Bearpaw

psychedelic crochet drugs

2012-01-24T12:38:00.000Z

Time for a crochet post, don't you think?
Even though it doesn't feature on this blog nearly enough, I always have some crochet on the go.
It is also one of my busiest craft classes at work and so far I have taught 18 students to crochet and most of these have now entered a dangerous state of wool addiction. I do feel a bit like a drug pusher as they turn up at the shop week after week, glassy eyed, clutching cash and gasping for "more wool, more wool, please, just one more ball!". I do always warn them at the start of the 'Learn to Crochet' class that it is extremely addictive!
The Rooster wool I bought for the shop back in July has been a great success and I am now awaiting a huge delivery of Sirdar, Sublime, Patons and Regia sock wool any day!!! (see what I mean about feeling like a drug pusher!)
I have also noticed some crochet action on a few other blogs recently - Lynz has just taught herself through You Tube videos. Way to go Lynz! It's not easy to learn that way, much better to come to a nice workshop with me :)

I have another friend's special birthday coming up soon (in fact a have quite a few this year!), so I thought I would get started now on a lovely blanket which I could potter away at for the next few months. I started off making these hexagons, above, with Rooster aran wool. The pattern is from the same book as the Roses and Daises Blanket I made for my niece's wedding last year, and is based on a Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt.

But it just wasn't doing it for me. It just looked a bit blah. So I have abandoned it and turned to my favourite crochet blog Attic 24 for inspiration.

And found it straight away on Lucy's gorgeous blog! Granny circles, perfect! I am currently obsessed with circles inside squares as a quilt pattern so this just shouted out to me. This is an old project of Lucy's, adapted from a vintage crochet book, and made into a gorgeous blanket by a friend of her's and featured here.

Lucy promised to note down the pattern very soon, but I couldn't wait and liked the challenge of working it out myself - which I did! Not sure if I have done it exactly the same way as Lucy, but I love it!

And the difference between these squares and the earlier hexagons is that I just can't take my eyes off them! A great crochet design should be totally mesmeric and every square you finish should fill you with joy. This design is a particularly potent psychedelic drug, and I am hooked (haha)!

But what of that amazing African Flower Blanket you were working on a year or so ago, Jo?

Well I am STILL working on it! In fact I love it so much I don't think I will ever stop, but just keep adding more and more flowers until I become crushed under the weight of wool - what a way to go!! (I think this is known as O.D.ing on crochet!).

'The Neighbourhood' quilt top finished

2012-01-18T19:43:00.000Z

First off, thanks for all your kind comments wishing me a happy holiday. I had a lovely relaxing time, and have come back very tanned from all the gorgeous sun out there!

Well I finished the House Block quilt top! Now re-named 'The Neighbourhood'. The original inspiration for the quilt was 'The Burbs' from the first Material Obsession book, but I prefer The Neighbourhood, as it is also the name of one of my favourite Arcade Fire tracks (get me, sounding so hip!).
Most of the quilt blocks were made by the Tag Square Bee which finished last year, and I have added some extras to make a bigger quilt.

You all gave me excellent advice when I last posted about about this here. The main thing, you all agreed on, was No Sashing. Which I was pleased about. So I made 2 more house blocks.
The one above is the 'Owl House'. The owls like to fly around their rooms, whilst keeping an eye on their pet peacock who is strutting around the ornate lawns.

And this is The Dressmaker's House, inspired by one of the houses made for Leila in this post on Where The Orchids Grow blog. The dressmaker is showing all her wares in the window and has stuck her mannequin in the way of the door (well she is short of space in that little cottage).
God, I love making these house blocks, and I think I enjoy making up silly stories about each of them even more!

I also made one more random 'patch block' to balance out the one made be Teresa. I still have one more geometric block (made by Jackie) for the back. Also, I am pleased to say, that Juliana's beautiful 'Fairytale House' arrived safely from Poland.
So here they are, all sewn together, but I knew they needed a border, and as I have such a bulging scrap bag at the moment I decided to make a scrappy Piano Keys border. You will need to scroll back up to the top to see how that turned out. I managed to make 3 and a half sides of the border just with scraps!

But I realised I needed something to go in the corner spaces, so I made these little mini houses with more scraps.

Here they are in place.

Now all I have to do is quilt it!! But that will have to wait a while as I have totally overdone it on Flickr swap sign-ups! I have 4 Flickr things on the go at the moment and it is taking me all my time to check the groups daily, never mind the sewing!

What about you lot, have you taken on too much already this year?

I think I'm going to need more socks!

2012-01-06T11:35:00.000Z

I was a very lucky girl and got 3 awesome craft books for Christmas. I love getting a new book full of projects that I just can't wait to try! I hope to share projects from all of the books with you over the next few weeks, but first up, I'm going to play with my socks for a while...

I totally missed the whole sock doll craze, but when I saw this book I just loved the idea of using 'stray socks' (even though most of the projects in the book ask for a pair!). I always have odd socks in my drawer and they are usually my favourite ones. Where do all those socks go?!

The book is written by a man called Daniel Lin, who is obviously totally barking (in a good way!). The book is full of eccentrically captioned photos of sock dolls and is very Japanese in style. My first attempt was this long-eared mini doll.

However my socks must be a bit longer than Daniels as my doll's ears are a bit too long!

Still at least he can tie them up in a knot if they get in the way! I added the buttons and hair for a bit of extra personality. Though something about him reminds me of Mr Blobby! Still he was my first attempt.

My next stab turned out to be much more successful. In fact, I have to say that I am totally in love with this little sock kitty!

Isn't she lovely? And made from just one stray sock! I have been carrying her around with me like a little comforter. Especially during the dreadful storms we had this week, 100 miles an hour gales! We lost half our greenhouse and had no power for a day and a half. So Sock Kitty cuddled up to me on the sofa as I strained my eyes reading Nicholas Nickleby by candlelight (Dickens felt very appropriate in the circumstances!).

Just one my photo of her as she's so gorgeous!

After all the bad weather here I am doing a very sensible (and yet very unusual for me) thing and jetting off to the sun tomorrow for a weeks holiday! I hardly ever take a holiday so this will be a real treat. I am going to Tenerife with my sister, Jane, and my dad to stay in Jane's apartment and soak up the rays. It is a very pleasant 22 degrees there at the moment (as opposed to 2 degrees here!) and I can't wait!

So it may be a couple of weeks before you hear from me again but don't worry about me as I will be just fine!

A hearty Goodbye to 2011...

2011-12-30T19:53:00.000Z

... and Hello to 2012! I am just hoping it will be an improvement on 2011 which was a pretty pants year as far as I was concerned, but it did have lots of good points too.
And look at all the quilts I managed to actually finish! I am very impressed with myself. Of course most of them are tiny doll quilts, and some of them involved glue, but there are 12!

I do like making mosaics, so I made one of non-quilting stuff too - bags, cushions, an owl (of course), and a surprising amount of dollies! I think that crocheted 'Roses and Daises' blanket is my favourite project out of everything I made this year.

Just room for one more mosaic, this time looking forward. This is an Inspiration Mosaic for the first Flickr activity I have signed up for in 2012. I just sneaked in as they were shouting 'Last Call' on the ORBC 'Around the Bend and Across the Pond' Round Robin. This is an offshoot of the main Old Red Barn Co Quilt Along group, where 4 different groups are taking part in different versions of a Round Robin. I am in the 'round' group where we each make a middle and send it to the next person who makes the next row and then sends it on. At the end we each get sent a completed quilt top, AND it will be a surprise (somehow). There are 'row' groups and 'free form' groups. I am super excited about this and so was the first to get my mosaic made.
It's great to have happy stuff planned already for the New Year. What about you lot out there? What's your next project/swap/bee?
I hope you all have happy stuff to look forward to as well and A Happy New Year to you all!

Warning - vintage notebook overdose alert!!

2011-12-18T17:27:00.000Z

A couple of months ago I made my first two of these notebook holders. I wrote about them here and I hoped to teach a workshop on them. However this was another of those classes that didn't get enough interest (I seem to be always saying this, but lots of my classes do get booked up - honest!). So I decided to sell the notebooks in the shop.

They sold very quickly. So I decided to try some diaries too. These sold quickly too, so I started making quite a few more! In fact this is one of the reasons I have been so busy these last few weeks.

Here is one I just finished today, before it gets wrapped around the notebook. I have been using pieces of my vintage embroidered linen stash and just patchworking a wee frame for it.

This is the other side. I started off using the excellent tutorial on Teresadownunder's blog, but I have adapted this quite a bit now to make it quicker. I don't use any interfacing, I use one piece of fabric, folded in half, for the pocket and find this needs to be no bigger than 7" (and can be quite a bit smaller) unfolded, and I don't topstitch round the outside.

So basically, they are very quick and easy to make. And actually lots of fun, as I really enjoy putting the different combinations of fabric and linen together. And picking out the perfect button from my vintage collection (many of which belonged to my Mum). I also like practicing my embroidery with the word 'diary'!

And I am using fabric from my 'everyday' stash, not my 'precious' stash, so it's not so hard to part with!

In the end customers were buying 3 or 4 at a time so I have had put the price up! I was selling them for £14.99 (with book or diary), which probably was a bit cheap for handmade (but they are way quicker to make than my little crocheted owls and I can only get away with selling them for £9.99!). Now they are selling for £17.99 and the sales have slowed down a bit.

Are you getting bored yet? I really hope you like looking at vintage linen notebook holders, because if you don't you've come to the wrong place today!

I also made a few special ones (using 'precious' fabric) for Christmas presents, like the one below for my best friend in London, who is kindly putting me up for the retreat next June, and lending me her sewing machine for the weekend.
I was so pleased and excited to discover, after my last post, that so many of you European bloggers are going to be coming to the Fat Quaterly Community Retreat next year, and quite a few from Scotland too!

I also made one for a very special, long distance, blogging friend. I forgot to take a photo of this one but she has received it and has promised to blog about it, so soon you can take a look at it here (I know you will be just dying to see more of these!).

Nearly finished now! Here's 3 more I just finished this afternoon, some still waiting for buttons. I did make one more after this but the light had faded by then so you will be spared one more!
Well Christmas is nearly upon us, and that will be the last one I make this year.
But I think I might just have time to top up on my owl stock...

A new passion and my first Christmas present

2011-12-15T17:44:00.000Z

Here is a sneak preview of a new workshop I will be taking in March. I have had a few requests for some more embroidery/applique classes so I thought I would combine them with this 'Embellishment' class.

A bit of applique, a lot of embroidery and an Indian Shisha mirror. I used to use these all the time, even on quilts. They are such fun and Felix bought me a huge bag of them back from India earlier in the year. I will try for a tutorial here next year too, as they are easy once you know how.

I am really pleased with how my embroidery turned out as it has been a bit slap-dash in the past. I have used chain, blanket, satin, whipped back stitch and French knots here and I loved it all! I really want to do more embroidery as soon as possible! I enjoyed the designing bit too.

So that's my new passion, but what about my first Christmas present? Well, I have just purchased a weekend ticket to the Fat Quaterly Community Retreat, in London, June 2012!!
I am SUPER excited to be going to the first FQ sewing retreat and getting the chance to meet lot's of my bloggy pals for real. Check out the website for details and maybe you can come along too?! I hope so!
(Christmas present courtesy of my Dad and my hubby - thank you xx)

Robin Christmas Decoration Tutorial

2011-12-05T14:56:00.000Z

Do you remember this little fella? I did promise you a tutorial a couple of weeks back and, for once, I am actually delivering!

My Saturday class last weekend was Hand Sewn Christmas Decorations, and I think all my students would agree that this little fat robin was the easiest one we tackled.

So, without further ado, let's get creating!

You will need:
Brown, red and yellow felt.
Toy stuffing
small piece of ribbon
2 small black buttons
scissors, needles and matching thread.

Cut a rectangle of brown felt 5 1/2 x 2 3/4 inches. Cut a beak shaped triangle from the yellow felt.

Fold the brown felt rectangle in half and start sewing together one of the sides adjacent to the fold, as above. Use matching thread and small over-stitches.

When you are about 2 thirds along the seam place the 'beak' into the seam and continue sewing to the corner, through the beak, securing it in the seam.

Continue sewing round the corner. After about 1/2 an inch, fold the ribbon in half and place the 2 raw ends of the ribbon loop into the seam and sew through this to secure it in the seam as you did with the beak. Continue sewing to the next corner.

Now for the magic bit! Open up your remaning open end and re-fold so that the seam is on top, making your robin into a triangular shape.
Start sewing from one of your new corners till just after the centre seam.

Stop here and stuff your robin with toy filling, pushing it in to the pointy corners.

When your robin is nice and fat continue sewing the last seam closed.

Now it's time to make his red breast.

Cut a rounded end from your square of red felt.

pin this to the front of your robin and wrap the felt around his body.

Turn him upside down and pin the felt to his body.

Trim the red felt so it neatly fits around his pointy front.

Trim the felt on the robin's base so its rounded there too.

The shape you will end up with is a slightly extended semi-circle. It is basically a little cone that fits snugly on your robin.

Pin this securely around your robin's 'breast' and sew the bottom seam from the corner.

Now sew around the edge of your red breast, securing it in place to the robin.

Now it's time to give your little robin the power of sight!

Take you 2 black buttons and sew either side of his beak using black thread. You can also use beads or embroider eyes.

Now you have finished your robin, take him outside and set him free! Or keep him safe inside and hang him from your Christmas tree!

I hope you have enjoyed this little tute and have found it useful. If you make and feature this project please credit me and link back to this blog where possible.
Thank you!

Wonky Star mini quilt

2011-12-01T11:37:00.000Z

Today I will be linking up with Lily's Quilts 'Fresh Sewing Day'.
Earlier this year the lovely Rachael Daisy of Blue Mountain Daisy blog made an absolutely stunning wonky star doll quilt. We were taking part in the Doll Quilt Swap at the time and this wasn't even the one for her partner but an extra one she made out of left-overs! Here is a link to this inspirational quilt.
I totally lusted after this quilt and put it on my to-do list. I planned to make it for the first Brit Quilt Swap but got side tracked by a kaleidoscope design.

But I have a good friend's special birthday coming up and wanted to give her something hand made. And though I am VERY busy with shop and craft class commitments at the moment, it has been lovely to work on something fun. Here are some of my favourite stars. The middle fabric with hearts in the 2 blocks above is from the Frida Kahlo fabric I was sent by Marilyn Spiced Coffee when she was my partner in the Scrappy Pincushion Swap. It is almost too gorgeous to use.

I love this purple fabric, I have hardly any left and it is probably too old to get again now.

I wanted the quilt to be really wonky so divided the blocks into 5,6 and 7" squares, and then divided each of these blocks into a wonky 9 patch so that each patch was as different a size as possible.

Then i just roughly cut a piece of fabric for the 'star' and randomly sewed this across a corner.

I turned the right sides back together to trim to the size of the original patch.

And then trimmed the background fabric leaving 1/4" seam.

I really enjoyed making it, as I like playing around with colour and I much prefer to work in this 'freeform' way. I just can't do accurate piecing to a pattern, it always works out wrong and I am just too rebellious by nature!

Once I had all the blocks complete, I added some 'filler' panels to square it up and make it even more random.

Here is the finished top.

I quilted around the stars with contrasting perle 8 (such a pleasurable way to quilt something small!).

And then there was so much going on that the pink flowery panel (Michael Miller's 'Peacock Lane') looked a bit empty. And I don't need much of an excuse to get my button tin out!

The back is just a plain solid, but it does show off the quilting nicely.

And all finished on Monday! My friends's birthday is not for another week so I have some time to enjoy it at home.

And a big thank you to Rachael for her inital inspiration, this quilt is very much a homage to hers. I hope you like it Rachael! Go check out Rachael's lovely blog and also all the other new projects in LiLy's Quilts 'Fresh Sewing Day'.

Meet Sally!

2011-11-26T16:50:00.000Z

I'm busy thinking up new classes to teach next year, and one of the subjects I'd like to tackle is a simple rag doll. I did make up Annalise earlier in the year from scratch, and lovely though she is, I felt I could improve and simplify her.
So I am pleased to introduce Sally! She is a bit of a prototype but still nice enough to show. I am pleased with the way her hair turned out and her little face (always the hardest bit). But she does need a few improvements before the class.

Here she is standing up, not easy to do when one leg is shorter than the other! There is something not quite right about her proportions, either her arms are too long or her legs are too short. The dress needs a bit of work too (you should see the back!). And I think I should get hold of some flesh coloured felt as she is a bit too pale (even though she is Scottish and it is nearly winter). But the important thing is I have a photo now and a demonstration model so I can get on and market the class, which won't be till March so I have plenty of time to work on a sister or too. Gosh, I feel a bit like Frankenstein!

The next class I want to tackle is a bag making workshop. I based this simple tote on one in the Last Minute Patchwork and Quilting Gifts book. I love the autumn leaves fabric but hadn't found a use for it till now. It was too nice a piece to cut up for a quilt. I got it from John Lewis ages ago, and I am sure one of you clever lot will know who makes it!

The retro flowers print is from My Fabric House, a real treasure trove of interesting fabric and haberdashery. It's lined with Moda Bella Solids in Betty Red.

I hope to get 2 bags made during a full day workshop, the tote to warm up and then this shopper with a gusset and stronger handles. I have a nice big piece of Jane Churchill's Indian Summer left over from when we sold furnishing fabrics in the shop.

The is one of my all time favourite furnishing fabrics - wouldn't this be amazing as a craft fabric?

Next up is a new hexie ball to show off the EPP class in February, and I have plans for an embellishment class where we will use embroidery, applique and Indian shisha mirrors to decorate a hoop.
After that I should be free to pursue some fun projects like my House Block Quilt - that wonderful block from Juliana arrived safely from Poland this week, by the way!

Oh and one more thing, I have taken the plunge and joined twitter. I am just about getting the hang of it and even jumping in to a few bloggy friends conversations! If anybody wants to find me over there, just follow this link.

Get ready for Christmas!

2011-11-21T19:53:00.001Z

I made this Christmas Advent Quilt a few months ago so that I could offer a workshop on making it. I had planned that, at the same time as I was doing the workshop, I would make a wee tute for the blog.
However nobody booked for this workshop :(
I have found it difficult to book workshops in the run up to Christmas and it could be that it is just too busy a period for everyone at this time of year. Next year I will probably have less and stop them earlier.

But as it is December in a couple of weeks I thought I would share it with you and hopefully give you enough instructions to make your own. Plus, further down the page, some Christmas Ornaments I will be workshopping (did I just make that word up?) in a couple of weeks (and I do have a few bookings for this one, even though I could do with a few more!).

I have to say that the original inspiration for this Advent Quilt was this photo on Flickr. It is quite a few years old and the blog post for it is in Spanish so I haven't been able to find out whether the blogger made it up or if it is from a pattern, but this is basically a version of that original design.

I used this tutorial from Patchwork Pottery to print the labels, which I found via this tutorial on Poppyprint's blog. I wanted a way to quickly number the pockets. I love the look of appliqued fabric numbers, but they are quite time consuming, and the idea was that we would make this quilt in a day workshop. So I printed out a sheet of numbers in rows onto T-shirt printing paper and cut these into strips and ironed them on to a plain white cotton tape. I then cut them up leaving enough tape above the number to fold over. My idea was that I would have this all done in readiness for the workshop.

I then cut my Christmas fabric into 7.5 x 3.5 inch pieces and planned out the layout as above. I then sewed the long edge of the fabric pieces into rows and folded these rows in half, right sides together. Poking a folded over tape number into the centre of each fabric piece (the raw edge ends inside the seam), I then sewed up the other end of the strip to form a tube and trapping the folded tape in the seam. Turn these tubes right side out and press.

I cut 2 pieces of white fabric 31 x 21 inches and made a quilt sandwich with wadding. Next I pinned all the fabric strip tubes into place, turning in and pinning the tube ends. I then sewed them straight on to the quilt sandwich, machining round three sides of each strip and leaving the top open to form pockets. You can see this better from the back of the quilt above. The finished pockets are 3.5 x 3 inches each.

I then marked out (with a hera marker) and machine quilted a grid to match the grid made by making the pockets.
Red binding and triangular hangers in the top corners finish the project.

I hope these instructions have been enough for you to make your own and apologies for not taking more photos of the piecing. Maybe I will get another chance if I offer this class again next year!

So a week on Saturday I will be taking a workshop on these Hand Sewn Christmas Ornaments. This should be a nice, relaxing sewing day, with mulled wine and cake to finish (still a few places left, local peeps!).

Here is a little hexagon garland. It is backed with felt and slightly stuffed.

I actually machined this little bauble. Just strips of fabric with ribbons sewn across the seams. But you could just as easily hand sew it.

More EPP. This little star is a scaled down version of the Liberty Star quilt I am making at the moment.

And lastly this little fat robin. This pattern is all my own (though it's very simple so I am not making any great claims here!). And I am definitely going to do a proper tutorial for this next weekend before the class.

So pop back in about a weeks time and bring some felt, ribbon and buttons!

House Blocks

2011-11-11T17:19:00.000Z

For the last year I have been sewing blocks for the Tag Square Bee on Flickr. This has been a fun, though frustrating Bee, to be part of. We seemed to have more than our fair share of Bad Bee Luck, with about a third of the members dropping out half way through due to illness or just going AWOL. Poor Jo, the admin and organiser, has had quite a difficult time of it and there have been a lot of angel blocks made.

But despite all that, I have managed to collect some beautiful house, people and cat blocks! I have laid them out above but need to ask you all some advice.

Meanwhile look at this gorgeous block made for me by Juliana. It is my last block and it is still on it's way to me from Poland.

It has been on it's way for quite a while now and I am just praying it hasn't gone astray (another thing that kept happening to other member of this Bee!). I just love this wonderful Story House. In fact I was so inspired by it that I decided to make a few extra blocks with a bit more detail on.

So here is a tall house with a tree full of birds and some kittens and teddys in the window.

And here is a house whose occupant loves Babushkas (or maybe one lives here!), and where the toaster dances with the toast every morning. And hedgehogs roam around the garden in vast numbers (but don't like straying from the path and getting their little paws wet).

And lastly I thought I would have a go at a figure. I like the way her handbag turned out but she put on quite a bit of weight while I was making her (must have been the chocolate digestives I was scoffing!). I designed her all willowy but she looked decidedly beefy by the time I had finished piecing her.

Let's look at that top photo again.

As you see I have 11 house/figure blocks and am still waiting for the 12th. I also have the block of squares in the bottom left corner and another pieced block (not pictured). I can't decide whether to make the quilt with just 12 house/figure blocks and sashing, and use the plainer pieced blocks on the back, or make 3 more 'squares' blocks similar to the one here, bottom left, and put these in each 4 corners and make a 16 block quilt with no sashing. I would then use the spare block on the back (which is from Jackie, and beautiful but just doesn't quite fit in to the quilt).
Any suggestions dear, patient readers?

Trip around the pumpkins

2011-10-31T17:32:00.001Z

Here's a Trip Around The World cot quilt I just finished to sell in the shop. I used this tutorial from Quiltville and it was very quick and easy. Melanie of Texas Freckles is doing this design for one of the other 'Do Good Stitches' circles this month and recommended this tute. I like checking out what all the other circles are doing - great inspiration!
h1/08/broken-dishes-qal-part-2-tutorial.html
The solids are all Moda Bella shades that I have for sale in the shop and some of the prints are from the Cabbages and Roses and Hometown FQ packs that I bought for the shop a few months back (they have nearly all sold now, well they've disappeared somehow *ahem*).
This is obviously aimed at a little girl, though hopefully not too pink. I have also started one in reds and blues for a boy.

I'm not sure how well the design works on a rectangle but it's still a nice overall patchwork effect.
It's pretty simple and I just machine quilted in lines. Even so it's still quite a bit of work and I will have to make to more expensive than the tickertape cot quilts I have made recently. So we will need to see if I can get enough for these to make it worth my while!

And what about the pumpkins?
Well when I was taking photos of the quilt outside this afternoon I couldn't help admiring the lovely pumpkins grown by my DH, here at Shangri La Farm, and artfully displayed by him on our front steps!
Happy Halloween everyone!

I am linking up to Pieceful Life's Little Quilt Monday!

Blogger's Quilt Festival Autumn 2011

2011-10-28T10:40:00.000+01:00

Welcome! Today I am taking part in the Blogger's Quilt Festival. This is the 5th BQF I have taken part in and it is a real highlight of my bloggy year.

Usually I have a lovely new, full-sized quilt to share with you all, but I have had quite a challenging 6 months and so have nothing major to show. Instead I thought I would shamelessly steal Lynne's great idea from last BQF and curate a gallery of mini quilts I've managed to finish instead.

First up is this all-solids affair which I made for Ethne in the Doll Quilt Swap round 10.

Ethne likes quite contemporary, arty quilts and her inspiration mosaic had quite an organic flavour. She also liked maroons and purples. For something that looks pretty bold and simple, it certainly took a lot of sewing! I foundation pieced the blocks and was really going for a wonky look (honest!). You can read more about how I made it here.
I love a bit of hand quilting and really went for it on this one. The thicker quilting is done with sashiko thread and they are meant to be stamens.

I know this is all about the quilts, but I thought you might like to see the pincushion I made from my abandoned trial block. I have to say that Ethne has been my most enthusiastic and grateful quilt recipient yet!

This next one was made for our inaugural Brit Quilt Swap (and I was a very proud Swap Mama!). Seeing as I like to make life hard for myself I decided to make a mini kaleidoscope quilt for my partner Teresa.

For some reason I prefer the photo of the finished top over the one of the finished quilt, the colours just look sharper.
I was really trying to get that wonderful, optical illusion effect on this quilt, where the circles really pop out at you.

But I just didn't plan my values well enough and, though it's a really pretty quilt, it doesn't make the most of the kaleidoscope design. Still, a good practice piece for when I make a full sized one (!), and Teresa really liked it.

More hand quilting, this time with perle 8 cotton, and lots of buttons as Teresa loves them!

I really didn't have enough time for another round of DQS, but they lured me in with their 'back to basics, quilts for a doll's bed' round.
And just to make everything a little bit more challenging (I know, I know...), I decided to make a really teeny, tiny English Paper Pieced star quilt.

The little 60 degree diamonds are just over an inch in length. This was, again, a good practice piece for the full sized one which I have now started here.

Here is the top finished, again I like the look of this better than the quilted version - maybe I should stop quilting these!

Here is a close-up, with quite restrained hand quilting, for me! I really enjoyed fussy cutting the different diamonds and the effect that created.
Unfortunately my partner, Littleloops, has gone totally AWOL. Nobody has heard from her since July and she hasn't acknowledged receipt of this quilt or made her partner one, and has completely ignored the Swap Mama's communications. I just wish I knew what had happened to her and this little quilt, it is quite worrying.

Well I hope you enjoyed this little tour of my mini quilts. Thanks for stopping by, and now off you go back to the Blogger's Quilt Festival for more gorgeous quilting inspiration!

Fish, leaves and better times ahead

2011-10-26T20:27:00.001+01:00

Well, I have had quite a month and so apologies again for being so quiet. My problems have all been work related and as I want this blog to remain a calm, happy oasis for me (and hopefully for you), I don't really want to go in to too much detail here. For anyone who is at all interested, take a look over at our new website for an explanation. For everyone else, just rest assured that things are very much improved in my life now and Jonathan and I are feeling very positive about the future.

Now on to some crafty stuff!

I first made these wee scrappy fish last Summer. I made a whole bunch of them and sold them in the shop in strings of four. I had almost forgotten about them until a customer came in and begged me to make some more.

They are a little fiddly (especially the stuffing!), but use up quite small scraps and are really lovely to look at in a big pile!

And it was about a year ago now that I first made these Leaf Keyrings. I had been making a batch of Leaf Needlecases and just couldn't stop making leaves.
I have a huge stash of lovely furnishing fabrics which aren't really suitable for quilts. I love the rich colours and textures and this is a lovely way of utilising them.

Again, they have sold well in the shop so I made a new batch for Christmas last week. They are backed with felt and sewn on the machine, then I just add a few veins with perle 8 cotton.

Here they are hanging from one of our Scot's Pine in the Autumn sunshine.

It has been very therapeutic working on these small, but beautiful objects.

I just wanted to mention a couple more things. The wonderful Laughing Hens website, where I bought all my Rooster wool before I started stocking it in my own shop (bwahaha!), has started selling fabrics. They have a really nice selection of Tanya Whelan, Kaffe and Amy Butler fabrics, amongst others. I have been particularly lusting after the Blue Hill Fabrics 'Feedsack' range. Nicki Trench, one of the owners and the author of some of my favourite crochet books, is working on a quilt book which will be published next year - exciting!

And one more thing, Sarah, my erstwhile partner in crime at the shop, has started her own blog. Called Bexydress, Sarah has been busy making pillowcase dresses and lovely ribbon brooches that she wants to share with the world. Pop over and say hello if you get a moment.

And I will see you very soon, I promise.
Linking in today with the fabby Our Creative Space - so much inspiration here!

I feel like a proud parent

2011-10-14T13:48:00.000+01:00

First of all I must say a massive THANK YOU to everybody who commented after my last post and gave me such great advice over my problem QAYG project. Yes, the grey will definitely be going! And you all had such sensible suggestions that I know I will come up with the best solution soon.

Meanwhile I thought you might like to see some of the results from my first 'Beginners Patchwork and Quilting' evening class.

We have been making Log Cabin Cot Quilts.

I am so proud of my students! They all did so well and totally exceeded my expectations.
This first quilt was made by Eleonore and I think it is so gorgeous, especially the fussy-cut owl centres, which, before you ask, were all Eleonore's idea! Eleonore is expecting her second child in 5 weeks and this cot quilt is for her new baby. Eleonore really impressed me by scanning in her chosen fabrics (after we had decided which ones she would be using in the first class) and playing around with layout and design of the log cabin on her computer and turning up to the second class with full colour print-outs of the design she wanted to achieve! I had never thought of scanning fabric before, but if you find it difficult to visualise a whole quilt then this is a great tip.
I also love the hand quilting with perle 8's. Didn't she do well for a beginner?!

This next cot quilt was made by Arielle and it is just waiting for a black binding here. I absolutely love Arielle's dramatic, purple, black and white, palette and that fabric with the skulls. In fact, even the design she chose makes the quilt look a little like a skull. She definitely has a bit of a goth thing going on! The centre square is an embroidered black fabric and Arielle chose to machine quilt and is planning on adding some hand quilting with perle cotton, once she finds the right shade of purple!

Natalie's sweet little cot quilt was made entirely from a scrap bag of old clothes and remnants given to her by her mother-in-law. I think it has a wonderful Vintage American feel. Natalie machine quilted in stripes and is still working on the binding here. This is just a perfect little quilt and I love the overlapping diamond effect she has achieved with the design. I am constantly amazed at how different you can make a Log Cabin quilt look!

There were 6 in the class and 3 of them decided to carry on and make a full sized quilt, so I will have to wait a while before I can show you Linda and Gill's efforts (Linda chose jewel-like, turquoise, magenta and purple with lots of Kaffe fabric, and Gill has gone for a primary, blue, red, green and yellow palette - can't wait to see these finished!).
But this next one is Helen's, who did intend to make a cot quilt with 24 small blocks similar to the demo one I made for the class. But she accidentally made 27! So, rather than waste any she made a few more and got up to 35. Now, by adding some borders, she has a good sized single bed quilt.

And I think this one is another stunner! Lovely delicate shades of pink, purple and green, and again, another different look achieved with the Log Cabin block. Here is the top finished and I am hoping Helen will bring in the finished quilt for me to see soon. Well done all 6 of you!

Just time to tell you about my new favourite tool. Now some of you may already have this, so apologies if I am 'so last year', but I think this is one of the best crafty things I have ever bought! It is a pinking blade for my rotary cutter!!

I have been dipping into my Liberty Tana Lawn stash and cutting large charm squares with my pinking cutter and putting together packs to sell in the shop!
I really do have too much fabric and so, if I sell some, then I can buy more!!

After I had parted with as much Liberty as I could stand (enough for 4 packs!) I delved into my regular stash and put together some different charm selections - 'vintage floral', 'designer', stripes and checks' and 'fun'. These are more regular 5 1/2" sized (approx.) pieces with 12 - 15 in a pack.

Hopefully they will sell well and then I won't feel guilty the next time I go fabric shopping!

I'm really stuck...

2011-10-09T14:35:00.000+01:00

I started this project a few weeks back with the idea that I would get a full day workshop out of it for later this year (for my Bearpaw Craft Classes venture at the shop). I have made these string blocks using the QAYG (quilt-as-you-go) method which I first tried out making blocks for the Quilts for Christchurch appeal back here. I love the fact that the quilting is all done with piecing (and very neatly for me!), and that all you have to do to finish is hand sew the big blocks together on the back.

As I was sewing this together I was really falling in love with the colour palette I'd chosen. It's quite an unusual one for me but I had just got all this lovely new fabric from Dolores, Leila, My Fabric House and as extras with my DQS11 from ladmquilter, and I felt really inspired and excited to put them all together.

The original idea was to make a 4 block mini quilt as a finished project. But as I worked on this I realised I would not fit this into a day workshop and also each student would need quite a bit of space to lay out the 4 blocks as they worked. So when I had got this far I thought I would leave it and make it into a full sized quilt and offer it as an evening class block of 5 next year.

But as time has gone on I am sure about it less and less. First of all I am not sure about the grey sashing (it is Moda Bella Grey), maybe white would be better? Also I think the sashing is too wide and maybe a half inch width would look better (and would be much easier for students to achieve).

And now I am wondering about the whole evening class idea again - I think it would be too boring to be sewing these blocks week after week and, as my students all seem to be quilting beginners, they would be not learning any of the more traditional quilt making instructions. Maybe I could base a full day workshop on teaching the actual QAYG technique, where everybody tried out the method but we weren't under any pressure to actually finish anything?

Aaarrghh! I am not getting anywhere here but maybe you lot could help? You are all so wise and creative and I would really appreciate your honest opinion. I don't like to leave stuff unfinished. Even if I don't turn this into a class would this make a nice quilt with 16 blocks and white sashing?
Any help would be gratefully received (and let's just hope you actually get to read this post - fingers crossed Blogger!).

Hexalong Liberty Star Quilt

2011-10-04T11:25:00.002+01:00

Hexalong Liberty star quilt - close up, a photo by bearpawandbearpaw on Flickr.

In a last ditch attempt to get my blog to work, I am trying to blog from Flickr. If this shows up in the Dashboard then I am back in business!

later:

Well it looked like that did eventually work - in that it turned up in the dashboard about 2 hours after I posted it - but at least it is there and I am getting some visitors!

Hello you lot! My blog has not been updating in the dashboard for weeks (despite the posts publishing) and it has been like being sent to Coventry!
I am tentatively editing this now in the hope that it stays on your blogroll / dashboard.

So I finally started my proper, full sized hexalong quilt. I wrote about my plan for this back here. And then I started a tiny version for the last round of DQS (which apparently still hasn't arrived with my partner!) and did a tutorial here. Meanwhile Lynne started her hexalong and everyone was making really cool hexagons! I have been desperate to get started but all my craft class shenanigans kept getting in the way.

But now I have started and, as per my original plan, I am making this exclusively from my, rather large, collection of Liberty tana lawns (which, before you get too angry with me, I have been collecting for over the last 20 years!). And I am back to tacking round the papers after trying out the glue stick method on my scaled down version. I actually like the whole tacking and hand sewing bit, and I am in no hurry to finish this. I love a nice long project in the same way as I love a good long book.

And while I have got you here (and I don't know how long this will last as blogger is being SO cruel to me!!) I will just show you another star project. Do you remember when I made these tickertape cot quilts with stars and hearts as part of Deeroo's Old Red Barn Quilt-a-long?

Well I had a commission to make one for a customer.

She wanted greens and creams for her new baby due this month.

I would really love it if you would all scroll down the page to the last post (which everybody has missed because of my blog problems) and read all about the wonderful 'Do good Stitches' charity bee!

And if it looks like I am being really quiet then please check out the blog as I am probably posting like crazy but nobody knows!!