Popper The Penguin!

This cute little fella popped into my head a while back, and now I can share him with you all!

The remit from Popular Patchwork was a foundation pieced 'winter animal' cushion.  And so Popper was born!

In actual fact, when he first 'grew' on paper he was quite podgy, and so we affectionately named him 'Fat Boy'!!  I think he's been on the mince pies already!

You can find him in the December issue of Popular Patchwork. I hope you like him as much as I do!!

Also this issue is my Giant Log Cabin pattern, which Elizabeth, the editor, made up in beautiful Christmas Fabrics! Isn't it gorgeous, keeping Popper company there on the front cover!

And, the monthly 'Let's Visit' issue features Belfast written by yours truly!!  It was difficult to condense all the wonderful things about Belfast in just a few short paragraphs!

So now you can pppppppppick up a ppppppppppppppenguin in ppppppppppopular pppppppppppatchwork! (sorry, couldn't resist!)

Happy Sewing!

Jude xo

Collaborations!

Most of what I've been sewing lately I can't show you yet!!  So sorry!

There have been a few collaborations ........

Using my Hera to mark out the quilting lines

I can't wait to show you this finished class sample!



And here, I arm-twisted asked my super talented friend to add her stitchery magic to another class sample.

I've also been trying to turn a French General into a Granny!!

Fabrics are Josephine by French General

Geddit? Sadly, this is more shhhhhhhh sewing! So no more details just yet!

Thank you for your patience! Wishing you all happy sewing time this weekend!

Jude xo

Carol Doak is a Genius!

There are a few changes afoot this year in Brit Bee.

Firstly, our precious mate Terri is stepping down for a bit (but as Judith D found out, you never really leave Brit Bee!). 

T Bone - we salute you!

The lovely Di is stepping into the breach, which wasn't a big step for her at all as she was practically a Brit Bee-er already anyways!

Welcome Di! (far right)

This year in Brit Bee we are doing something completely different, and so exciting it will make your toes curl!!

We are going to shamelessly jump on the Medallion band-wagon! 

The 'Clever Ones' in the group have crunched the numbers and logistics of making a medallion design work through the whole group.  This means we start off making our centre block, send it out into the Brit Bee ether, and over a year later we will get back our finished medallion quilt top!  How cool is that!

I love that we will all make a contribution to each others' quilts, be working more from stash, and won't know quite what our finished quilt will look like until it hits the door mat at the end!!

I would love to display my first medallion quilt in my newly decorated front room.  I've taken these fabrics and colours as my inspiration and point of reference, (though the actual fabrics don't have to be used).

From Design Seeds

And using the 'New Jersey' foundation pieced star from this book ....

....I made my centre star and block, ready to pass onto the next person in line!

Unfortunately the colours in this picture aren't very true, but I'm hoping for duck egg greens and teals, creams and taupes, with accents of raspberry red and vintage green.

I really enjoyed foundation piecing this centre star, despite finishing late last night and discovering a wee hole!!! Aagghhh.

But I managed to patch it up, thanked Carol Doak in my head for providing such an ace pattern, and got it swiftly parcelled it up before I found anymore mistakes!!

It will be on its way to you Ceri this week!

Jxo

And the prize for the silliest face goes to .....

.....  my latest group of Beginners!



This lovely bunch of ladies + 1 gent were a joy to teach, eager to learn, and produced wonderful zippered cushions (not all shown).

Well done everyone!  "Keeeeeeeeeeeeep Sewing!"

(The next 'Machine Sewing for Beginners' course starts on 4th September '13)

And here are a few more class finishes from last week.

Foundation Piecing Techniques - cushions made using this template.

Applique Techniques & Cushion course.  Pattern available here.

A huge well done to everyone, for stepping out of your comfort zone and trying some new techniques!  You have done brilliantly and produced beautiful cushions!

And as for me, I managed little bit of sewing today, but don't get your hopes up!



This is the name badge for my secret swap partner in the Fat Quarterly Retreat Name Badge Swap!  Because this person reads my blog (hint hint!) if I showed you even a teeny bit of the front, she would know who it is for!

Sorry, I'll have to keep you in suspense on this one til the end of June when I post it off!

Thank you for all your kind thoughts for my daughter.  Sadly she has been fitted with a new moulded thumb splint (she is now giving a permanent 'thumbs up'!) which she must wear for a further 2 weeks.  This means the school are allowing her to sit her exams at home when the splint is off (yey!) and she can have a week off school while all her classmates sit their exams (yey!).  But it also means no sport for another 2 weeks (boo!).

Foundation Piecing

This is one of the first patchwork techniques I learnt, and it has remained one of my favourites!

I'm so excited to be teaching it next term, and am having fun making up some class samples!

First up, a Circle of Geese cushion, sewn in Mustard and Eggplant Irish Linen!





Next, a smaller sample, showing that foundation piecing can be used in little projects too!



This zippy pouch is 8.5" square, making the Scottie Dog only 4" square!  Isn't he cute! He's from the book 'A Quilter's Ark' by Margaret Rolfe.  I used soft brushed cottons and linen to make the pouch.



There are of course many ways to use this technique, in quilts, cushions, runners, handbags etc.



And I've still to turn Spring Bloom into something!  Another cushion perhaps?  It is 18" square at the moment, but I'm open to suggestions!

Blocked!

I got the foundation piecing finished I was working on yesterday:



The quarter block is by Carol Doak from her book Easy Machine Paper Piecing.  I've put 4 of the blocks together and am calling it Spring Bloom!

This will eventually be turned into one of the samples for a Foundation Piecing class I'm teaching next term.

This week, as part of my 'Design Your Own Quilt' course we'll be making this block:



This block is called 'Celtic Twist' and is one of my favs.  I love the way the rings all interlock when lots of blocks are sewn together:

A Pic Monkey mock-up!

But it looks even more fun done in multi-colours!  I'm thinking of doing this one as a quilt for a family member. If I'm brave enough I might even do each ring a different colour!


I hope you are 'enjoying' the snow.  None here yet, but it is forecast for the weekend! Oh joy!

Tolerance!

Thank you friends for your emails and thoughts of concern for me!

Belfast is an amazing and thriving city, but sadly a small group of people are making it an unpleasant place to live at the moment.

I live about 1 mile from where the trouble has been happening, but thankfully we haven't been directly affected by it, more inconvenienced by the road blocks and traffic delays.  What you are seeing on the news is not widespread nor representative of a predominately peaceful country.

It makes me sad that my local community is at war again!  I have lived through worse, but I was hoping my kids would experience a different reality here in Northern Ireland. I live in hope that one day this divided yet beautiful land will know deep and long lasting peace.

I did manage some sewing and cutting over the weekend, but not much to show for it just yet!

Here's a wee pic of some foundation piecing I'm working on, just so this isn't a photo free post!



And for those of you surrounded by the white stuff, be safe!

Club Tropicana!

...aka Brit Bee - March.

The very lovely Ceri is our 'Miss March' in the Brit Bee.

She would like to have a 'food' themed wallhanging on a large expanse of white wall in her kitchen/diner.  Oh and btw, the blocks have to be paper/foundation pieced.

As I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE foundation piecing, I'm thrilled this month!

I've also been wanting to design my own foundation pieced pattern, and Ceri has given me the nudge I need to have a go.

So after considering some fav foods (cherry pie, hot chocolate with marshmallows!) I've decided on a rather healthy Pineapple (yum!).

Here is my pattern.

A little tricky at the start, but once I got going I figured it out!

And here is the finished block:

I had a little trouble with the plate, and apart from making one or two adjustments as I went along, the pattern worked pretty well!

It was a lot of fun to make!  Thanks Ceri for giving us a great project this month - hope you like it!

A Union Flag Pressie

June is a big birthday month in my family - mine, my youngest daughter's, my nephew, my husband's neice and my brother (as well as a few friends!), not to mention Fathers Day! 

My brother lives in England, and last year I made him this wallhanging (which he calls his blankie!):

He is very patriotic and a big footie supporter which is why I majored on the Union Flag for the design.  (More info on this wallhanging here - you will need to scroll down.)

I used the 4 Twin Sisters foundation pattern for the Union Flag (an enlarged version!) and found it really easy to follow.

This year, I thought I'd make big bro a mug rug for his office, and you guessed it, it's another Union Flag!

 

I used the same pattern for this one, actual size.  

So this will go into the post this week for my brother to enjoy his Guinness coffee & bickies at work.

Not so fishy!!

Lynne from Lily's Quilts very kindly posted a tute on a mug rug called Fishy Piecing.

I always love the look of curved piecing, but don't usually enjoy the process, but I thought I'd have a go anyway:

'This looks nothing like Lynne's' I hear you cry! And you're right!

When I got mine to the stage where the fishy shapes were pieced, I had an overwhelming urge to slice up my fish!  (must have been a bit peckish at the time!).

After slicing through the fish, I swapped the new strips around and pieced them back together with more white stips in between. 

 Some random quilting lines completed my 'not so fishy' mugrug!

I had a lot of fun making this.  Thanks Lynne for the tute.

Mug Rug Madness Week:

As this 10 day period of madness draws to a close, I thought I'd post one more mugrug:

You can see lots more mug rugs on flickr.

For someone special!

You may remember from previous posts that this has been Mug Rug Madness week!  Check out what the Flickr Group has been making this week.

I've been wanting to blog about a Mug Rug I made for a very special friend, but couldn't until I'd given it to her today (she's a follower of my blog!).

My friend Sarah of SewMe is having a love affair with the colour purple this year.  Check out her amazing cushions and quillow in vibrant purples & greens.

She has also recently taken a shine to paper/foundation piecing, so I thought her Mug Rug had to have these key elements: Purple (a must), green & foundation piecing.  So here's what I came up with:

The little house is significant because Sarah is a true homemaker and her house is full of warmth and love.  She has been a huge inspiration and encouragement to me. 

Enjoy my friend!

Sneak Peek at Summer!

I'm currently working on my Summer program of classes (can't say I'm feeling especially summery though looking out at the rain!) and thought you might like a sneak peak of one of the items we'll be making.

Beach huts remind me of where I used to live on the sunny South Coast of England, and I know that bunting is a particular favourite with some class members! 

I designed a foundation pieced pattern for my cute wee huts, which will be a new skill for some to learn. 

Given the unpredictability of our summers, we might well be needing a sunny, summer project to keep us going!