Better late than never.....

I have to apologise as I have been rather slow in preparing this post but the weeks just seen to be rushing by. 

Two weeks ago we took our shop to the Wimbledon International Quilters Group. 

We have a fantastic time in a lovely church. We also spent some of the time learning from two lovely ladies, Louisa and Maggie. Louisa shared with us her techniques for Applique and Maggie her Liberty Log Cabins.

Natalie spent a little bit of time putting what she had learnt into practise and started on some hand sewing of the mini Liberty Log Cabins. 

This is to be an ongoing project that she can take anywhere with her. It's going to take a while as we worked out she is going to need about 400 to make a quilt!! 

Then last weekend we had our one year anniversary as we attended the Malvern Quilt Show. This was the first show we did last year and it was lovely to be back. 

We saw lots of the people we had met last year and also some new ones. Trudi popped in to say hello and it was fantastic to finally chat in person instead of via instagram or emails. I looking forward to meeting many of you all again at the Fat Quarterly Retreat in July. 

Short and Sweet.

This weekend we are in Three Counties Show Ground in Malvern at the Quilt show. Our stand is number 102 in the Marquee.Come and say hello.

On our way to Wimbledon.

No not the Tennis Open, but to Wimbledon International Quilters Exhibition on the 10th and 11th May 2013. 

If you are in the area pop along and see us. The exhibition is being held in St.Pauls Church, 118 Augustus Road, London SW19 6EW.

Scrappy Trip Along.

At last after much delay here is my finished Scrappy Trip along. 

I actually finished the quilt top quite a while ago, it has just taken me forever to decide what to back and bind it in. 

I eventually found this piece of Tula Pink Lazy Stripe for the binding.

I would usually tell you I don't like purple but I love this fabric. 

And for the backing I used this Print below which I can't for the life of me remember the name (sorry). 

Here is one final picture. The finished size was a whopping great big 72 inches square!

I love this quilt and I have a plan for making a second scrappy trip along as soon as I can find the time to cut the strips! The fantastic tutorial can be found here and the Flickr group is here. 

Just to remind you all that we will be at the Quilt & Stitch Village in Uttoxeter from Thursday through to Sunday. We will be taking all our new fabric with us and all these lovely pre-cuts. 

If your planning on coming to the show remember to come and say hello!

Charm Pack Quilt.

This little quilt started out life as a Charm Pack and 1.75 metre's of cream fabric. It was made for the Knitting and Stitching Show at Olympia.

First of all I cut the cream into 5" strips and then sub cut into 5" squares you will need a total of 90 5" cream squares for this quilt.

I then threw all the Charm Pack squares onto the floor and sorted them into the heart shape. I tried not to over think it, just looking for duplicates or the same colour next to each other. 

I had worked out the layout before so that I could use all of the 42 squares to make the heart shape. 

I then simply chain pieced the squares following the above table as a guide. Then into 12 rows of 11 squares. 

It was backed in some of this Crossword Fabric which I have wanted to use for ages, and to bind I used the last of the Walk in The Woods Grey and Red dash (my favourite binding fabric).

I quilted it in (fairly) straight lines on my lovely Bernina machine just using the edge of the walking foot as a guide.

The Finished size of the quilt is 47" x 53".

Layer Cake Quilt.

After being really busy preparing for, and then doing two shows back to back, life has now returned (sort of) to normal.
We now have the time to catch up on a few blog posts and keep you all updated on what we have been doing. 

For the shows we had to make a few new Quilt samples made with pre-cuts and we will be showing you these over the next few days (or weeks?). 

The first one I am going to share with you was this bright and cheerful Quilt made with a Simply Color Layer Cake. It was my first attempt at half square triangles and I'm quite pleased with the result.

 The quilt is actually the wrong way up in this picture but my assistants were a bit short!

Here is my process for making it.
First of all I sorted through the pack to make sure that I didn't have two squares of the same pattern together and I tried to get one light and one dark in each block. 
I then paired up two of the pre-cut 10 inch squares from the Layer Cake and laid them right sides together. 

Next I drew a line diagonally from corner to corner and stitched a line either side of the drawn line using a 1/4 inch seam. 

I then simply cut along the drawn line and hey presto, you have 2 completed blocks. Continue with the rest of the pack.

Stitch the blocks into 7 rows of 6 and you have your quilt top. 

I backed the quilt in this print from Lucy's Crab Shack called Picnic Blanket and bound it in French Knot from the Sew Stitchy range by Aneela Hoey.

 I then quilted it on my machine at home following either side of the zig-zags. The finished size is 52" by 62".