PAT BRAVO "THE MINIS" TOUR

Bravo!

As many of you know I spend hours of my life on Instagram, it's literally the best invention after chocolate, and quilt fabric, ooooooo and David Beckham! It was on one such "research" mission that I came across a post from the super fab Pat Bravo, (if you don't know who she is, Pat design delicious fabrics for Art Gallery Fabrics ) where she basically said 'I have designed two new lines of fabric, I want to give them to you and let you make pretty things, who wants to play?' Uuuuuuuumm me! So I put myself forward along with a large amount of others and kept my fingers crossed.

And as I'm sure you've guessed by the title of this post I was chosen, whoop whoop! In total there are 30 people from around the world who were sent a selection of fat eighths from Dare to be Bold predominantly navy and shades of blue the designs to me look like a modern take on the theme of geometric electro pop, whilst Essenials II  in Blush has a much more feminine, soft vibe to it. You can read all about Pat's idea behind The Mini Tour here.

I practically pounced on the poor Postman every day until my fabrics arrived and I was thrilled to ribbons when I opened the wrapping and found these....

I have to admit that for the first few days I just wandered in an out of my studio stroking them, well come on look how pretty they are!! I wanted to make something that showed off the various designs of the fabric, which in itself was a challenge for me as "modern" is very outside of my comfort zone, I had look in several of the quilt books I have and picked out a few blocks that I thought could work with what I had in mind. I started with the blues and geometrics of Dare but it wasn't going well and just didn't work at all!! I had had an idea for a repeat block that I'd been doodling, so I thought why not try and make this happen?? I got out my graph paper and set about drawing it out, I am a bit old school that way I can't just go straight to the computer but I get there in the end and a few hours later I had Bravo!

I'm not sure if I've mentioned that paper piecing/ foundation piecing is my most favourite thing, bit it is and that was the method I chose to create this mini quilt in. 

There are a couple of points that don't quite match exactly and a few other little niggles I need to work on, but overall I really pleased with how my first ever original block design has worked out.

There are endless possibilities with this block depending on fabric choices and placement, the size of them and the repeat options that can be created, I am really excited about trying these out but for now I am very happy with my little Bravo! who measures 12" square when finished. I added on a border, log cabin style just to finish it off and the backing is simply three panels of prettiness.

I have had such a wonderful time being a part of this Mini Blog Tour, there have been so many talented people involved and such gorgeous things made. If you have missed any of it the full line up is listed at the end of this post, be sure to check them all out and prepared to be inspired. 

Happy Quilting 

Kerry xx

Monday April 25

Laura Piland

Slice of Pi Quilts

Courtney Zadik

The Wholesome Mama

Tuesday April 26

Katie Skoog

The Simple Life Company

Stacey Gibson

Edens Accessories

Wednesday April 27

Amanda Woodruff

A Crafty Fox

Jessica Stewart

Snicker Doodle Stew

Wednesday April 28

 Erin Cox

Why Not Sew

Anjeanette Klinder

Anjeanette K

Friday April 29

Aimee Leptick

The Little Bird Designs

 Sharla Krenzel

Thistle Thicket Studio

Monday May 2

Christine Blessing

Cblessing0

Cat Noonan

Tincat13

Tuesday May 3

Sarah Overton

My Crowded Nest

Jyoti Haeusler
Sewn Modern Crafts

Wednesday May 4

Faith Essenburg

Sarana Ave

Lesley Storts

Storts Market

Thursday May 5

Ellen Ault

Hand Made 3d

Michelle Bartholomew 
Michelle Bartholomew 

Friday May 6

Kate Basti

Katebasti

Kate Lyons

Modern Makerie

Monday May 9

Cindy Guch

Raspberry Sunshine

Name: Lucy

Skinny Malinky Quilts

Tuesday May 10

Marija Vujcic

Marijas Fabricreations

Isabel Kelly

Lamb and Wolfie

Wednesday May 11

Samantha Green

For The Love of Fabric

Tara J Curtis

Tjaye

Thursday May 12

Samantha Dorn

Aqua Paisley Studio

Maja Wlusek

Betyipiernaty

Friday May 13

Jemima Flendt

Tied With a Ribbon

Kerry Smith

Thats Sew Kerry

SWAPS, HOPS AND MINIS

On A Mission

One of my (1000) resolutions this year was to try and be more adventurous and more active in my quilting choices and quilting life. I am so very inspired by so many things and often think I could totally do that, but I get to caught up in the "what if it doesn't work" of it all and let opportunities go by. So in the hope of gaining more confidence and developing my knowledge and skills further I might have gone slightly mad (Kerry Q is currently rolling her eyes in despair of me)and got involved in all of these.......

1. Black and White Mini Swap

This one has been put together by Sharon who can be found as @shoppershaz on Instagram and as the name suggests it is a mini quilt swap with a black and white theme. We have all been issued with a partner and are secretly working on something fab based on their requirements. Above is one of the mosaics I posted to give my partner some ideas of what has caught my eye lately and below are a few ideas I have had design wise, on what I could possibly be making for my swap buddy. 

You can follow my progress and that of all the very talented people involved in my group using #bwqs_blackbeauties or the entire swap project using #blackandwhitequiltswap

2. Color Square Swap

This is my very first swap of this kind, the idea is amazing and I am totally finding as many of these as I can to be involved in!! The process is as follows, a selection of colour options are put to you (usually 3 at a time) you can be involved in 1, 2 or all of the colour options, you need to put forward your fabric choices to be approved before purchasing I am assuming so the swap host can make sure there aren't repeats and that all fabric choices work well together. Once the thumbs up has been given, you need to cut 40 10" squares layer cake style and send them off to the host, in return you get a layer cake sent back to you in the colour or colours you selected to be apart of. Being my first attempt at this kind of swap I only opted for one colour and it was Purple! I chose the fabric below.

This particular swap is being hosted by Briawna of Purple Poppy Quilts although this swap has closed, you can find all the information about it and how to be involved in future there and also by following our progress using #PURPLEsquareswap2, #GREENsquareswap2, or #LOWVOLUMEsquareswap2 and #colorsquareswap

3. Amy Butler Low Volume Mini Swap

I literally squealed when the sign up details for this popped up on my Insta feed, I absolutely LOVE Amy Butler, who doesn't??!! I haven't had a lot of experience with Low Volume so I had to sign up in order to comply with my resolutions!! hee hee hee that's my excuse and I am sticking to it! Again this one is partner based and a secret/surprise so I can't give to much away but it is a mini quilt swap with guidelines of no smaller than 12" squared and no larger than 30" squared. 

There are so many beautiful mini quilts out there that I really struggled to narrow it down, in the end I had to make two inspirational mosaics for my partner to use as a guide, anything off of here will be super fab or an original based on these I truly don't mind. This swap has been put together and hosted by Shanya over at wifemomcreator and Stacie who can be found as @trollbrothersquiltmama on Instagram. You can see how the groups are doing using #amybutlerLVminiswap #teamshanyaABLV 

4. Amaze Me Block Swap 

Using this fantastic book by Natalia Bonner and Kathleen Whiting from Piece And Quilt and their Amaze Me block, we have been tasked with making 15 blocks using white as a background, by the end we will have enough to make a funky modern throw. Below are some examples of the blocks that have been made by the creators.

5. The Minis Blog Tour

I can't say to much about this one just yet but I am so so very flattered and excited to have been chosen to take part in this!! It's all thanks to the ridiculously talented Pat Bravo and 2 of her gorgeous lines for Art Gallery Fabrics 'Dare' and 'Essentials II', the image above is the selection I will be using. Come back on May 13th to find out more.

Well that is just a small sampling of what I am currently getting up to, I am also trying to design 4 original patterns, put together 3 quilts and I've only gone and got myself a small gig as a pattern tester!! (by now Kerry Q has rolled her eyes right out of her head!)

So if anyone has won the Lotto and would like to donate to my cause so I can stop working I'd be super grateful. 

If you are also taking part in any of these swaps I would love to hear from you and see how you are getting on.

Happy Quilting

Kerry xx

STARTS AND FINISHES

Weekend Round-Up

It seems like only last week we had our monthly quilty catch up, but in reality I haven't seen my ladies in 2 months!! I can't believe how quickly that has gone and whilst I haven't been idol they have been stitching up a storm and I am in absolute awe of their talents.

Val has been working on her gorgeous version of Beside The Sea by Lesley Brankin for a little while now and today was the big reveal of the finished piece!

It is absolutely beautiful in the flesh, the amount of thought and detail Val put into her fabric choices really has paid off as has her patience at putting the whole thing together.

Regular readers may have noticed the beach huts! 

They are the same ones that I used in the quilt I made for my dad 2 years ago and the same pattern was used by Sue in a sampler she was making out of Salt Water by Tula Pink.

Speaking of Sue her efforts this week were focused on hand sewing the back binding strips of the gorgeous shabby chic style BOM she has been working on over the last couple of months based on Stonefields by Susan Smith. You can see the start of her journey here but for now lets just soak up the loveliness of all those hours of work.

And just a few more because I really couldn't resist this darling little Owl and The Pussy Cat block

Never one for making things easy Caroline was sewing the binding on her 'simple square' quilt, unfortunately it wasn't a simple square binding and caused all manner of blue smoke to emerge from Caroline's corner. 

That being said, she drafted the pattern herself and the outcome is lovely, looking like an English country garden in purples, blues and greens. 

Which just leaves me..... 

I have made a start on something new, it is in the beginning stages and at the moment is a load of drawings, scribbles and sellotaped pieces of paper but with any luck it is going to end up being a fabulous mini quilt for 1 of the 5 swaps I've got myself into.... oooops!!!

Happy Quilting

Kerry xx

MODERN MAN SAMPLER

Signs of the Zodiac

I have always been fascinated with (well for the 4 years I've been quilting anyway) how people/designers/shop owners can take a variety of different sized blocks and just create sampler quilts?! They all work, the blocks fit together perfectly, each design looks fab on its own but like magic when they all sit together. I have attempted a couple over the last few years: Purple Fairies, Navy Dad, Winter Stars and most recently African Star I wouldn't say I was in any way a professional but practice makes perfect right?? So here we go again....

Regular readers will know I have a real problem with Instagram, I spend hours of my life on there "researching" it was on one such occasion that I came across details of a new BOM that was being started by Diane over at From Blank Pages, I signed up immediately and just couldn't wait for it to get started. I already had my next project in mind, in fact I have actually been 'collecting' block ideas and patterns for this project since before Christmas, most of them 6" or 12" blocks however I was on the hunt for some 18" ones to fit in particular spaces that were as yet unclaimed, Zodiac gave me this option so really it had to be done yes? Yes! 

The details of Zodiac can be found here, and that's all the plugging I am going to do I'm afraid. 

Already having an idea of the direction I needed the design of 'Modern Man' to go in probably wasn't the best way to start because if these blocks don't fit in or throw the rest of them out of sync I'm going to be a bit stuffed but you know me, I love a good challenge! So I began with Pisces and I went the whole hog and jumped in with the 18" block. It's all paper pieced, my most favourite thing and the instructions and pattern pieces are clearly marked and explained, so all in all fairly straight forward, except there is that small problem of choosing fabrics.....

The clue is in the title 'modern man', my first thoughts were for grey, white, black and blue lots and lots of blue, not at all stereotypical! Having had a brief scout around there are plenty of beautiful solids that fit the bill however I've really been struggling to find some nice, modern but manly prints that will work with what I have in mind. I happened to be walking past a charity shop and saw a shirt in the window, the print on the fabric was exactly what I had in mind, a closer inspection revealed the shirt was 100% cotton and 7 shirts later I had Plan B!! #winning

I marked out which fabrics I wanted where.....that really hurt my head and then set about cutting all the fabric pieces I needed for the first block.

Marked out each section and began sewing all the little bits together! I am very lucky to have a small but absolutely beautiful sewing room/studio at home (thank you my love) with a huge window right along one wall, the light is perfect for checking each section will fit on the right place.

A few little bits turned into a piles of A,B and C units

Which in turn become sections of the intended finished block

Once all the sections have been measured ( you need to do this yourself because no measurements are given for cutting fabric) and the fabric cut, the 2 halves of the block comes together fairly quickly

There are a lot of fabric joins and points to get into the final seam of the block but removing all the paper from the seam of each section, helped to ease the bulk and thankfully on completion this one finished up the correct size and shape!!

The same can not be said for this little monster!!

I followed the same process with this block - Aquarius as I did for Pisces, however for love nor money could I get that center to line up!! GGRRRRRRR

They looked so good as quarter sections 

I tried 4 times to unpick and redo the halves to make them a whole, but the fabric started to fray and pull a bit funny, so the end result is a slightly off block which I am hoping will right itself when quilted! I know it will bother me so I'll likely end up redoing it or replacing it with something else, but it will do for now!

If you are also participating in the Zodiac BOM I would love to hear from you and see how you are getting on. If you know of any other BOMs happening get in touch, I can never have enough projects on the go!!

Happy Quilting 

Kerry xx