BossyOz

It is happening!!! A mini swap celebrating the new fabric line Blueberry Park by Karen Lewis Textiles for Robert Kaufman To take part you must be active on Instagram and your account must be public. Please see here for the rules and link to sign-up. We already know that we'll have separate groups for the United Kingdom (Nina), the United States (Karie) and Australia (Michelle). Most likely we'll also add one group for Europe and another one for all other areas. At sign-up you'll be asked where you'll be happy to ship to. We have a few shops offering special rates for all participants. Details to follow! Any suggestions or ideas, please let us know! Instagram #blueberryparkminiswap

Phew, I have just signed off as the host for 52 Quilters, a social experiment in quilty communication. Each week of 2015 a new quilter takes over the account and can more or less post whatever he or she likes. On Instagram, I currently have just over 600 followers, whereas the 52quilters account had almost 3,000 followers. No pressure there! If you have followed the 52quilters account on Instagram you have seen quite a few photographs, whereas Twitter has been a bit more neglected. This is also typically the case for my own online presence. The ease of using Instagram has almost "killed" this blog and definitely my Twitter. It's hard to show quilting in only words and photos are so much easier on Instagram than on a blog. During the week, I posted twelve photos on Instagram and below I'll tell you a bit more about some of them. BossyOz as 52quilters on Instagram Fabric and quilt shops :  I am fortunate to live in London (United Kingdom), which means I hav...

We are coming to an end in the mini swap for the Facebook group UK Quilters United. Over 100 mini quilts are making their way to new homes at the moment. I was very lucky and got my mini early on. It was made by Hilary R based on my love for red-blue-white. She used the Union Jack as a starting point and designed a paper piecing pattern to make this gorgeous mini for me. Look at that centre!! She also kindly sent some goodies, including spare fabric, paper clips and a note pad kit. I am absolutely delighted with the mini and it goes perfectly with the other minis I have received in previous swaps. Once all the other minis have arrived with their new owners, I'll add a collage. In the meantime, go and have a look in UK Quilters United to see them all; and to join in with a great quilting community for mainly UK based quilters. If you are not a member, feel free to request membership. We usually approve requests the same day. If you don't get approved, please l...

Thanks to everyone who signed up for the Easy Swap UK. As part of the sign-up everyone was asked which song they like listening to when sewing. It has been interesting reading all your answers! Please find below the contents of an Easy Swap UK playlist. N.B. Would anyone be able to create this as a proper playlist in Spotify (or some other place where public playlists are possible to create and share for free)??? Please let me know! Please see the first comment, as a playlist is being created!! Spotify public playlist:   https://goo.gl/byoaxY Songs included: 10,000 reasons by Matt Redman All About That Bass Beautiful Day, U2 Bellowhead: New York Girls Black Betty Call me by Blondie Camille O Sullivan" Cher: Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves Easy Silence - Dixie Chicks Ed Sheeran- Kiss Me, Thinking Out Loud and Small Bump Eliza Doolittle - Skinny Genes" Ellie Golding - love me like you do Everyone's Changing - Keane First Aid Kit (lions r...

Sign-up has now closed Back by popular demand! Slightly amended, but still hopefully lots of fun! This time you can select what you'd like to swap. The options are: Mini quilt - 300 to 500 square inches, any shape!!! Zippered pouch - any design but one zip must be at least 12" long.  Tote bag - to fit at least an A4 note book and to have at least one pocket.  To make this a stress free and fun swap, please select the item you are most comfortable making. No matter which item you select to swap, please use quilting techniques to some extent. After all, most of us are quilters. You agree that this is a swap for all abilities and that you are likely to be matched with someone less or more experienced than you. To take part, and to remain in the swap, you commit to being active on Instagram . This includes posting inspiration photos/mosaics, progress photos and commenting on other swapper's pictures. This is a secret swap .  You should not reveal who y...

April was our last month in the Modern Insta Bee, UK Hive 1. Queen Bee was Rosanne. She bravely asked us all to make the Baseball Curves in solids. I guess I wasn't the only one who had looked at all the blocks in the book and slightly dreaded anyone picking this one.... Well, no one did, for eleven months.... I set off making a test block. It got a bit too small, and a bit wonky.... Perhaps I should have ironed the fabrics beforehand... Thanks to Google I found a brilliant tutorial by Fiona at Benidgolioness providing tips on how to get the block perfect.  She has some great pointers and advise. Saying that, I preferred cutting my blocks with the grain line, i.e. as stated in the book. As I didn't have that many "sunglass worthy" colourful solids at home, I went to The Village Haberdashery for some shopping therapy... Once I sussed the block, it was super fun to make. I had quickly made three blocks... Three blocks laid out, didn't make any...

March saw Joanna picking the Mosaic Tiles, a block we hadn't yet made during the past 10 months. It was also one of few in the book (Modern Bee: 13 quilts to make with friends, by Lindsay Conner) without any half square triangles... Joanna asked for them to be made in scrappy beige / cream low volume background with hot pinks and bright oranges for squares. I find it really useful to audition fabric on Instagram before I make the blocks and this was the selection I showed Joanna: As this was a new pattern, I made a test block in red and white.   Cut up and rotated, it looked like this, which means I have another block for my "sampler quilt". Noticing that the block seemed a little bit boring with only three different fabrics, I decided to use quite a few extra fabrics for the proper block for Joanna. This also meant I had lots of extra sub-blocks. In the end I sent Joanna two finished blocks, plus some left over sub blocks.  (Picture from Joanna...