CHARM ABOUT YOU

Hand piecing is my favourite way to piece and so encourage you to try hand sewing in the hopes that you'll enjoy it as much as me! For those of you that already love hand piecing you can also have fun choosing fabric for this quilt, creating interesting repeats and secondary patterns. There is a lot of scope for playing about with light/dark, prints/solids and the 'background' pieces to create very different almost 3D effects.

The Trenton Block mini quilt is made up of four blocks and is 19" square. Though it is of course possible to make more blocks and create quilts of any size. Wouldn't this pattern be amazing in a huge quilt?! I also think it would be perfect as part of a medallion quilt... mmm I'm now thinking about starting another!

To get the Trenton Block mini quilt 10 page PDF pattern - with extra bonus 8 page PDF guide to hand piecing - visit my shop, click here!

Psst! You get sent a 10% off code for all patterns when you sign up for my Sewing Desk newsletter.

I have been thinking about putting my patterns on Craftsy. Do you tend to browse and buy patterns from there?  Or for those of you that design quilt patterns would you recommend it? Let me know below...

I was lucky enough to get to play with some of the new Ludlow collection by Denyse Schmidt. Inspired by the mills and red brick buildings of New England, Ludlow is full of gorgeous geometrics and pretty florals. Denyse is one of my favourite designers and her colour ways are always stunning.

Using the blues and reds I revisited my Heart and Kisses quilt design, this time using appliqué circles and hearts. The large appliqué pieces means the quilt comes together quite quickly and also showcases the prints beautifully.

Set in a beautiful location just outside Oxford, I spent the past weekend at the Sewcial Retreat organised by Purple Stitches. It was completely fabulous! I got to spend time with quilty friends, as well as meeting lots of inspiring new people and they were all sewing gorgeous projects! I really enjoy seeing works in progress and there were recommendations for various sewing patterns, so more projects have been added to my 'to sew' list.

Trudi Wood and I were teaching at the retreat. I taught my new English Paper Pieced pattern - the Cube Row Quilt, which will be available to buy soon. I had really nice feedback from the group and I'm looking forward to seeing people create it!

There was a fabulous trunk show by Trudi, with so many of her gorgeous quilts, interesting stories and tales of lessons learnt!  

I got to play with some Tula Pink All Stars fabric this week and I adore the bee print! Wonky stars are a fun quick sew and it's nice to mix up the points, using different prints and solids. I made the bees the star of the show by fussy cutting them for the centre of the wonky star blocks.

It feels pretty amazing to hit publish today because this is my 1000th blog post! I started blogging in 2011 and have (fairly) consistently managed to blog each week since. To celebrate I want to have a little giveaway, to say thank you to everyone that reads and shares my sewing journey.

I'm confident sewing curves, though Laura includes lots of helpful tips in case you're not, but improvised sewing can be unnerving and this was an easy way to do improv and still follow a pattern (I like structure). The steps are all laid out but you are creating the curves and adapting the instructions as you wish.

It was a good excuse to raid my scrap basket too. I found this gorgeous Deer Valley print by Joel Dewberry (discontinued) and mixed it with some Carkai by Carolyn Friedlander, Essex Yarn Dyed Metallic in Storm and Netorious in Camp Out, Cotton and Steel for the casing and lining.

I am using the bag to hold my precious selvedges! Also by keeping the bag in sight I might remember to actually use them every now and again.

This is the reverse side of the bag, though actually I think I prefer it - the touch of floral and the bright Bear Hug, Spirit Animal by Tula Pink makes me so happy.

As a quilter, thread is right up next to fabric as a crucial factor in my projects. Many times the colour and choice of thread can make or break a quilt for me. And lets not talk about the early days when I used bad thread in a quilt that literally broke apart after a few washes!

I like to experiment and try different threads and brands, in the same way I use different brands of fabric. Aurifil is the one brand I have stuck to, using the 50 weight thread for my machine / hand piecing and English Paper Piecing, 80 wt for hand appliqué, 12 wt and 28 wt for hand quilting and Brillo for glittery shine. Ok so clearly I am a fan of Aurifil, I haven't had any problems with it breaking (in any weight), so my machines have liked it too. I go between 50 wt and 40/2 wt for quilting, though I have used the 28 wt in my machine too for smaller projects (with 50 wt in the bobbin). The 50 wt is lovely for a subtle look, I use smaller stitches and have also used it for free motion quilting. Generally speaking I do like a thicker thread for quilting though, one that gives more definition so I was excited to be given the new Forty3 or 40/3 wt in #2310 by Aurifil at CHSI. To be clear this is not a sponsored post, just a quilter having fun with new thread!

Currently available on cones and in 50 colours, it is a strong, mercerised cotton thread. Forty3 is marketed as a Longarm thread, the 40 weight 3 ply threads have been designed for “the rigor of today’s high speed machines.” Despite not having a longarm machine, I do use cones of 50 wt thread for piecing and it's totally fine to use the Forty3 in a domestic machine too - you will need a cone stand and a thicker needle, I use a Schmetz 90/14 topstitch needle and again I used 50 weight in the bobbin.

Here is a visual comparison; the cone of Forty3, green spool of 40/2 and orange spool of 50. They are different colours but still you can see the varying thicknesses.