Garden Trellis Quilt

 

It's been such a productive weekend!

And I mean in more ways than one. I've enjoyed the sunshine of the weekend to the full, and spend a lot of time gardening. Everywhere looks spick and span and I'm busy harvesting tomatoes, cucumbers,beans and courgettes (zucchini? in the US), but I've also aced my quilting target.

I thought I was going to be showing you this as a work in progress, but I've finished it!

 

 

I wanted to design an easy to make quilt for beginners that wasn't too busy, was modern and would complement any decor. I was a little concerned as I got part way through that it was going to be too "white", but I'm truly pleased with the final result. I could easily see this with a light grey or taupe background though, or even made entirely of solids with the darker fabric as the background and perhaps white for the chain, I used some remaining strips for the binding....

 

.....and I'm so pleased that I did! I didn't want to introduce another print, or prioritise one colour over another.

 

 

I quilted it with diagonal lines which I marked on with a ruler and Hera marker

This is such an easy tool to use, and it's so nice that there are no lines to wash out at the end of the quilting. I do find that if I've handled the quilt a lot (I rotate through 90 degrees at the end of every row of quilting) the lines are getting a little faint towards the end of the task, but it is no problem to lay the quilt flat again and re-mark them.

This quilt will make a great play mat when the youngest members of the family come to visit.

The pattern is available in my Etsy store. Instructions are given for 5 sizes from Baby to King.

Let's hope the rest of the week is as productive, and enjoyable!

 

Easy Newbie Quilt Pattern for Jelly Roll Strips

Modern quilting is for busy people! Gone is the image of quietly sitting by the fireside hand sewing tiny pieces of fabric for months on end before you can see and use the finished article. Today's quilters are busy mum's having a little "me" time, piecing the quilt top by machine in the odd moments whilst their toddler naps, or people who sew for half an hour in the evening after a busy day at the office. Men quilt as well as women, and children produce their fair share of quilts too. But the gift of a quilt is as precious as ever it was, perhaps even more so!

In our world of mass produced and  designer label where you can see the same item in a chain store in London as you can in New York  a gift of a handmade quilt, which basically is unique, however simple the design, will certainly be  treasured. It will still be a household favourite long after the cute little newborn size baby clothing has been safely stored in the loft - maybe for baby number two? or sent to the charity/thrift store.

With pre-cut fabric packs and simple patterns a baby quilt can be made in a weekend or a few evenings. It's not complicated, but it is addictive! The pre-cut fabric packs save a lot of time consuming cutting, stressing over which fabrics go together and possibly making costly mistakes in the purchasing. You get all the relaxing sewing therapy without the decision hassle!

But sometimes it's hard to find just one quick, easy pattern rather than a bookfull.

With this in mind, I have started to design easy, modern, beginner patterns that use pre-cuts, or small ranges of fabrics. Not everyone wants to start an all consuming hobby, they just want a quick pattern to make one quilt.

If you are a relative newcomer to quilting or you just want an easy pattern, then you may want to check out this one that I have for sale on Etsy.

The pattern gives fabric requirements and instructions for 6 sizes of quilt:
Baby – 36"x 45", Crib – 44" x 60", Toddler/Lap – 60" x 76", Twin – 68" x 84", Queen – 92" x 92"
and King – 92" x 108"

This is the toddler size!!

 It just uses a Jelly Roll (or two if you're making the larger sizes) and some white yardage.

The instructions are carefully and simply explained for beginner quilters and there are loads of photos to help you. If you take the plunge and make one of these quilts, be sure to share a photo on Facebook

Happy Quilting!

Colour Therapy

Here in the UK we have had, what seems like, weeks and weeks of rain. We've had torrential storms with high winds, we've had times where the rain has just set in for the day, and we've had days where the weather just plain teases you with 20 minutes of sunshine, making you believe you can get outside and enjoy it, only to drench you as soon as you've gone 5 minutes down the road!
Like most other people I'm totally fed up with it. For garden lovers it's a disaster - what isn't rotting in the ground is being eaten by slugs! So this weekend I decided that if I couldn't have sunshine, then at least  I would have colour - and lots and lots of it!!
I have started on another quilt pattern for MackandMabel on Etsy.
I have had my eye on this particular Jelly Roll for a while now.

It's called Trade Winds by Moda. Of course I should have known that if I liked it, then so did a lot of other people too, so by the time I came to buy it, a lot of online shops  had sold out. In the end I did manage to get one at my local quilt store, The Cotton Patch in Hall Green, Birmingham, and at the time of writing this, they still had them in stock on line.
These strips are just so lovely and bright and full of the sunshine that is missing from our part of the world at the moment...... and what is even better... you don't need to apply sunscreen to enjoy them!!

A New Venture

I'm about to start on a new exciting venture!
I find that I just can't stop making quilts, and have so many ideas in my head that I've decided to start selling patterns for quilts, as well as the quilts themselves, on Etsy.
I decided it would be a bad idea to put them in the LoveFibres shop, as I really like the unified look that it now has, so I'm starting a new shop - Mack and Mabel
The other thing I'm going to do is combine my lovefibres blog with this one, so you will find both knitting and quilting related items here. I will move my free patterns over and add some quilting tutorials, as well as continuing to show you what I've been making for charity and for family and friends.
I do hope you will follow my new blog, and let me know what you think of it - good and bad!
Let the fun begin!