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/

Hair scrunchies With girls around, it seems that one can never have too many hair scrunchies! They are super easy to make with jelly roll strips and some elastics! ( Instructions on UK Quilters United ) Odds & sods bags Perfect little bag for storing some nappies, wet wipes, spare set of clothes and a small cuddly toy. You can make these fully reversible bags with two Fat Quarters. ( Instructions on UK Quilters United ) Art work display To avoid making wholes in the walls in our rental space, I made this art work display by using some hand printed charm squares. Once folded in half and sewn together, I filled them with dried yellow peas. ( Instructions on UK Quilters United )

I love reading and I always like to try new types of books, as well as new authors. As a result of this  I started a BOOK CLUB for QUILTERS, back in 2018. During a few months, when I was too busy, another quilter stepped in and selected the books, but I have been back selecting books for a while now.  Every month a quilting related book is selected and posted on our website, ukqu.co.uk , around the 20th of the month before. This is to allow everyone plenty of time to get hold of the books as sometimes they are only available second hand. There are quite a few prolific quilting novel writers with Jennifer Chiaverini probably the most well-known. We have only picked one of her books for the book club, as there are so many others who are less well known.  During the last two years we have read books by a wide variety of authors. The complete list is below; The Last Runaway  by  Tracy Chevalier  ( info ) Sew Deadly  by  Elizabeth Lynn Casey...

The reproduction of the first book by and about UK Quilters United is now available on Amazon. Three formats are available; Kindle (text only) Paperback (text only) Paperback (full colour version including images and pattern)

Did you know that there is a book about UK Quilters United? Yes, it is true. There is a book about us! Amazon Kindle and Paperback versions Three years ago Julie Passey, one of our Facebook members, together with over 100 writers created a book by and about UK Quilters United. A limited print run of only 100 copies were created and sold to members for them to keep or to be given away as gifts to likeminded people. The original book cover It is absolutely amazing that the original Facebook group has grown from two complete strangers (Juliet and Nina) to well over 15,000 members, not to forget that we also have an incredible website since a year back, thanks to Sylvia! With an aim to try to document the journey UK Quilters United has been on, we are currently in the planning phase of a new book. To give more people a chance to read the original stories and to encourage everyone to contribute a story to our second book, Julie has kindly given us permission to reprodu...

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 ...

If you have been really bored, you may have found out that a typical football consists of 20 hexagons and 12 pentagons. I say ‘typical’ football, as the older ones were made up of rectangular-ish shapes and the latest one used for the World Cup is actually made up of six cleverly interlinked panels. But this make is for a ball consisting of hexagons and pentagons. Lots of left-over hexagons? I believe there are many like me, who have lots of basted hexagons not yet used in a project. Find 20 of them, measure the side and create 12 pentagons to match. Add toy stuffing and you can make a football. For this particular ball, the recipient decided she wanted to be able to hang it on her bag; hence we added a ribbon when sewing the shapes together. I found that you can turn and stuff the football through just one of the pentagons (1 inch sides). Free pattern Head over to my shop to download the free template and brief instructions. The PDF file includes the full set o...

= = =   Currently £4   = = = Almost seven years ago, I posted a tutorial of sorts, showing how you can make your own customised footmuff (also known as cosytoe, bunting bag, pushchair bag, etc). It has by far been my most popular post, attracting over 50k hits. After receiving a request to contribute to the Baby Feature (#babyfeatureUKQU) on the UKQU website , I have now updated the tutorial and turned it into a downloadable PDF pattern with images explaining the various steps of the process. As usual, it has taken longer to get the pattern and tutorial written up than actually making the item itself! Feedback on  my original tutorial  can be found in the comments section on the original post. Get your copy of the pattern To make your own customised footmuff, please head over to my UKQU shop ; whilst you are there, don’t miss the opportunity to also download some of my free patterns to make the UKQU logo (appliqué and FPP); just make sure you cli...

Having followed Jenny Haynes of Papper, Sax, Sten since she started out in earnest in the United Kingdom, I was more than excited to be given a set of her acrylic templates and some luscious Oakshott fabrics. I was less excited when I realised which pattern she wanted me to use…. Curves always fill me with dread, although as you’ll see below, it’s not that difficult once you let go! The pattern  The pattern is a sun flower made up of various drunkard’s path blocks (CURVES!!!!), all combined in a clever way to create a flower and various leaves. The pattern instructions are very well set out; with step by step written instructions and supporting images to take you through the various steps. If you are following the colours set out in the pattern, the main challenge is going to be to ensure the colours go in the right place! The templates  The templates come in a few different sizes, but the ones used for this pattern ensure you can get both a convex and a concave...

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.

At the beginning of January 2018, we launched a website for UK Quilters United. Lots of hard work had been done in the background for a very long time. One of the rules in all the UKQU Facebook groups, since the start four years ago, has been that we do not allow any self-promotion or advertising, and there is a strict no-selling rule (except one of the groups which allow personal de-stashing of quilting related items). Many of our members are also shop owners and they have been asking us to allow them to sell / advertise. The website is our response to this. At the moment we have nine main categories, with more to come as we have the chance to develop it. For most of the sections, the content is provided by volunteers, doing it all for free, or in exchange for some freebie which they product test or write a review about. As one of the founders of the UK Quilters United Facebook group, I am contributing to the website when I can. So far it has mainly been in the background,...

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...

Yep, I've gone mad... The Instagram swap has not yet fully finished before I kick off another swap, this time Facebook based. When sign-up closed yesterday evening 104 swappers had signed up. Everyone has now been allocated a partner to make for and the emails with all details should be sent out today or tomorrow.

Are you a quilter living in, or strongly connected with, the United Kingdom? If so, you may like to join UK Quilters United on Facebook ( link ). We are currently over 150 members sharing progress, experience, patterns and frustrations online. Our aim is to find friends, local quilters and guilds, share inspiration and knowledge, show pictures of our beautiful work, and join in with our block swop (the first one due by end of June)! No entry exam!!! Just request to join and one of the three admins (Julie, Mo and myself) shall approve your application. Welcome!

Going through my stash, I realised I had quite a few different fabrics with London or United Kingdom related prints. As we are currently living in London, it was apt to make a quilt as a memory.  At the time of making the quilt, I had not yet decided who should have it; therefore I tried to keep it as gender neutral as possible, but throwing in some pink flags in case it was going to a girl.  To tie it all together I added three rows of Union Jacks between the four taller rows of printed fabrics, and used one of the fabrics from the blocks as binding. The back fabric has tiny blue and white stars on a red background. All the yummy colours rolled up. This quilt was long arm quilted by Debbie at  www.longarm-quilting.co.uk .