BossyOz

 I really enjoyed creating the pattern for the foundation paper pieced logo for UK Quilters United, so much so that I wanted to create some more FPP patterns. Trying to come up with an idea, which also forced me to have a deadline, I started thinking about the festivities coming up. I realised I was too late to make something for Valentine’s Day and St Patrick’s Day is not really celebrated at my place (although it is at work), so the next holiday that sprung to my mind was Easter. Thinking about the festivities coming up, I realised I was too late to make something for Valentine's Day. St Patrick's Day is not really celebrated at my place (although it is at work), so the next holiday is Easter. After doing a search on Google and Pinterest, I realised that there were no great patterns available for eggs. There are loads of patterns for chickens and bunnies readily available, but alas no eggs, unless you like to appliqué them. Bring on the challenge! After a bit of drafti...

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,...

Hazel the Hedgehog, Sweet Succulents and Cat Vent minis

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...

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! 

Having had a break from quilting bees for a while, I volunteered as an angel block maker for the Siblings Together Bee 4 which started at the end of this year. These are some of the ones I made.

Back in 2015 I was part of the Scandibee Quilting Bee. For my month, I asked everyone to make me houses for Scandibee Road. Since then I have had many, many ideas on how to assemble the quilt, but not yet sewn it all together. This year I made a few more houses, as part of a block of the month in UK Quilters United, and also quite a few trees.