I absolutely had to order more Melody for the hexies quilt (actually for the second one I'm making for me so that I can bear to give the other one up!). However the new Ruby Star Polka Dot is hard to come by in the UK. So I had to look east. Miss Matatabi on Etsy has a fabulous range of Melody Miller and other fabrics that she sends out from Japan.
Ordered on Saturday, arrived today. I couldn't resist opening them at work!
Don't forget there's still time to enter the giveaway.
I can't believe it's September already! With one thing and another August was a busy month sewing wise, with wedding outfits, finishing projects and starting new ones. So here goes....
A family wedding mid-month prompted a flurry of stitching with a new frock, two new purses (1 for each outfit I had to choose between), and a tie for the other half made from my hoarded Birds and the Bees by Tula Pink.
Then there was the wall hanging I'm mid-way through for one of my sisters. She wanted a beach scene, so I drew on the improv teachings from Lu Summers at the Fat Quarterly Retreat and made this up, using Kona solids and all pieced with Aurifil 50wt - my new favourite thread now I know how to stop my machine rejecting it!
While I'm waiting on spray baste for that one, and deciding on a backing, I got going on the quilt for another sister (yep, we're never ending!) this time made from Melody Miller's various Ruby Star collections. I've been wrestling with the best way to display her fantastic designs with the huge motifs and eventually decided on super-size hexes. Photos of this on Instagram lead to my most exciting quilt related experience when Melody herself commented how much she loved it!
And last but not least is Fairground Attraction, my mini quilt made from the Triangle City EPP block I started with Katy Jones at FQR, in Mirror dots, and posted today on the Aurifil Facebook page and tweeted by Alex Veronelli himself! What a weekend! Thanks to Kelly at Jeliquilts for letting me know it was up there along with her fabulous Rainbow quilt.
Last but not least, I currently have a giveaway running in conjunction with The VIllage Haberdashery, so just click here for more details.
Linking up with Lynne over on Lily's Quilts for the Fresh Sewing Day. And by the way, according to Aurifil, this month is National Sewing Month, so let's do it proud!
Today I've got one of my favourite finishes to show you, and a giveaway from Annie at The Village Haberdashery to help me celebrate it.
Back in July I had a great time at the second Fat Quarterly Retreat. Due to circumstances, I was very late booking, but was lucky enough to still be able to sneak places on some fantastic classes, including Katy Jones' Triangle City EPP.
Now, after a cushion made in my teenage years, I've had a very strong aversion to EPP and hexagons, but I thought if anyone was the girl to get me over that, it was Katy. (Actually, I thought the HST class I went to in April was such a giggle, it would be worth suffering through EPP, 'cos Katy would be a blast!)
So I precut the fabric ready before the class - my policy of only using stash fabrics for the retreat lead me to choose Michael Miller's Mirror Ball Dots, and I was therefore determined to finish it after Retreat.
Initially I made some false starts and nearly gave up. Then it got christened Radioactive Porn Star for some fairly obvious reasons, so a rethink was in order, and I nearly gave up again. But I recut the triangles and in a rainbow state of mind off I set again.
And here is the finished EPP. It reminded me of the lights on fairground rides or roller coasters, hence it's new name of Fairground Attraction.
I decided it needed a plain rich coloured backing, and navy blue won over purple. I quilted it by stitching in the ditch with Aurifil 50wt in white, and then echo quilted it with some navy blue Gutermann thread I happened to have lying around.
To bind it, I used scraps of the Mirror Ball fabric in the same colours as I used in the Triangle City block.
And here's the giveaway part - Annie's has very generously offered a FQ bundle of Mirror Ball dots to one lucky winner! Now some might call this planning, but by coincidence Katy featured these fabrics on her blog today too.
You have three chances to win:
1) follow my blog and leave me a comment telling me you've done so.
2) sign up for Annie's newsletter on the shop website and then leave me a comment telling me you've done so. (Click here for an image of where to subscribe)
3) tweet, blog or Facebook a link to the giveaway and then leave me a comment telling me you've done so. (I'm @Pennie_J_H on twitter)
I'll leave the giveaway open for a week and draw the winner on Sunday 8th September. Good luck!
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