One day I had the brilliant idea of making an ‘archive quilt’ with my Moda fabrics. I thought traditional English paper piecing would be the easiest and most enjoyable method for this long time in the making quilt. One hexagon in every print in every colourway of every fabric collection I ever design. 

And so I eagerly began with my first fabric collection ‘Hearty Good Wishes’ (those whales!) starting with a single hexagon in the centre and am just adding in more rounds as and when I can (mostly when I’m travelling for work).

I love it!

P.S. I am currently four fabric collections behind…

My sincere apologies for the lateness in announcing the winner of the free Moda All Stars ‘All in a Row’ book. The first edition was unfortunately printed in-correctly so rather than send out a faulty book I have waited for the perfect second edition which arrived last week.

So without further ado, the random number generator chose comment number 74. Congratulations Karrie Smith!

Please email me your address and I’ll get your book in the post to you as soon as I can.

Hello and welcome to my day to be splendid!

I’m sure you are all enjoying the Splendid Sampler as much as I am!

Thank you Pat and Jane for creating such a generous and exciting project.

I have been printing the patterns out and waiting until I have a few to make and then treating myself to ‘Splendid Days’. 

I for one, am learning new skills nearly every time I make a block and am definitely realising the importance of ‘best practice’ when cutting and stitching these little pieces and seams.

Starch is my new best friend!

My block is called ‘Flying High’:

My first fabric collection ‘Hearty Good Wishes’ for Moda was inspired by  by my love of the coast in winter with its stormy waves, sea spray, wild salty air and rosy cheeks.

The thrill of seeing my drawings become fabric, thereby achieving a lifelong ambition, shall never be forgotten. It feels a little like these gulls soaring and flying high in the sky- that is to say, simply joyous. Hearty good wishes to you!

‘Flying High’ is made using my fusible applique and free motion sewing technique (tutorial here).

You can of course, use your favourite applique technique but we are only talking about 3 little gulls here so be brave and have a go at something new!

You can find ‘Flying High’ at The Splendid Sampler.

I am really looking forward to seeing all your gulls soaring high without a care in the world!

I must apologise for the delay in announcing the winner of the free copy of ‘All in a Row’ by Martingale. 

Unfortunately the first edition of the book has been recalled due to the number of errors found in it. Martingale are understandably very upset and embarrassed by this but are re-printing the book as we speak and are replacing every faulty copy.

In the meantime I have decided not to send out the copy I have but to wait for the new improved version.

Should you already have a copy of the book a full list of errata can be found for following the links in the above article from Martingale.

I’m sorry for the delay. All will be well soon x 

Welcome to my stop on the Moda all Stars ‘All in a Row’ blog hop!

Lissa Alexander had the brilliant idea of a creating a book full of individual rows designed by the Moda designers which you can use to make your own unique quilts. There truly is a row for everyone here.

All the royalties from the book are going to the No Kid Hungry charity – so you can treat yourself to a copy and do a good deed at the same time.

My ‘row’ partner is Corey Yoder of Little Miss Shabby and I had fun stitching her cute birds!

Hop on over to Corey’s blog to see the row I designed for the book.

You can follow and join in the ‘All in a Row’ fun by looking at #allinarowquiltalong and here on Facebook.

The blog hop details and news of all the fantastic give-aways and fun planned for the quilt-a-long can be found here.

And I have a copy of ‘All in a Row’ to give-away here!

Just leave a comment and keep your fingers crossed your name gets picked!

Calling all cat lovers!

I have a quilt pattern just for you!

Now you can can make your very own jointed, moving cat template and use it to create a unique quilt with cats sitting, playing, prowling or simply lying in the sun all over it.

My quilt has nine cats because they have nine lives (the numbers are included in the pattern too).

How many cats will your quilt have?

The pattern is being launched on Create and Craft TV this Sunday 17th January at 10am and 1pm English time.

During the shows I’ll be demonstrating how to use the jointed template and sharing some of my sewing tips too. It’s always a fun show and I hope you can join me!

Create and Craft TV: Sky 674, Freeview 36, Freesat 813 or Virgin 748

The Cat pattern will also be available in my Etsy shop. 

Hope you like it!

When I was 13 I wanted to be a fashion designer and spent rather a lot of my time creating my portfolio.

I did actually go on to get a degree in Textiles and Fashion, but discovered I was better at designing the cloth than the garment and the rest is history as they say!

I usually have a dressmaking project in my work basket. Just quietly lingering there waiting for some attention, but often being over-looked in favour of my next quilt and work deadline. It never seems to be the right time to dressmake.

But I’d really love a handmade wardrobe! My Pinterest wardrobe is simply stunning!

So, I set myself a little challenge with my Violet blouse (even creating my own hashtag for the purpose!) to #be creative first. I decided to just do the next step of the pattern instructions first thing in the morning before doing anything else.

One day I made the darts, the next I’d do some pressing etc and little by little a blouse began to appear without me really noticing. Progress was still slow but still progress nonetheless.

Everything was going quite well until it was time to add the buttonholes. These worry me. Silly I know, but they do.

Fortunately for me (and my blouse) the lovely Lauren at Guthrie and Ghani came to my rescue and offered to help me make my buttonholes whilst I was with her teaching for a few days.

And she did!

It still took me an embarrassing 64 weeks from buying the pattern and choosing my vintage fabric to finishing my blouse though!

I love to sketch with indigo ink and my trusty fountain pen.

Recently I’ve been drawing little bits and bobs that live in my studio and which happen to catch my eye that day.

P.S. the bunnies are china (not real!)

I’ve been quietly working away on a pair of quilts inspired by a recent trip to the Victoria and Albert Museum (my favourite) and their ‘Fabric of India’ exhibition.

I fell in love with a Kente cloth they had on display. It was very a bold indigo and cream, double woven cloth with very simple and geometric motifs. I started doodling quilt blocks right there and then and came home with two quilts I wanted to make.

Of course, everything looks like a quilt to me (does it you too?)

My quilts will be called Victoria and Albert and I’m making them using all my indigo and cream prints from my Moda fabric collections, so they are scrap friendly!

The patterns for Victoria and Albert will be available in the not too distant future: i.e. when I’ve actually finished them!

This is Albert! He’s actually jelly roll friendly, but of course I made mine scrappy so lots and lots of cutting…

My Betty has been as much help in the studio as ever.