Sunday Morning Quilts

A few weeks ago I bought the new book Sunday Morning Quilts by Amanda Jean Nyberg and Cheryl Arkison.

This gorgeous book is all about using your scraps, and I mean all you scraps! Nothing is too small!

There are great ideas for storing your scraps by colour:



The patterns are clearly laid out and easy to follow. The quilts are really inspiring:

Last week I had the privilege of having a lovely young lady working in my studio with me for the week. Her cutting skills using a rotary cutter needed building, so I showed her Sunday Morning Quilts. There is a great quilt made up of scraps cut into strips of different widths and heights. I handed her a bag of greens, pinks and blue scraps.

We agreed the height and width range and she set to work. It was a great exercise in using the ruler and cutter. She had to be accurate and make sure there were lots of different sizes. She did a fabulous job:

So I now have bags of strips organised into different lengths. There is still loads more work to go, but it was a great cutting exercise!

If you want to get a copy of Sunday Morning Quilts, don't forget to support your local indie bookshop. Mine, The Yellow Lighted Bookshop, is a fabulous place to order books!



Amazing myself..

My life is a juggling act of 3 little boys and 2 ex-husbands.... yeah I know, at 35 I have managed to be married and divorced twice, been bankrupt and been through more ups and downs than a rollercoaster!

So you could say that my self belief is a little bit low sometimes. I take hits from all sides - I either have happy kids and problems with the ex's or happy ex's and unhappy kids... I now keep the kids happy and stable as possible, and let the adults worry about themselves!

Making decisions that effect my little family is so scary, especially when there is no-one to talk to, no back-up. What if I screw it all up and get it all wrong?

I have those thoughts whenever I make a massive decision, but I try to shake it off pretty quickly because my gut has got pretty good instinct and if I follow it things usually work out ok. My gut was screaming out to shut up Funky Diva Designs and yesterday confirmed that I made the right decision!

Yesterday morning I had a meeting at the Brewery Arts Centre in Cirencester. It was my chance to pitch my skills and talent to one of the places I really respect. It is a great space and full of wonderful artists.... I still struggle to see myself as an artist.... so it was realy important to me to get it right...

Well after an hours discussion about my work experience, the classes I have taught and showing them some of my work, I was offered the opportunity to work in three different provisions that the centre co-ordinate:

Workshops on Site - workshops held at the arts centre for fee paying learners (kids and adults)

Working in the Community - working on projects with vulnerable adults in the Cirencester area

Working on School projects - working with schools who attend the centre on day visits teaching sewing to kids.

I was amazed!

Now, the work is subject to people booking courses and it will not be regular to begin with, but it will help me a build a reputation (fingers crossed a good one!) as a sewing teacher in the area.

I am beyond chuffed, but also slightly shocked at how well it all went.

As my dad always emails me: Onwards and Upwards!

What a weekend!

To me, being a parent is about helping my children find their groove in life - helping them to be strong individuals with an equally strong of right and wrong. Helping them explore the world in as many different ways as possible, exposing them to experiences that they will carry with them and that will help to become strong, caring and gorgeous men.

So we do as many different things as I can afford to - and some that I can't. we tramp through Nation Trust Houses, explore local woods and have strong family routines, such as movie night and Christmas Eve supper by candle light!

So when I saw the price of the Olympic tickets I knew there was no way we would be going there. It was all just too much. The next best things was to take them to London during the Games to experience the buzz. Train tickets were bought, a plan was made and off we went!

I can honestly say I don't think the train from Swindon was quite ready for my 3 very excited boys - so sorry to anyone in the carriage with us! As soon as we stepped off the train the boys got the buzz:

They had learnt all about the Olympics at school, so immediately recognised Wenlock and Mandeville!

We headed to the Southbank and saw so many free events, people doing different things - Maxi was captivated by the BMX's performing stunts under the building! After a walk to the Tate Modern and seeing the rings the river, we crossed the 'Harry Potter Bridge' to St Pauls.

The biggest chair ever!

We then headed to Hyde Park to see the Triathlon cyclists. Spotting the countries was great fun! The BT venue in Hyde Park was really good - we saw Bradley Wiggins being interviewed on the main stage, watched the Olympics with people of all nationalities on the big screens and even saw McFly!

It was an amazing day full of experiences and sights the boys will never see again, including seeing Olympiads travelling on the tube in full kit. We spotted some New Zealand, South African and Chinese team mambers -  Priceless!

Continuing along the theme of different experiences - we spent Sunday using knives to make sling shots, tramped through the rain and mud to collect wood for bows and arrows! The Swallows and Amazons course at Prema Arts in Uley was brilliant! The best moment was watching mini walk through mud in his socks because his shoes had got sucked off halfway through!!!!!!

In one weekend we saw the most exciting city on Earth and slurped through the mud in a wood! Possibly the best weekend ever - well until the next one!

Sunday Morning Reading

Sat in bed with my coffee and eggs on toast as a treat I thought I had better share some of the wonderful blogs I have found over the last couple of weeks. I am trying to find some energy after an amazing day in London with my boys - we have a day of Swallows and Amazons adventures to look forward to today!

So here are couple of quilting blogs to inspire you:

The first is from machine quilting teacher Angela Walters:

Quilting Is My Therapy

It is am lovely blog with an mixture of quilting, sewing and life posts. Angela is a talented quilter and her designs are amazing. She teaches classes on the craft website Craftsy, which is also a new find that I plan on using!

The second blog is Dining Room Empire from Cheryl Arkison:

Cheryl is one of the Authors of one my favourite books from the year, Sunday Morning Quilts. She is a scraps busting expert with amazing designs and fabulous quilts! Her blog is a mixture of life, quilts and scraps!

Hope you enjoy them. I am off ot pack a picnic for our adventures today - lashings of ginger beer all round!

Free Motion Quilting Lessons

As I said yesterday, machine quilting with a walking foot was an elusive skill. It frightened me, free motion quilting was way to scary to even contemplate!

My machine quilting was kicked started by my lovely mini monster requesting a patchwork quilt of his own. It has started a new obsession with all things machine quilting - it is really addictive once you get past the fear factor!

Yesterday I came across this amazing blog by Leah Day:

The Free Motion Quilting Project



Leah started an amazing journey in free motion by quilting 365, 4 inch squares each with a different design.

Each design comes complete with a video to show you how to get started and tips on how to complete the design.

For me this is made all the more perfect because she has divided all of the blocks into difficulty. The beginners page has an amazing array of patterns. After watching a few videos I feel confident to give the designs a go.... I even even sorted out some cotton to get my own blocks ready for practising!

Every Thursday Leah has a question blog, so you can email her your question about quilting and she will answer them on the blog - perfect!

So the next stage of machine quilting starts next week!

Happy quilting!

Trying out new skills...

I have been a quilter for many years, but always had a fear is machine quilting. It was a totally irrational fear, but I know lots of people share.

In January, my youngest son announced that he was the only child in the house without his own quilt. He insisted that his birthday present was a quilt.... not a major problem, except his birthday was 4 weeks away! There was no way I could possibly make a patchwork top and then hand quilt it in 4 weeks!

There was nothing for it, I was going to have machine quilt his present and do it quickly!

He picked his fabrics and we decided on simple circles on a plain background, so the patchwork was simple enough. Then I faced down my fears and free motion quilted the quilt using swirls and stars.

I am very proud of my first attempt, and more importantly, mini monster loved it!

So now I have switched my focus from bags to teaching, I have some time to play with quilting, I am having a go at free motion and straight machine quilting:

I love this quilt and the way that the quilting is making it change and the texture is gaining!

The free motion flowers and a bigger challenge but I am enjoying it:

So the adventure in machine quilting will continue, accompanied by my stack of new quilting books for inspiration and tips!

Starting a quilting bee..

Last week I blogged about my aim to start a quilting bee, with people from around the world taking part and sewing blocks together.

So far I have 3 people who want to take part - including me!

Ideally we need 12 people so each person makes one block a month for a year. If you unsure how this will work, check out thi quilting bee that I found this morning:

The Mid Mod Quilt Bee is made up of 12 quilters who have been exchanging blocks and working together to create 12 beautiful quilts.

We really need 9 more quilters to join us so we can make our bee work. You won't need huge amounts of experience, just enthusiam.

Go on, you know you want to!

Email me here to join our merry band of quilters!