50 Fat Quarter Makes { bloghop }

50 Fat Quarter Makes: Fifty Sewing Projects Made Using Fat Quarters is the brand new sewing book from the crafty publishing geniuses at F & W Media. Edited by Ame Verso and featuring 50 projects from 11 contributors from all over the bloggerverse and sewing-sphere including moi!

I can't tell you how excited I was to work with some of my most favourite designers such as Jessie Fincham, Jo Avery and Kaye Prince to name a few from the impressive line up. I have heard that the book was in the top 1000 of ALL books on Amazon just a week after its release, super proud moment here at Strawberry Patch!!!

One of the things I most love about this title is that is JUST uses fat quarters as the basis for all of the projects. There are so many of us that are guilty of buying up fat quarters like kids in a penny sweet shop, then they sit in the stash as we have no idea what to do with them! Well, this book will solve that problem. Jam packed with 50 projects, ranging from using just 1 fat quarter right up to 10.

In the book you can find 5 projects from me including an adorable little girls twirly skirt, a satchel bag that would make a great gift outfit when paired with the skirt, a versatile set of nesting bowls, a snuggly soft playmat and a chevron quilt that would make a great first patchwork quilt project. 

All the materials for my projects came from the wonderful Stitch Craft Create, they have such a great selection of fabrics and supplies its really hard not to find something you want!!

I had a great time choosing the fabrics for my projects, of course Tula Pink was bound to feature, I love her bright saturated prints in these nesting bowls. So quick and simple to make, perfect for gifting filled with goodies!

If you fancy a go at patchwork for the first time this simple baby playmat is backed with super snuggly plush fleece and is hand tied so no awkward quilting to overcome! Using just 6 fat quarters its a great introduction to making a quilt. 

Or if you are feeling a little more adventurous, grab 10 fat quarters and make yourself a chevron quilt! Using fabric value to make the design stand out, its a really fun way of experimenting and learning about fabric and how to use it, just be sure to pick 5 darker/heavily saturated prints and 5 light and low volume prints to really make your chevron shout!

I have to say this was my favourite project to make for the book and I am itching to make another chevron quilt, this time from my stash, the piecing is so quick and simple and its a great way to learn how to construct a half square triangle unit if you haven't made one before, the large scale means you will have a quilt in no time with a minimum of piecing.

You can buy 50 Fat Quarter Makes in all good bookshops, or here on the publishers website where you can also buy an e-book version for your tablet or iPad. And of course you buy from Amazon!

You can also find a video tutorial for the gathered skirt, Satchel bag and nesting bowls in my new '3 projects in 30 minutes' film course over on Craft Daily. In the video I will take you through step by step how to make each project so its great if you feel you need a little extra help! While you are there why not take a look at the other video tutorials Craft Daily has to offer, there is something for everyone!

Here is the full schedule for the rest of the blog hop:

Monday 1st June - Jo Avery -  myBearpaw 
Tuesday 2nd June - Liz Betts - BetsyBetts
Wednesday 3rd June - Ali Burdon - VeryBerryHandmade
Thursday 4th June - Jesse Fincham - MessyJesse
Friday 5th June - Louise Horler - SewScrumptious
Monday 8th June - Kevin Kosbab - Feeddog
Tuesday 9th June - Emily Levey - StrawberryPatchRamblings
Wednesday 10th June - Cynthia Shaffer
Thursday 11th June - Kaye Prince - MissPrint
Friday 12th June - Ame Verso - StitchCraftCreate

And I did promise you a little giveaway last week! So I have dived into my stash and come up with a sweet little bundle of goodies for you. There are two pretty fat quarters and enough elastic for you to make your own twirly girls skirt. Of course if you don't have a little girl then you can make whatever you wish with these sweet fat quarters!

All you have to do to enter is be a follower of my blog and comment below to say how you follow. You can have an extra entry for following me on Instagram, Facebook and twitter. One extra entry per type of social media and be sure to leave me an extra comment to say where you follow me for your extra entry!

Please remember if you are a no-reply commenter to leave an email address in the comments so that I can contact you if you are the winner.

I will close the giveaway in a weeks time on June 16 and use a random number generator to draw a winner, good luck!

Me Made May 2015 Roundup

Me made may has come to a close and annoyingly we just seem to be getting the warmer weather I kept hoping for all month! My handmade wardrobe was severely tested by the climatic conditions and I have made a mental note to sew more warm clothing!!

For those who have been living under a rock for the last few years Me Made May is an annual pledge made by many sewists and bloggers to try and wear handmade as much as possible for the month of May, lead by Zoe of 'So, Zo....what do you know?' It is a challenge you make to yourself to wear more handmade than usual, not about panic sewing and expanding the wardrobe by tenfold over the month, although it seems wearing handmade has this exact effect on me and I clocked up 8 new handmade clothing items!

The mosaic below shows almost all of my outfits from the month, I wore handmade every single day but there are a few days that went undocumented. On several says I even managed to wear multiple handmade items!

I thoroughly enjoy wearing handmade, it gives me a sense of pride that I have fashioned the clothing I am wearing, it is always considerably more comfortable than RTW given that it is sewn solely for my body shape and tailored to fit me.

Comfort is always important to me. I work from home and unless I am going out to teach I don't feel I need to dress up, I would much rather be warm and comfortable than smart!

This prompted me to add to my handmade wardrobe in May, finding I had plenty of dresses and skirts but not much leisure wear, I concentrated on knits and jersey, a relatively unexplored area for me. I love the speed I can whip up a raglan on my overlocker now! I now boast a new liberty raglan long sleeve tee and two new sweatshirts, thank you chilly May!

I also turned to the Love at First Stitch book from Tilly Walnes for another Delphine skirt, this time in chambray in anticipation of the warm summer weather (hurry up please sunshine!) and had a go at a new pattern, the Mimi blouse. 

I really love the Mimi, smart and grown up, yet comfortable and there are some great design details. I already have at least one more planned from stash, once I have recovered from the Me Made May whirlwind!!

Dressmaking was my first sewing love, and it will always hold a very special place in my heart. Me Made May is the perfect opportunity to remind myself of that, enjoy old and new items and remember the importance of ethical clothing and savour the simplicity of handmade garments.

I will be back next week to introduce you to a brand new book, that I have contributed too! There is a fantastic blog hop happening right now with all the authors.

Here is the full schedule:
Monday 1st June - Jo Avery -  myBearpaw 
Tuesday 2nd June - Liz Betts - BetsyBetts
Wednesday 3rd June - Ali Burdon - VeryBerryHandmade
Thursday 4th June - Jesse Fincham - MessyJesse
Friday 5th June - Louise Horler - SewScrumptious
Monday 8th June - Kevin Kosbab - Feeddog
Tuesday 9th June - Emily Levey - StrawberryPatchRamblings
Wednesday 10th June - Cynthia Shaffer
Thursday 11th June - Kaye Prince - MissPrint
Friday 12th June - Ame Verso - StitchCraftCreate

Both Ali and Jo are giving away copies of the book on their blogs, hurry over for your chance to win! And I am sure I can come up with a little giveaway for you next week too ;-)

You can buy 50 Fat Quarter Makes in all good bookshops, or here on the publishers website where you can also buy an e-book version for your tablet or iPad. They currently have 40% off all books and ebooks until this Sunday so if you hurry you can get a bargain! And of course you buy from Amazon!