BossyOz

I am eagerly awaiting the Garden Flower Blog Hop quilt top to come back from the longarmer. So far I haven't got any timings, only that it'll be added to the queue when it arrives (which it as according to the Royal Mail tracking).  Free patterns If you'd like to make your own garden flower inspired quilt, please have a look at the following links for free patterns, all compiled by me for UK Quilters United; Improv flowers: https://ukqu.co.uk/ninas-improv-flower-block-gfbh2020/ Foundation paper pieced flowers: https://ukqu.co.uk/ninas-fpp-flower-block-gfbh2020/ Various other blocks: https://ukqu.co.uk/ideas-for-additional-blocks-gfbh2020/ For all patterns in the UKQU Garden Flower Blog Hop series, please visit https://ukqu.co.uk/blocks-of-the-month/the-garden-flowers-blog-hop-2020/

Almost 30 of the volunteer bloggers for the ukqu.co.uk website came together for the first time in real life at the weekend. Many of us have been blogging and 'met' each other online for the last year, but this was the first time most of us met in person.  Fabric Club by Karen Lewis Textiles I decided to focus my weekend on making something with the lovely fabrics I have been sent during the year as a subscriber to the Fabric Club run by Karen of Karen Lewis Textiles . I arrived to the retreat by train (!) and was rather restricted on what I could bring. Luckily one of the other retreat goers offered me to use one of her spare machines, and she even picked me up from the train station close to the venue. Quilters are SUCH great persons!  Not knowing how well the borrowed machine and I would get on, I decided to make free-hand-ish blocks with curves. The machine was a beauty!! I had a very good run and managed to complete a very bright top using most of ...

The amazing hand made pall which she was the driving force behind Hand flower including hexagon Vila i frid / rest in peace

As part of the work with the UKQU website, I was given some Makower Christmas fabrics to make something with - more or less free marketing for Makower and a chance to play with some fabrics for me... I don't often accept 'making something for nothing', but this being the Scandi 2018 range and being allowed to keep the makes, I couldn't resist. With the bright sunlight this weekend it was rather difficult to get great pictures, and one is definitely out of focus.. Head over to  ukqu.co.uk  to see the full article, including a short tutorial on how I made the runner.

Hazel the Hedgehog, Sweet Succulents and Cat Vent minis

My sister bought a new sofa and the parents said it was purple / plum. Not knowing the exact colour I opted for a scrappy cushion cover in various purple and lilac colours. As I had some leftover, I also made three coasters.  By reusing the hardware from lanyards at work (we rebranded and everyone got new lanyards), I made around 50 new lanyards, some of which were donated to charity. DD1 made me proud whilst designing and sewing this LOVE-ly quilt for her little sister's dollies. One of my work colleagues emigrated to the United States and couldn't bring all her fabrics with her.... This is one of the bags I made with the fabrics I got from her. Thanks Jo ! As DD2 already has a large-ish quilt, it was time to make one for DD1. Her favourite colour is yellow, as may may have guessed. It still needs to be quilted, but at least the top is pieced! 

It started with some fabrics.... Carkai (and some Doe) by Carolyn Friedlander for Robert Kaufman Karen Lewis Textiles and Blueberry Park (the latter for Robert Kaufman) ...and inspiration from this mini I made in the Blueberry Park swap (and now famous as featured in Australia's Make Modern Magazine, issue 12) I LOVE how well Karen's and Carolyn's fabrics wrk together. For this quilt I excluded all fabrics with flowers as I wanted a more "masculine" look to it. Having been a regular customer of Karen's including signed up to her fabric club, I still had plenty to chose from. Along the way, there was on casualty.... Testing various layouts in the blue section All sewn together I am trying to decide if I'll add a border, as I did on the mini version, and then this one is going off for longarm quilting. It'll be too much swearing involved if I was to do this one on my own machine.  Links: Karen Lewis Textiles , B...

This was the second mini I made for the Blueberry Park mini swap. Thanks to a very active partner, I got lots of encouragement along the way; she even selected the binding colour for me! I am still amazed how well turquoise, peach and purple work together. Not the colours I would mix personally, but when you get a number of favourite colours from your partner, you have to go for it, haven't you?! Coincidentally, my partner for this was Sandra, ( http://rubylovesred.blogspot.com ) who designed the other pattern I used for this swap. For a while I was tempted to send her the mini based on her own design, but then decided not to. There's still a limited number of minis making their way to their new homes across the groups, but we are very close now. Fingers crossed!

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...

Where has time gone??? It's already June and I haven't yet blogged about the blocks I made for February, March and April in the UK Modern Insta Bee.  Let's see if I can get a few post made today... Here's February! Julie picked the Triple Star by Elena Roscoe of Hot Pink Stitches . To match with Julie's home, she asked us to use black for the background and hot pinks, not too girlie, but more lace and leather. To be on the safe side, I picked out a few pinks from my stash and asked Julie which ones she'd like. Then the cutting commenced.... Layouts were tested... Here's the middle star; there are some seriously small squares... Centre fabrics is by Karen Lewis Textiles . If you haven't seen her screen printed fabrics before, go and have a look at her home page. They are absolutely gorgeous!!! Quite a few seams later, here's the final block! It is a really vibrant block, with very strong pinks against the solid Kona Jet Black. ...

To celebrate that Camilla, one of the members at the Swedish Church in London has been ordained, the "sewing grannies" / stitch and bitch / the sewing club / Syjuntan made her a surprise gift and memento of the event. Those who could contributed a block with a green shirt. I turned them into a wall hanging which we gave to Camilla today. In the Swedish Church, the deacon wears a green shirt, hence the symbolic choice of block and colour.

Gathering ideas for my own month of Queen Bee in the ScandiBee, I pinned a spider web block from Quilters' Cache to our joint Pinterest board. Little did I know, that less than 10 mins later Lizzie was going to pin the same block to the same board!!! Great minds.... For February, Lizzie asked us to make scrappy spider web blocks with a red centre. The tutorial she picked came from  Sewing by Moonlight  and was pretty straight forward. The test square (1 inch) on the template even printed the correct size the first time for me! In my blocks for Lizzie, I have included some of the sport bike fabric by Alexander Henry which I sent her as an extra in the Schnitzel and Boo mini swap last year. The text print from the hedgehog I sent her, is also in one of these blocks. I also used some cute birdies which she had said she loved for the centre, some Karen Lewis prints, Union Jacks, British printed lilies,  Lotta Jansdotter, Katy Jones, Kate Spain, Cath Kidson, Tula Pin...