Easy Four Patch Baby quilt

Hi! today, I'm going to share with you the baby quilt that I made and then sat in the sun and quilted last week (the one and only week of summer that we've had here in the UK this year! My fabric choice is quite an unusual one. It's a far cry from the latest fabrics appearing on the shelves of the local quilt stores, but the fabrics appealed to me for several reasons:
I liked their simplicity, which seemed in keeping with a gift for a newborn.
They are organic cottons, and I'm a huge fan of organic anything, but cotton in particular - a massive amount of chemical goes into the production of standard cotton fabric.
Last, but not least - I had the fabric in my stash already!

The pattern is a very easy one - ideal for a beginner, and I've put together a tutorial, which you can download as a PDF.Just go to the tabs on my home page, select Quilt Patterns and you will find it.

The finished quilt measures approximately 36"x44" (92x112cm), but it would be very simple to make it larger if you needed. It uses Jelly Roll strips or yardage or scrap pieces, whichever you prefer.
I love adding a little hand stitching to quilts - and by that I do mean a little - I don't think I would ever hand quilt a whole quilt, but I do enjoy adding some naive style quilting in places. In this instance, I machine quilted around the four patch blocks and hand quilted the solid white blocks.

I used a Perle cotton No 8 which stands out nicely against the solid white. I chose my backing fabric  so that the hand stitching wouldn't stand out too much against it. I find it impossible to get the stitches even on both the front and the back of the quilt, so I concentrate on what they look like on the front and don't worry about what they look like on the back.

I bound the quilt with simple brown spotty fabric (this one isn't organic unfortunately).

I think it provides a nice contrast to the blues, and I happen to love blue-brown combo, so it was an easy choice.

The pdf pattern gives you all the fabric requirements and instructions, along with lots of photos to guide you if you are a new quilter.

It also gives detailed instructions on how to do the hand quilting.

I hope you find it useful.

Till next week......... Julie

Personalised Bunting for a New Baby

I have a tutorial for you! It wasn't supposed to be this one, but life has a habit of catching you me out!
You remember last week when I was able to sit in the sun sewing peacefully away on this quilt?

Yes, I have finished it, and I was feeling very smug as it was a gift for a baby whose arrival into this world was imminent. No-one knew whether it was to be a boy or a girl, but I had this gut feeling that it was going to a boy, so I steamed ahead and made a blue quilt and was intending to embroider his name in one of the white squares.

We got the wonderful news on Sunday that the baby had arrived, but guess what! it's a baby GIRL!!! So, a re-think was necessary. They say in the crafting world that there is no such thing as a mistake, just a new opportunity, and rightly so. I shall keep the baby boy quilt for another time - my children are all of an age where their friends are starting to have families, so I know it will get put to good use sooner or later. However, I still wanted a personalised gift, and I was in a hurry to send off the parcel. This is the third girl in the family so they have plenty of cute pink baby clothes already, so I decided upon some bunting with her name on it. She is called Gratia, so I suspect shop bought personalised items will be hard to find. Anyway, the bunting was quick and easy to make. I just used fabric from  my stash and some bias binding to hold it all together. I have put together a downloadable pdf with the instructions, along with plenty of step by step photos for you here .

I hope you enjoy making it as much as I did!

Till next time...... Julie

Final Winner in the Christmas in July Giveaway

Well, after 4 weeks, we finally have four winners of the Christmas Ornaments knitting pattern
The fourth winner is....................

Paula Spautz!!
Congratulations Paula.
Please email me with your email address so that I can send you your pattern.

I'm sorry everyone couldn't be winners, but you can always purchase the pattern here

Storybook Lane by Kelly Lee-Creel

You know that "Oh! Wow! I just have to get that!"feeling? Yes, if you're reading this blog, then of course you do!!
Well that was the feeling I got when this picture came up in the weekly email from fabricworm.
The little houses are made from two panels of fabric from the Storybook Lane line by Kelly-Lee Creel
I am a complete sucker for anything small with interactive parts as anyone who bought the Making Cards for Children Special Issue will know. I co-wrote this special issue with my son's girlfriend Laura, who did all the artwork. 
All manner of ideas started buzzing through my head when I saw this fabric.
I knew that I just had to have some  and if I was to get it before it ran out, I had to act quickly. For UK readers who are not familar with Fabricworm, it is a wonderful on-line fabric store - I defy you to find a wider range of fabric anywhere else. Yes, you have to pay international postage but you can squeeze a whole 10 yards into their Flat Rate Envelope which costs $17.50 (about £11.20), and as the fabric costs a lot less in the US than it does here it really works out about the same price as buying here - cheaper if you fill that envelope to the brim!! (Oh what hardship!!)

There are some gorgeous complimenting fabrics in the range, but I restricted myself to the two panels

as it really is the little houses and stuffies that I want to make.

Aren't they wonderful? My fabric arrived today and I'm delighted with it. The question now is, will I wait and purchase the pattern book which Kelly has produced to go with these, but is only just beginning to ship to fabric stores, or will I go ahead and design my own playsets. I think somehow it will be the latter, so expect a few more posts about Storybook Lane in the near future showing you my progress.
Till next time.......
                                 Julie

The sights, scents and stitches of summer

Yay!! Summer has finally arrived in the UK and in a big way here in the Midlands.
Finally I can sit in the sun and sew!
I can look fondly at all the plants I grew from seed earlier in the year.

I can sit in a chair on the lawn enjoying the feel of grass on my bare feet and stitch happily away on the latest quilt. Until that is..... I drop my needle!
Now this is problematic on two fronts:
First -  As you may know, not all needles are made equal. They may all look the same in the pack, but some become favourites, they just feel a little bit special... you know which one you like using best (or is this just me??), so it wasn't just any old needle I'd lost in the grass - it was my special needle!
Second - the perceptive amongst you will have guessed... remember I said I liked the feel of grass on my bare feet? Yep! No shoes....
So, you get the picture? I'm on my knees, nose 6" away from the grass, brushing my hands gently through it for what seemed like forever! What my neighbours imagined I was doing, goodness only knows.
I didn't find that needle. I had to tread very carefully all day long and I had to choose a new and "oh so not nearly as nice! needle to work with.

Still, I shouldn't really complain. The sun still shone. I still sat sewing (over the table this time!!), enjoying the fragrance from some freshly picked sweet peas and a refreshingly cool drink.... and my feet are still unharmed! What's not to love!



Help with Jaden Boots Pattern

This post is especially for people who are new to using circular knitting needles and are having a little trouble with the Jaden Boots pattern when they come to pick up round the cuff onto  a circular needle.
Jaden is one of my most popular knitting paterns, and I've seen some great versions knitted up by all my lovely customers. If you want to have a peek, you can buy it here or here.
However, if you haven't used a circular needle before, this can be a bit daunting, so I've posted some more step by step photos here of the bit where you transfer to the circular needle  in the hope that it helps those people get passed the scary bit!!
OK, so you've knitted your cuff and it looks like this.

The buttons will be going at the other end...(they're not sewn on yet, I've just put them there to help you get the idea)

and you need to fold it over as it will be when it's wrapped around that little ankle.

It's the right boot we are knitting, so you need the buttonhole edge on the outside of the leg, facing backwards. Fold it over so that the edge of the cuff is not quite at the centre back, and pin in place. Stand it up to check you've got it the right way round......

and place two markers, one at centre front (mine is red) and one at centre back (blue), both on the bottom edge of the cuff.

Hold the cuff with the markers uppermost and starting at the blue marker...

pick up and knit 8[8,9] stitches up to the cast on edge. (I'm knitting the largest sizer here, so it's 9 sts)

Now you start to pick up from the other side,just passed the buttonholes ....

from this edge you pick up 8[8,9] stitches up to the red marker. Note:- depending on how you folded your cuff, you may have to create two stitches from the same chain a couple of times to fit the right number of stitches in before you reach that red marker - don't worry, it'll all work out in the end!

So now you've got 16[16,18] stitches on your needle.

Next you pick up 15[17,17] along the remaining part of the cuff, back to the blue marker again - this is where that curvy circular needle is essential - you just couldn't do that on a straight needles!! - so push the stitches you've already done onto the curvy bit

so you can pick the rest of the stitches up without feeling like a contortionist!
You should now be back at the blue marker and have a total of 31[35,35] stitches.

If you push them all onto the curvy bit, you can see that you've gone all the way round the cuff, you've got the overlap for the button fastening securely joined and your start and finish for each row from now on is going to be the blue marker (the centre back of the boot).

Super clever people who are used to knitting in the round will go off and do their own thing from this point on and avoid having a seam at all, but this is written for people who want to knit the whole boot back and forth as you would if you were using two needles!
Turn your kniting so that you work back the way you've just come from

You are now at the start of Shape Instep*on the PDF pattern, ready to start Row1
I've just worked 9 stitches so far here from Row 1

Here is the whole of Row 1 completed (if you are struggling to work those stitches, just keep them on the curvy bit of the needle until you actually need to knit them.

Turn your work, ready to knit Row 2

Row 2 done! See how it sits centrally over the red marker (of which you can only see a tiny bit now as it's facing the back (pic)

Now you should be quite comfortable finishing the boot. Remember to keep just a few stitches at a time on the rigid part of the needle, so that you can work round the curve without struggling.

I do hope this has helped those people who are using a circular needle for the first time and that you now have great success with your Jaden Boots. Make sure you post me some photos on my Facebook page!

Third Christmas in July Winner!

The third weekly draw for a free copy of my Christmas Ornaments pattern was drawn tonight.........
and it goes to Christy Harris of lip_service !
Well done Christy. Send me your email details and I'll get the pattern to you.

We have one more draw left on the 27th July, so if you would like the chance to win a free pattern to make these Christmas ornaments, go to the  original post and leave a comment