These Geese Are Flying!

I am still avoiding the quilting on my niece Naomi's quilt. Actually, when I looked at it yesterday I couldn't find the bad bits of stitching that were bothering me. It doesn't mean that they aren't there, just that, maybe, they aren't as noticeable as I thought. So, I will get it finished before her wedding in the new year.

What I HAVE been doing is making the flying geese for my Ohio star quilt. I am lucky enough to have a very kind and thoughtful mother and whilst browsing on Amazon recently she saw this and thought of me!..

Isn't it lovely!

I have been following Bonnie Hunter's wonderful Quiltville blog for donkey's years now, if you haven't seen it yet, you MUST. When you have finished here. She has a wonderful scrap user's system and gives lots of beautiful free patterns, she writes brilliant books and runs Quilt Cam on youtube, a sort of sew along thing that is great to have on in the background while you sew.

Anyway, a lot of Bonnie's quilt patterns use the EZ Angle and EZ Companion rulers but to buy both of these you would be looking at spending about £30! That is the cost of a whole Jelly Roll or Layer Cake! So, I thought about it and bought fabric instead. Then my mum called and told me that she had bought me a flying geese ruler and a Tri Recs set of rulers (more on that another time) and they would be arriving the next day. How great is my mum? Pretty great! I hadn't mentioned these rulers to her but she saw a print out of one of Bonnie's patterns on my window sill and went home to order me the rulers. She couldn't remember which rulers they were & thought she had bought the wrong ones.

It turns out that the EZ Flying Geese ruler is, in my opinion, even better than the EZ Angle and Companion rulers. Because of the markings you only need ONE RULER! It makes geese from 1.5" x 3" to 6" x 12" and you can make QSTs with it, probably HSTs too.

 

You cut your geese pieces from strips. I am using 2.5" strips to make 2" x 4" finished size geese. You cut the middle (goose) part using side A, which has purple markings and the side parts using side B, which has blue markings. There are notches that align with the top of your strip and these help with positioning your fabric when you sew.

 

I need to make 144 geese units and sew them into 24 sets of 6. I spent a couple of hours pressing fabric and cutting and I sewed on and off all day yesterday. I nearly have all of my geese sewn, only 35 to go!

 

I plan to have these chasing around my Ohio stars.

 

Keep it scrappy! Abi

UK Quilters Fabric Swap

I am currently organising some fabric swaps on Ravelry. There is a scraps swap, a 2.5" squares swap and a 5" squares swap - all fabric must be 100% cotton and suitable for patchwork (i.e. quilting weight).

You can join in here Fabric Swap you will have to be a Ravelry member (its free) and join the UK Quilter's group. Leave a message on the board and join in. Deadline for signups is 5th December 2014 and I need to have your fabric here by 12th December so that I can swap it around and send it back out.

 

So, I Started Another Project...

...before finishing anything else. I know. I'm a rebel. Actually, I started TWO other projects, but I only have pictures of one of them, so far.

I mentioned in one of my earlier posts that I bought a QST (quarter square triangle) die for my sizzix because I planned to make an Ohio Star quilt. Well, I couldn't resist the temptation. I made these scrappy 12" blocks;



 

I used the Jo Morton scraps that I bought on ebay, part of one for the FQs from my Vin Du Jour pack and other prints and batiks from my stash. I cut all the pieces on my Sizzix. I am not entirely sure about the pink batik star because it is a bit lighter than the others but maybe a lighter star will add some sparkle to the quilt.

 

I made 9 blocks and plan to set them 3 x 3 with scrappy flying geese sashing. That will make the quilt 52" and then I can decide if I want a border or just binding. I am making it all up as I go along.

 

 

In other news, I finally managed to get some Mary Ellen's Best Press at a price that I loved. I got a big 32oz bottle, all the way from America for £8.57, including postage! There must have been a pricing mistake because now it'll cost £19.28 for the same bottle from the same seller. Its a starch alternative and is widely used and recommended by quilters in America. I have been itching to get my hands on some after trying various spray starches from local supermarkets but if you cannot get it then, in my opinion Easy Iron by Dylon is the best of an imperfect bunch (but I haven't tried them all).

 

I am not affiliated with MEBP in any way and I don't sell it (wish I did) but I have to say that it is a fantastic product. It doesn't make your fabrics as stiff as a board like starch can and it doesn't flake or gum up your iron - at all! It doesn't make the laminate flooring beneath your ironing board as slippery as an ice skating rink, either, which is a bonus.

 

What it does do is make ironing and pressing a LOT easier, it makes fabrics more manageable and I found that they frayed less when I cut into them. Also, you know those folds in the centre of your fabric that are almost impossible to get out? Just spray this on the fold (or any tough crease) and wait for 30 seconds or so and creases start to disappear before you even start to iron it! I bought the cherry blossom variety and it smells really nice, even when re-pressing later. There are other varieties, including scent free. I used it on my fabric before cutting and on cut pieces and on sewn units. I also used it on my Ohio Star blocks to help me press them to the right size, it really did the trick. This isn't an advert, just a review so that you can decide if it might be useful to you, too.

 

I am currently organizing a fabric swap over on the UK Quilter's board on Ravelry. I will put a link on my next post. Happy quilting, Abi.

Unexpected Gift

I love craft magazines, especially patchwork and quilting ones. I have shelves full of back issues of British Patchwork & Quilting, Popular Patchwork, McCall's Quilting, Fons and Porter's Love of Quilting, The Quilter, Fabrications, Magic Patch - name a quilting magazine and I will have a few issues on my bookshelf. I have quilt mags from France, Australia, America and Britain and they are all good reads. The British ones, though, can be a little bit old fashioned and some of the articles are a bit boring and the issues get a bit repetitive. So, I decided to stop buying magazines for a while.

Then, last month I bought the October editions of Quilt Now and Love Patchwork and Quilting magazine. I hadn't seen either of these before, due to my magazine starvation diet. Both magazines are quite new, there have only been a handful of issues of Quilt Now.

I read both of these magazines from cover to cover and what a breath of fresh air they turned out to be. I wouldn't call myself an ultra modern quilter, I am somewhere between a modern and a traditional quilter. I don't really like "Art Quilts" or anything too abstracts & wacky, but I love lots of white or grey, teamed with simple lines and shapes and some of the modern prints.

Both of these magazines had very generous subscription offers but I could only afford to subscribe to one. I re-read both magazines and chose a favourite, the one with the projects I wanted to make and the articles I found the most interesting was Love Patchwork and Quilting magazine. I also preferred it because it was a little less "fluffy", it felt a bit more advanced, which I love.

Issue 13 of Love Patchwork & Quilting - with a most beautiful cover quilt by Lynne Goldsworthy

Before I subscribed I decided to have a go at making the Union Jack foundation pieced block at the back of the magazine to brush up on my foundation paper piecing. While making the block I discovered a very slight error in the pattern. The block is made in 4 quarter sections, 2 x A + 2 x B. However, when you put them together to make the block the white lines of the Union Jack do not go where they should. I think it was the only error in an otherwise excellent magazine, so I contacted them to tell them about it. They checked the block and told me that I was right. They were very apologetic and asked for my address so that they could send me something as a thank you.

Look at what they sent me!

12 Fat Quarters of "Sew Yummy" 100% organic cotton from Cloud Nine. How lucky am I?

Beautiful fabrics with sewing designs on them; zips, pin cushions, spools, seam rippers and scissors.

They also sent me a new copy of the Union Jack pattern.



I am really impressed with their generosity and the magazine itself. The November issue was just as great so I am glad I chose to subscribe to this magazine, I think its right up my street.

Issue 14 - Look at that beautiful star!

 

 You can get your subscription with a hefty discount (currently 40%) here: