EPP addiction

It’s been very strange in our household with hubby home recovering from his motorbike accident. All our usual routines have flown out the window and my sewing related to-do list is getting ever longer. I should be busting a gut getting patterns written up but I’ve mainly been distracted by EPP. I couldn’t wait to finish my second Tessellated madness project. Sticking to a more structured fabric layout meant this went together much more quickly than the totally random placement of the original.

Such a summery palette. I found the perfect thread to quilt with in the shape of a yellow variegated Aurifil thread from one of Tula Pink’s collections.

I didn’t want anything too striking to detract from the gorgeous fabrics so this thread was perfect. It melted into the background but added fantastic texture.

It’s a cushion now and has gone to live with Yvonne. This next photo made me smile and perfectly sums up what Yvonne was saying about our tastes yesterday! Non-identical twins 😉

Having finished this project I fully intended to get on with another WIP but I couldn’t resist playing with TouchDraw again. The result of my playing was another new EPP block which I’m calling “Cartwheels” for now. I pulled a rather yummy selection of fabrics from my usual favourite designers, Anna Maria Horner, Tula Pink and Denyse Schmidt…

….then set to work on the block. I’m pretty much in love with this! There are more progress photos over on Instagram. It’s quite a big block as this measures up around 11″.

It’s not going to be long before I can show you the finished article, it’s very addictive! The perfect evening hand sewing project for hiding behind when England are playing in the World Cup!
In other news, I have decided to part with my Ice-cream Dreams quilt and so it now resides in our Etsy Shop.

Catch you soon x

Tessellated madness

My hopes for a less stressful week were denied as it turns out that hubby managed to break a couple of ribs and bruise his lung during his motorbike spill last week. After much to-ing and fro-ing to Drs and the hospital he is now more comfortable and, all being well, on the road to recovery! My deadline sewing projects have been screaming at me from the cutting table but I’ve had to ignore them as I was too tired to concentrate and couldn’t risk bodging them. I couldn’t go all week without sewing though so I cracked on with my Tessellated Madness epp project. Yesterday I squared it up and quilted it with a zingy green Aurifil thread with my usual crazy straight lines.

Here’s a close-up of the quilting:

Then it was a quick job to turn it into a cushion because I clearly don’t have nearly enough of those 😉

I used the most awesome print by Anna Maria Horner for the backing fabric along with a flash of solid to conceal the zip!

For someone who has always detested hand sewing I have done plenty of it this past year! Just look at this little lot:

Spring Carnival, Diamonds, kites and stars, Hexiestars and Tessellated Madness

It’s official I am that crazy patchwork lady! I absolutely love that riot of colour 🙂 Now that I’ve finished this Tessellated Madness cushion I’m slightly miffed that you can’t really see the tessellated design very clearly. So what does any sane person do in this instance?… they start another one of course! I pulled this fabric stack last night with the intention of piecing a more subtle version. There are some of my favourite vintage style prints here in the form of Dream On by Urban Chiks, Nicey Jane by Heather Bailey, Lecien dots and the ever lovely Kei florals that I got from Polkadotteafabrics. Here’s my progress so far:

I’m hoping that the tessellated design will be easier to spot now that I’m using prints consistently throughout the block instead of being scraptastic!

Edited to add: Pre-cut paper piece kits will be available for this design in September 2017. You can refer to this post for basic visual guidance if you get stuck. As usual if you make anything with these templates I’d love to see your version! Please use #tessellatedmadness on Instagram or add a picture to our flickr group. Alternatively feel free to email me a photo 🙂 Catch you soon x

Nellie’s Knots – Free PDF foundation piecing templates

Please allow me to formally introduce you to Nellie’s Knots. I designed this block for the Sew Mama Sew giveaway and it was given this fab name by Sarah. I promised that I’d make the templates available to anyone that was interested, so here I am. I’m not giving a full on tutorial but I will give some very basic instructions. I was slightly miffed by the asymmetry in this original block and that’s down to me changing my mind about how I was going to piece it after I’d drawn up the templates! Don’t get me wrong I still think it’s pretty but my OCD nature was bothered. 

If you also have issues with the need for symmetry you might want to make sure you layout all your paper pieces correctly before starting 🙂 You can use this second mini block that I made for reference.

I found it very useful to layout all the fabric before I started chopping so that I could get the fabric placement straight in my mind. I also numbered each block so that I would be able to match things up after sewing.

 There are two parts to each paper pieced template, you need to cut the template in half horizontally to give an a and b section. Seam allowances are not included so you need to make sure that add a 1/4″ around each section as below.

I’ve prepared templates in two different sizes: 3″ and 6″. The examples shown here are around 12″ and 24″ finished, both use 16 templates. You will need to print off Templates A and B (which is just a mirror image of the A template) in your chosen size. Obviously you can add as many blocks as you like 🙂

As you can see I’ve played around with fabric placement to give you another perspective on the design. I don’t think I’ve got any more pearls of wisdom. If you have any questions about the blocks feel free to leave a comment and I’ll answer in the replies so that everyone benefits from the answer.

You’ll find the PDF templates are here.

If you make your own version we’d love to see it! Please use the #NelliesKnots on Instagram or add a picture to our flickr group.
That’s all for now folks. I’m off to enjoy the sunshine 🙂 Catch you soon x

Edited to add: You will find a free PDF pictorial guide for Nellie’s Knots in our Payhip store and in the Freebies section of our website.

Sew Mama Sew Giveaway day

It’s that time of year again! Sew Mama Sew are holding the first of their twice yearly giveaway days/weeks. We love a giveaway around here so we had to join in again 🙂 With no firm idea of what we were going to offer up this time round I went to bed Saturday night with the seed of an idea…what would happen if I paired > with +…Strange but true! I woke up Sunday morning with the beginning of a plan and after much faffing around with paper, pencil and ruler I was ready to start making. I grabbed a stack of Japanese fabrics from Polka dot tea fabrics, a dash of Vintage Happy by Lori Holt, some precious Dream On from Moda and some luscious denim yarn dyed linen. With plenty of encouragement from the lovely gang on Instagram I’ve ended up with this:

We thought it would be nice to let the winner decide whether they would like this to be a cushion or a wall-hanging. It’s going to finish up around 24″ square! So to be in with a chance to win this (finished by me obviously!):
Please leave a comment here with a name suggestion for this pattern.
For a bonus chance to win, leave another comment to let us know if you are a follower, new or regular

The winner will be chosen by random number generator.

There will also be a small surprise gift for the best pattern name so get your thinking caps on 🙂 If you check back on 17th May you might just find the templates for this design waiting for you, just saying 😉

The giveaway is open to everyone. The draw will close on Friday 16th May at 5pm PST but as we’re in the UK and will be sound asleep at the equivalent 1am you might sneak in before I wake up on the 17th May.  So now all that’s left for you to do is go visit some of the other fab giveaways.
Catch you soon x

Edited to add: Please excuse me if I don’t manage to reply to all the comments on this giveaway post 🙂
Edited to add the winners are Catrin Lewis and Sarah@Sew Me.