Tag: English Paper Piecing

Blogger’s Quilt Festival: Mini

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Nothing like waiting for the last second to enter the Blogger’s Quilt Festival, eh? I’ve been humming and hawing whether I should and, if yes, what I should enter. In the end I decided to enter Jewel into the mini category. I’ve made a lot of EPP minis and I like them all but this one makes me especially happy because of its cheerful colours and because it was made as a ‘thank you’ for a very special lady. You can read my original posts about this mini here and here.

Jewel

This is the design I started with and the colours I decided to use. I’m not really a rainbow person but I thought it really worked for this design which had been sitting on my computer for quite a while and which I’d named Jewel.

Beginnings

It didn’t take me long to deviate from my plan but I quite liked where it was going.

Jewel being hand quilted

I did some hand quilting with some Aurifil 12wt in 4660 and added a dotty red binding to tie back to the red centre.

Jewel

I left out the last round because I liked the way it looked when I put it onto the background of some Lizzie House Pearl Bracelets in light grey.

It wasn’t all that difficult to send off to Karie as I knew it was going to someone who would appreciate it.

Please take a minute or two and check out all the other wonderful quilts at the Blogger’s Quilt Festival over on Amy’s Creative Side.

 

AmysCreativeSide.com

 

 

 

Categories: Blogger's Quilt Festival3 Comments

Jewel Ta Dah!

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That’s right, Jewel is finished. Maybe I should’ve changed the name as it doesn’t really look like a jewel but, hey ho, I can’t think of anything else.

JewelI love the hand quilting and will definitely do more of it. I also love the red binding. Little Miss Bossy-Boots was crying when I told her that she couldn’t keep this mini.

This mini quilt is off to its new home in America. Bye, bye, little quilt!

 

Categories: English Paper Piecing, Quilting, Quilts1 Comment

Athea Spring

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I have been on a steady course to finish WIPs since confessing to them all on my FAL 2014 list. Now, you may remember that I was rather overambitious when I put fifteen (!) projects on there but I thought it would be better to have a big range of projects so that I could pick and choose what I wanted to work on. It’s worked rather well as this is project number five that I’ve finished and number six is being worked on as you read this post.

Athea SpringAthea Spring, as I call this cushion, was made using the first templates I made available on my blog. They are drawn by hand and you can find them here. I made three different versions of this pattern and I love them all. They look so different depending on the fabrics you choose.

Réalt Glas, Spring and BossomRéalt Glas is on my wall of minis in my sewing room, Spring is a cushion on my sofa and Bloom is destined to become the centre of a medallion quilt (but that won’t be done before Q2 of the FAL, I’m sure).

Right, back to my cushion. I quilted it in a spiral in the most gorgeous variegated Aurifil 40wt (no. 4654) which is a perfect match to the green solids in the centre. My spiral is pretty wobbly and there are a few jumps but all in all I love it. I did learn the hard way, though, that I should have gone the other way. Ah, you live and learn. This will definitely not be the last time I’m quilting in a spiral.

The back of the cushion is a shirt of my Dad’s which I kept after he died almost three years ago. I wanted to make a cushion or quilt for Little Miss Bossy-Boots to remember him by. However, when I saw how well it matched Athea Spring I decided to use it for this. I still have the back and sleeves of the shirt for a different project.

Baba's ShirtThis was the quickest cushion back in the history of cushion backs and I wish I had kept a few more of his shirts.

I’ll be back tomorrow with an update on the EPP mini for Karie and, if you’re reading this Andrea, a tutorial for my Modern Churn Dash quilt at the beginning of next week.

 

 

Categories: English Paper Piecing, Finish-A-Long2 Comments

A Little ‘Thank You’

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I told you about the mini that I was giving away on Instagram in this blog post. In it I also told you about Karie who helped me get to the last three followers by posting about my giveaway to all her followers. Well, I decided to make her a mini quilt as a ‘thank you’ for her help.

This is how far I’ve gotten:

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Only two more rounds and then I can appliqué it onto a background, quilt it and bind it.

I really love making these EPP patterns and I like making minis and cushions but my next plan is to make a big quilt with various designs in various sizes. It’s been floating around in my head for a while and I now need to grab my iPad and turn these ideas into patterns. I get a real buzz with every new idea so you can imagine how excited I am at this project. A couple of WIPs to finish first and I’ll be able to start. I’ll make sure to show you the progress.

TTFN (ta ta for now)!

Categories: English Paper Piecing, Quilting1 Comment

Cover Me!

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You might remember my FAL list which was as long as my arm and maybe even a little longer. Fifteen projects were on there and today I’ve been able to cross off number five.

Sewing Machine CoverThis EPP block has been mooching about for quite a while. Once I finished it (btw, the templates are here if you’re interested In The Woods) Little Miss Bossy-Boots wanted me to make it into a quilt for her dolls while I wanted to use it as a pocket on a tote. In the end it landed in my enormous pile of WIPs. Thanks to the FAL list, I knew I had to make something with it and when I saw how well it went with my little thread catcher I decided to turn it into a sewing machine cover.

I added some Pearl Bracelets around the block and for the back, lined it with a bright blue solid from Ikea and sewed on some ties for the sides. Some very basic straight line quilting made sure that everything stayed where it was supposed to.

I encountered one little problem which are my thread holder thingies (I’m sure there must be a technical term for them but I can’t remember…). The hard cover that came with the machine pushes them down but as soon as you take it off, they spring up. The fabric cover isn’t heavy enough to push them down so I drew two circles on the cover and sewed around them four times.

HolesI’m really pleased that I’ve finally made a sewing machine cover and have been able to use an orphan block for it.

 

 

Categories: English Paper Piecing, Home ProjectsLeave a comment

A Mini Mini

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I just wanted to show you the finished mini I’m giving away over on Instagram (I’m Lemonshark if you’d like to try your luck).

MiniThis little mini was designed and made for the giveaway. I used some of my all time favourite scraps, such as Flea Market Fancy by Denyse Schmidt, Architextures by Carolyn Friedlander, Summersville by Lu Summers and some Tula Pink. You can’t go wrong with Tula Pink. The whole thing was pieced and quilted in Aurifil 50wt (no 2600, my favourite). For the quilting I did some stitching in the ditch and echoing as the quilt is busy enough as it is.

It was appliquéd on some grey Essex linen and bound with more of the yummy Tula Pink print I used. This mini mini finishes at 13,5″ and I’m in love with it. It’s going to be a little difficult to give it away but a promise is a promise.

I’m thinking of putting the templates for this mini up on the blog. This will then be the last pattern on here as I’m going to open a shop on Craftsy.

 

Categories: English Paper Piecing, Quilts1 Comment

I Follow, You Follow, We Follow

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Last Saturday I noticed that I had 297 followers on Instagram (I’m lemonshark on there). I love Instagram because you can easily upload a picture of what you’re working on and get feedback from likeminded people. Anyway, I posted a picture of this number and said I was going to organise a giveaway of an EPP mini once I reached the magic number of 300.

Instagram

Imagine my surprise when I was tagged by Karie (karietkq on Instagram) who had posted a collage of some of my EPP designs and suggested to her followers that they should follow me. Within half an hour I had ten more followers and by the end of the day 46!

So I sat down and designed this mini:Giveaway Mini

So far I’ve done the first round and I’m in love with it. I really hope that people will like it too and enter my giveaway. It has some of my favourite designers and fabrics in it, Tula Pink, Denyse Schmidt, Carolyn Friedlander and, of course, some Kona solids and I’m hoping to have it finished by the end of the week. If you like it and would like a chance to win it you’ll have to hop on Instagram and follow me…

EPP Giveaway Mini

Categories: English Paper Piecing2 Comments

Fly, Butterfly, Fly!

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This little butterfly was designed with one specific task in mind: to use up even my smallest scraps of Liberty Tana lawn.

ButterflyThe butterfly finishes at about 9″ x 12″ when printed out at 100%. For my purpose, however, I printed it out at 75% as I wanted to make sure I could use up even the tiniest of those blue and green scraps. The antennae are free motion quilted in a variegated Aurifil 40wt (no 4669) which I bought to quilt my Churn Dash quilt. The butterfly itself was pieced with Aurifil 50wt (no 2000) which is a perfect match to many of the Liberty lawns. I appliquéd it onto a red cotton/linen fabric that I’ve had in my stash for a few years. I auditioned different colours for the background but found it nicest on the red. Funnily enough, when I popped it onto some white, the butterfly looked really washed out.

All of the Liberty lawns came from Ali’s shop Very Berry Fabrics on Folksy and I already have plans to buy more (don’t tell my bank account, I can already hear it groan) as Ali sent me some scraps with my last order and I’ve completely fallen in love with one of them. Sadly she doesn’t seem to have any in her shop at the moment but you can be sure that I will be stalking her in the next few weeks.

This is my third finish for Q1 of the FAL and I’m very happy about that. I really would like to make one of these butterflies in solids as I think it would look stunning in a rainbow of colours too but I’m going to be good and continue with my list before starting something new.

So far, I’ve made my EPP patterns available for free and I want to do this with my last two, Butterfly and Liberty Bloom, too. They just need a little more work before I can upload them to the blog. Hopefully, they should be done by the end of this week. Afterwards, however, I’m thinking of opening a shop on Craftsy or Etsy and asking for a small contribution for my patterns. What do you think? Would you pay a couple of pounds for my EPP patterns?

 

Categories: English Paper Piecing4 Comments

Liberty Bloom

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I’ve finished my Doll Quilt Swap 14 mini quilt and I’m really very happy with it.

The only thing I’m a little disappointed with is that I couldn’t do more quilting on it. Once I’d finished stitching in the ditch around the ‘bloom’ and the linen pieces my back gave out to me. I realised that I wouldn’t be able to sit at the machine much longer and therefore simply echo quilted around the bloom a few times. I quite like the simplicity of it, it really lets the fabrics do the talking.

Liberty Bloom

The mini’s progress was stalled when I ran out of Liberty scraps that were big enough to finish the last few pieces. I ordered a mini bundle from Ali’s shop Very Berry Fabrics on Folksy and it arrived promptly a couple of days later. Thank you so much, Ali, for such quick service!

The Liberty Bloom is pieced and quilted with Aurifil 50wt, my favourite thread of all times.  It finishes at 19″ x 19″ and has a scrappy Liberty binding which I am very partial to. I just hope my partner loves Liberty Bloom as much as I do.

Scrappy Liberty Binding

The pattern for this mini will be added to my tutorials once my partner has received it as I’ve named it after her. I don’t think she reads my blog but it’s better to be safe than sorry and I don’t want to spoil the surprise for her. One of the fun things about theses swaps is that you don’t know what you’re going to get until you hold the package in your hands.

This was another projects on my FAL list and I’m so happy to be able to cross it off.

Categories: Doll Quilt Swap 14, English Paper Piecing, Quilting5 Comments

It’s Almost Time

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Fat Quarterly Retreat 2013 is almost upon us and I’m joining in with the linky party here.

My name is Elisabeth and I live in a small village in lovely Cambridgeshire, England. I won’t be here for much longer though as I’m moving back to Switzerland in August. I usually look like this:Me, myself and I

(although I’m hoping to get a visit to the hairdresser’s in before FQR) and will be wearing this:

Name Tag by Leanne (She Can Quilt)

My fabulous name tag was made by the incredibly talented Leanne from She Can Quilt. She’s one of my quilting heroines so you can imagine how it feels to have a name tag made by her. That foundation paper pieced ‘e’ is 1″ square!

I’ve been sewing since I was a girl but only started quilting a couple of years ago. So far I’ve only made one quilt, although two are now ready to be basted and quilted in the next few days. However, I have made quite a few mini quilts and cushion covers. My favourite is hand sewing and I love drawing and sewing my own English Paper Piecing patterns. There are a couple of free patterns on the tutorials page if you are interested and I’m working on two more which will hopefully be added soon.

I also make bags. This one was made especially for the retreat with some Boho for Moda mini charms although I’m now in quandary as it doesn’t go with any of my coats or cardigans. I might just have to make another one…

Boho Bag

My classes are: Improv with Lu Summers, English Paper Piecing curves with Julianna and Joanna, Flexi purses with Tacha Bruecher and Hand Quilting with Mandy. I’ve got all my materials ready (except for quilting needles and embroidery floss) and have put my name on my mat, ruler and rotary cutter. Oh yes, I’m ready.

Categories: Fat Quarterly Sewing Retreat10 Comments