BossyOz

My challenge to myself for 2017 was to try curves in the context of quilting. I have never had any issues with inserting sleeves in jackets or shirts, but never really tried my hand a curves for quilting (except some blocks for Rosanne during Modern Insta Bee). After having a lovely lunch with Jenny of Papper Sax Sten , she convinced me that I could do it! She also provided me with some templates to make it easier. Pretty chuffed that I managed to make this sunflower bag (with more of Jo's fabrics). Later in the year, I attended one of Jenny's classes and made these inset improv circles. The little dot in the bottom left area is glue, which came out with a little bit of water. I am amazed that I have managed to go from a complete beginner, afraid of curves, to this in less a year. In class, I also made these improv quarter circle blocks. Some further improv curves made after the class (sorry about the horribel night time colours in some of the phot...

Less than a year ago I attempted paper piecing for the first time. So far I have paper pieced only that pattern, the Little Hedgehog by Artisania , and the Mail Envelopes from Love Patchwork and Quilting . Both of these I used for my partner in the Schnitzel and Boo mini quilt swap. A few months ago, Lynne at Lily’s Quilts posted a picture on Instagram asking if anyone wanted to make something with fabrics from the Cherie line by Frances Newcombe for Art Gallery Fabrics. There was absolutely no logic to why I put my hand up to create a new paper piecing design. The only reason I can see, is that I have always liked challenges. The fabric line has a few pastel fabrics which I usually are not too keen on, but also a few with grey, white and beige. As I couldn't decide which colours to use and using all of them would be too busy, i n the end, I made two versions. To give you some clues, it involves sewing and cake…. You can find my two mini quilts in the paper piecing...

Hello and welcome to my little corner of the blog world. Physically, I am located close to the river Thames in central London,  Great Britain / United Kingdom. I have called England home for over ten years. Before moving here, I spent most of my time in Sweden, where I was born and went to school. I have also worked shorter periods (less than one year) in Hong Kong, Poland, Latvia, the United States and Brazil. All in all, the Around the World Blog Hop sort of sums me up... First, a huge thank you to Lizzie at Swedish Scrapper  who linked to me. Lizzie and I first "met" during the second Schnitzel and Boo Instagram mini swap earlier this year. I had the privilege of stalking her for a few months whilst I was making her mini. Actually, I made two minis, as the one I loved most was too small according to the swap rules. I fell in love with this little hedgehog mini. This was my first ever attempt at paper piecing. Here's the label on the back on the other mini. ...

IT HAS ARRIVED, it has arrived!!!  After over two weeks in transit, the package has finally arrived in northern Sweden. The recipient is called Elizabeth, or lizziebird as she is known on Flickr. When I got the email revealing my Swap Partner, one of the things which immediately caught my eye, was that she "had a thing for hedgehogs and Totoro".  I didn't have a clue who Totoro was, but with the help of Google I soon found out. He's an incredibly sweet animated Japanese character. My first plan was to make a Totoro mini quilt, but checking her Flickr feed, I realised someone else had beaten me to it.  Instead I settled for a car / window sticker. For the hedgehog I came across a fantastic paper piecing template on Artisania's homepage . I had never  done any paper piecing before, but with an engineer's logic I set off and made a trial version.  After realising I needed to trim and press (a lot) more often, I dug out the nice fabrics. Some...

Everything is wrapped up, postage paid and ready to be dropped in the mail tomorrow! It was great fun putting together, hope you like it Partner!!!

Schnitzel and Boo is hosting a second mini quilt swap! Image from http://www.schnitzelandboo.com Seeing all the photos of everyone's progress filling blogs and Instagram  last year, I was really annoyed I hadn't managed to sign up. This time I was ready and signed up in time. The mission: To make a mini quilt (6"x6" to 24"x24") for someone you may not know, in return someone else is making a mini quilt for you. After sign-up closed, I believe most us (six hundred people!!!!), were eagerly waiting for the email to tell us who we were making the mini for. When the email finally came, THE BIG STALKING begun! Checking out their various profiles on the internet including their photos, their blog, comments on friend's photos, etc, etc. It has been great fun trying to get to know someone's likes and dislikes in a very short time. To make it easier to find everyone participating in the swap, the following two hashtags are used: #schnitzelandboo...

I have joined an online Quilting Bee based on the book " Modern Bee - 13 quilts to make with friends ", by Lindsay Conner. As the first hive in the UK, we kicked off now in May. The first block for us to make is the one called "Painter's Palette". It's a variation on a traditional snowball block, but mixed up a bit. The Queen Bee asked us to have fun and to use bold, bright colours; think sun glasses! She also challenged us a bit and suggested we use pieced snowballs. Go over to The Occasional Quilter and have a look at her bright, fantastic blocks inside the block! This is what I came up with: If you like to follow the progress of the bees, make sure to check out Instagram from time to time. The hashtags in the image above lead you to "my" hive and also the UK hives, as well as the American ones. If you like to join in the fun, there are further hives being created. This morning we were just shy of setting up the second hive an...

This is my entry to the Blogger's Quilt Festival 2013 . UPDATE:  The baby has arrived!!!  Please see end of the post! Presenting the Friendship Star and Tulip Baby Quilt : So why this quilt? First of all I am expecting our third child, it should in fact have arrived a week ago, but it is still hanging on in there. It has now been nick named The Squatter and an eviction order may been served any time now! Secondly, I was sent some really yummy fabrics by one of my online quilting friends which I just HAD to use! So, this was what I started with, all originally cut as 5x5 inch squares. Based on what I had at hand, I sketched out a few different layouts based on quilt blocks I like. The friendship star block is one of my favourites and I knew I wanted to use it. At this stage I had (stupidly) already stitched together the HSTs, so had to make do with what I had. At times it felt like an IQ test... This is what I came up with (excuse the hand drawn sketc...

The third and final of my projects for the book "101 things to do with ribbon" edited by Momtaz Begum-Hossain has been completed! I like how it turned out, mostly down to the lovely fabric and ribbon I was given to work with! More to be revealed in a year when the book is released!

It is done, my second project for the book "101 things to do with xxx" edited by Momtaz Begum-Hossain! This one is useful in the kitchen, especially if preparing food and you are having guests arriving later... More to be revealed in a years time when the book is released!

The first of my three projects for the book "101 things to do with xxx" edited by Momtaz Begum-Hossain has been completed! As it involves blue, red and white it has been great making it during the Olympics period; all very patriotic (if I had been British, that is...)! More to be revealed in a years time when the book is released!

Yepp, it's one of those times of the year again, when I am  not very productive when it comes to sewing (or at least sewing things that are worth sharing with anyone else). Two interesting projects are also in the pipeline, one sewing and one non-sewing related. The sewing one is to contribute to a new book by Momtaz Begum-Hossain , which she is putting together as a follow-up to her " 101 Things To Do With Glitter " (due to be released early this autumn, pre-order on Amazon). I have been asked to create one or two projects for her new book, "101 Things To Do With xxx" (due autumn 2013) and I am really excited!!! The other project which I am working on is setting up my own consultancy, Canny Partners Ltd. The purpose of the company is to help organisations deliver projects, be it bidding, strategy, business planning or any other time defined project. We hope to help companies be more successful, by providing an extra, intelligent and skilled resource to...

Mmmm, I quite liked the challenge over at Quokka Quilts to create a fat quarter bundle with my favourite fabrics at the Fat Quarter Shop . Sounds easy, right? I promise you, it wasn't! When you have "millions of fabrics" to chose from, it's neigh impossible to only select 15, which all has to match with each other for a potential quilt. To limit the choices, I decided to go for a blue theme. Blue is always fresh, it reminds me of holiday and of the sea, it can work for grownups as well as boys and for girls (if adding in e.g. some red). At the time I started the selection there were surprisingly few blue fat quarter bundles. OK, here it is: Such a great marketing move by the guys at the Fat Quarter Shop!!!  Last day for entries in 15 January, but they already have over 300 entries! Wonder how many have created their bundles, and bough some fabric at the same time? Due to the huge interest, the FQS is going to select three (was one) winners who each get 1...

I saw the " Project Run and Play " challenge on one of the blogs that I am following and decided to try to create something for each theme as this should take me slightly outside my comfort zone. The Week 1 challenge, which ended today, was to do a remix of the June bug dress pattern. When I saw the pattern, my first thought was PRINCESS and here is my dress based on the pattern: Unfortunately I missed the deadline for the "sew at home" part of the challenge, but I have still uploaded my design to the Flickr page. Coming week's challenges are: Week 2 - Boy's week Week 3 - sewing through the decades Week 4 - outerwear Week 5 - special occasion / partywear Not sure how much time I'll have going forward, but hopefully I'll be able to make some of the others too, and perhaps even before the deadline...