist Designs and Paige of Quilted Blooms, to celebrate the launch of their new book, Modern Plus Sign Quilts.

When I was invited to be take part in this event I was delighted because both of these ladies have inspired me since starting my quilting journey.  It was wonderful that both of them had quilts included in the Best of QuiltCon 2017 tour that visited the Festival of Quilts last year so I got to see Warp and Weft and Cursive is a Fading Art in real life.

There are 16 patterns in the book and we had to pick three we would be happy to make for the Book Hop.  Which one to choose?  Eventually I would like to make them all, time and finances allowing, but in the end I plumped for Plus Surround designed by Paige.  We were allowed to make changes, resize or just use part of design for our project but I decided to make it true to the design.

Photo Credit Paige Alexander, Quilted Blooms

Initially I played with colour choices as per Paige's layout but decided in the end I wanted more colour in my quilt.  I have long coveted the Sun Prints collection by Alison Glass and finally bought some last Stepember.  With a couple of extra FQs thrown in and Kona Snow as the background I had the fabric chosen.

The pattern is really well written and easy to follow.  I couldn't use Paige's instruction for the block construction because I was not making multiple blocks of the same colour, however it still came together really nicely and quickly and was a great return to sewing after having the flu earlier in the year.

Then of course there was the question of how to quilt it ....... hmmmm that had me pondering for quite a while, in fact if I am honest there were still design decisions going on just yesterday!  As you will see from the photo above it's not quite finished, what's a little trimming and binding between friends, because it literally is hot off the frame.

Pebbles and paisley feature frequently, in differing scales to fill the boxes I quilted around the plusses ....

I used lots of new tools and techniques on this quilt ....

I seriously underestimated how long it would take to quilt something like this ....

I think I am just a little bit in love with this, and also rather proud of myself having never quilted a design like this before ....

I think there is another post, an actual finish post if you will, required to talk about the quilting and techniques but for today I am just savouring this moment!  I will also need to enlist the help of a quilt holder upper so that I can see what this looks like hanging - I think the texture and created shadows will be wonderful.

To see a couple of different versions of this quilt head on over to see:

Jayne @ Twiggy and Opal 

Jen @ A Dream and a Stitch

Also up today, with their versions of Cheryl's Kaleidoscope Plus quilt. are:

Yvonne @ Quilting Jetgirl

Sandra @ mmm! quilts 

Karen @ Run Sew Fun 

Be sure to stop be either Cheryl or Paige's blog to see the full scedule and for a chance to win prizes!!

If you are inspired by what you see on the Book Hop then you can get signed copies of the book from Cheryl's Etsy Store or Paige's Etsy Store.  It is also for sale over at Amazon.

UKQU New Website Launch

The new UKQU website launched yesterday. If you haven't yet popped over go and have a look. There is lots to see and read and the site will develop into a one stop resource for UK based quilters.

I was delighted to be asked to contribute to the site and I will be one of the bloggers featured in Bloggers Central each month.  Initially I am going to talk about building your quilting community - so if you have still to find your own tribe then maybe you will find some useful hints. I will also be showing the projects I am working on – I always have a lot on the go so there will be plenty to see!  Want to take a read?  Just click here!

There is also a fantastic competition running until the end of January with a Janome machine and much more going to one lucky winner. To enter the competition you just have to register on the site, after which you will get regular newsletters. Head to Competition Corner to be in with your chance of winning :)