Blueberry Park Makes 4...

September Instagram's #blueberryparkmakes

Wow that came around quickly! It seems like everyone has rediscovered creative time with the kids going back to school n all!

It has been another month of wonderful makes ~ man you lot are so creative!

As ever I can only choose 4 so September's favourite 4 Instagram pics with the hashtag blueberryparkmakes are as follows...

clockwise from top left...

@themessynest ~ Cuter than cute row of pips on Jen's apple block...check out Jen's other apple blocks with Blueberry park centres...

@theochiltree ~ the most stunning log cabin block EVER...and check out Nikki's feed to see what she did with this block...it's awesome!

@sewist53 ~ the ever creative Sue's coffee jug jacket...love it!

@littlecreatable ~ a paper piecing masterpiece by Brie is just too astounding for words. I can't even imagine how incredible this is in person.

Thanks as ever to all of you for lighting up my world with your amazing creations...I can't get enough of them!

a rewarding fat rascal...

it seems as if teaching is what i am supposed to do.

having not taught officially since my middle baby was just 1 (nearly 13 years ago now) it seems to be playing a big part of my life once again.

the screen printing workshops are really taking off and this year i have a series of sewing workshops lined up at the wonderful and inspiring RHS garden, Harlow Carr in Harrogate.

i am going to be teaching several workshops throughout the year, from pretty screen printed napkins to piped cushions and the first of which on sat 9 march where i will be teaching how to make a patchwork zippered pouch and tote bag.

so if you fancy coming along to this fantastic venue to learn some new skills or simply to have fun sewing in a wonderful environment  please do join me. all details are on the website - just click on the link here and then click on 2013 Guide under Courses and Workshop Guides on the right hand side. my courses start on page 30 (creative section) and then all booking details are down on page 38.

the course includes a stroll around the beautiful gardens all in the name of inspiration and i am sure there will even be time for you to nip to the on site Betty's afterwards for a well deserved tea and fat rascal!

the changing of minds...

 So, the Low Volume quilt for our bed has had various transformations while I searched for just the right block design.

You may remember it started life as a Log Cabin on Sunday...

 Early yesterday morning it had morphed into HSTs...

 And before the day was even out it had changed again into straight line piecing cut within an inch of its life. 

I woke up dreaming (yes, literally dreaming) of wonky windmill blocks, having gone to bed wowing at this beauty and finding this ace tutorial.

My Tuesday running buddy was coming round at 8.30 so I was hard pushed to do a trial block before then....I am seriously my own worst enemy.

That said, I am now 100% sure (yeah, right, until the next change of plan) that this is the block I am going to use. 

The log cabin would have been too busy, even if it is Low Volume...

the HST gorgeous, but too full-on for a king sized bed (yes, Charlotte, you were right...I do listen)...

as for the straight line piecing, I have no idea where that one was going.

I'm hoping the wonky windmills will be easy on the eye, be as asymmetric and random as I like and still be the one I love when it eventually gets onto the bed.

Now I have made a decision this will now have to be put on a shelf high up out of temptations way. I have a lot on. And I mean a lot. And if I'm good I'll let myself bring it down and do a few blocks for a while.

Ooh I'm so strict.

Summer of the Simpatico...

September already? Wow where did the summer go?

Amazingly for once I actually got a summer project finished. Well, if you exclude the fact that it isn't actually made into anything, but a completed thing none-the-less.

Summer 2012 will definitely be remembered as Summer of the Simpatico. I did a tutorial of my fold-over pouches for The Daily Stitch - Annie of The Village Haberdashery's blog in Simpatico and I had such a summery, fresh making time with them that I decided that I was going to use the collection for my summer of hexie fun. We spent a lot of time in the car this summer - London for the Olympics, Bristol for family birthdays, mid France via London (again) and Paris. I was in need of a good hand stitching project that could be done on the move as well as picked up in a shady place.

Perfect!

 I am not 100% sure what it will become - possibly a wall hanging, possibly a cushion, but definitely not a quilt! I really really loved sewing these little hexies (just over 1" across!) and loved sewing them together too, but the reality of now the summer is over that it will stay in a corner with all the other "i've-started-but-goodness-knows-when-i'll-ever-finish-it" projects is making me realise that I need to stop here.

Also, to be honest, I'm a tad disappointed with how I've pieced it. The flowers (top pic)  were so lovely when sewn individually but when I began piecing together they all got lost together and looks rather random instead. If I wasn't away and impatient about not wanting to wait to come home and finish (besides, we had a 600 mile journey - I needed some hexie-ness) I would probably have pieced the flowers with solids between so they would show up better. I may trying embroidering in coordinating floss around each flower. They may stand out a little clearer.

Either way Summer of the Simpatico was a very enjoyable one.

Now we are back I have started on the next project. This one may take a while. I have been wanting to make a quilt for our bed for a couple of years. I even started some blocks last year but I was never that enamoured and now I've gone right off them - too much yellow. Yes, you did here correctly. The wallpaper in our room is rather bold and I think what is needed is something a little more easy on the eye. I've been drawn to all the Low Volume creating going on at the moment and thought this was the way to go here. I am also tying my hands behind my back and not including any yellow but a little splash of red. You may remember the gorgeous pillow my lovely friend Kylie sent me at the beginning of this year. The splash of coral red works so beautifully in the room. I am not entirely sure where this quilt is going or where it will end up, but here is the start of Block 1.

I hope you have had a good creative summer (month for you Southern hemisphere peeps) and do link up to Lynne's Fresh sewing Day if you want to see what other people have been up to.

I don't know about you, but I occasionally get what I think are spam comments on my Flickr pics.

I mean, congratulating me on Explore...isn't that for, like, AMAZING shots.

Well, thanks to Lynne for putting me straight that apparently I have been on Explore and so they are legit Congrats AND what's more I've been on 11 times!

I am seriously over-whelmed, amazed, flattered that some of my pics have been picked out, for whatever reason and caught someone's eye, so THANK YOU, Mr (Ms) Explorer Dude for liking me enough to do just that.

And here for you are my 11 Explorer Stars...

1. log cabin olivia, 2. triangle mania 1, 3. brit pillow swap ..., 4. Pillow swap pillow, 5. Pillow Swap...getting there, 6. Pretty Little Pouch Swap Goodies, 7. Pretty Pouch Swap idea, 8. bird cushion 1, 9. 014, 10. 011, 11. hand2b

It's dead easy to see if you have any too (thanks to a quick lesson from Lynne...) simply go to Big Huge Labs Scout. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised ;-)

I was pleased with the outcome of the Wedding Cushion and thank you to those that liked it too, but I think this one was borne out of the antidote to the more sophisticated feel of that. Without realising it at the time, I obviously found it quite sombre. And even before I had finished completing it into a cushion, I had already pulled out all these bright, fun dots, lining them up ready to be "log-cabined".

It could have been as a result of that, or equally a result of my sombre mood of last week. Either way I feel lifted to have been sewing this bright array of spotty dotties this morning.

It will be all cushioned up and in the shop asap. And long may the summery weather and mood continue until the distant future...

After the adivce from some of you, coupled with the fact that I find it hard to go back on an idea I have, I went ahead with the red/gold these for the cushion. Whilst I get carried away with an idea and find it difficult to do a U-turn once, I've started, I'm the first to admit I may have made a mistake and will happily start again from scratch.

However, as the log cabin took shape, I was liking the combination more and more. The inclusion of the limited edition Liberty really pulled together the whole piece. And bringing in a touch of green with it made the contrast with the 2 colours less stark.

I'm not entirely sure that there would be a place in my house for such a combination, but I am more than happy about the end result and think the couple (hopefully) will be more than happy with it.

In the meantime, I've already cut out a fun combo of fabrics that I am rather excited to see how they piece together. Watch this space...

After my new found love of making Log Cabins, my mind has been running over time on how to develop these further. This always happens to me...when I discover something new (to me) I am all consumed by it and can't think of anything else.

Consequently, even tho we are snowed under with BM plans, my mind was obsessing with log cabins and all the developments I want to do and I wasn't going to settle until I'd tried some of them out.

One of the things I have been thinking is how to incorporate log cabins with some personalising.

Again, as with the first, I got out a pile of my favourite fabrics and began to play. I use alot of hand screen-printed fabrics with my work. I love the added texture that they give and the rawness they exude. I am a big fan of the large posse of Australian designers that design and produce fantastic hand-printed fabrics and always want to use these wherever possible. They don't come cheap, but a little goes a long way, I think and in something like a log cabin you really don't need a large amount.

My starting point of part of an Auntie Cookie panel was a definite in my head before I'd even found it in my stash. It had this project written all over it. I love seeing pictures in log cabins (hence the birds on a wire in my first). I feel it adds a story to them.

Another obvious choice for this piece was from another of my favourite screen-printed fabric designers from the wonderful Lu Summers of Summersville designs. Her designs are perfect for log cabins as they tend to be small scale, so lots of detail. Lu also tends to use one colour, so again, not too clashing when using a variety of fabrics.

I haven't quite decided whether this is going to be the beginnings of an idea for a quilt, or cushions, or kept to wall-hangings. But for now I was eating into too much BM time and a little wall-hanging for Ruby was where it had to stay...despite the fact that Ruby wasn't best pleased that I had to miss the final 'h' off Shoshanah because I'd run out of room...she thought I'd spelt her name wrong!

Last night I had a 5 minute flick through one of my crafting books, whilst waiting for the kettle to boil...as you do...and was inspired by one of the projects of a log cabin quilt.

I've flicked through this book umpteen times and seen numerous log cabin cushions and quilts. Whilst I've loved looking at them I've never considered making one. Sometimes you just have to wait for the right moment to be inspired.

It seems that this was the right moment because as soon, as I saw this particular one, I had a light-bulb moment of wanting to make one and I couldn't get to bed fast enough so that it would be morning quickly and I could get going!

I've been wanting to do some more cushions for the living room. Bigger ones this time, so this seemed perfect. For those that haven't made a log cabin before, I can not tell you how wonderful they are to do. For those that have, you know exactly what I mean. From choosing the fabrics, to cutting the strips, to piecing it all out and seeing it grow is such a joy.

Because I was loving seeing it grow so much, I couldn't stop! I got to the size of a largish cushion that I wanted, but I just couldn't stop there. So it is no longer a cushion...but a wall-hanging.

I am now buzzing with ideas for more log cabin pieces, so I think that cushion will come eventually.