La Conner Blog Tour

I am so excited to launch the blog tour for Jera from Quilting in the Rain latest collection with Lecien Fabric, La Conner.  The 36 print collection was inspired by Jera’s visits to La Conner, Washington, a pretty little town known for its flowers and strawberry farms.

 

I adore any opportunity to work with both Jera and Lecien as not only do they create super pretty collections together, they have both been so very supportive of me – including giving me the opportunity to make a La Conner mini quilt for Fall Market!

For the La Conner blog tour I made a strip quilt from a fat quarter bundle.  The pretty country colours and sweet flecks of gold inspired me to make a super soft vintage looking quilt, the kind that is used every day by my girls as they snuggle on the couch.

 

To create a similar quilt, cut strips from your La Conner fabric bundle of varying lengths and all 4.5 inches wide. Take two pieces and sew them  wrong side together along the 4.5 inch width and using a 1/4 seam allowance.  Continue adding pieces until you have a strip that is at least 48 inches long and 4.5 inch wide.  Continue making 48 inch length strips until you have the length of the quilt you want (I made 16 x 48 inch length strips).

 

Sew your strips together by laying two strips wrong side together and using a 1/4 seam allowance sew along the 48 inch length.  Continue adding strips until you have sewn all the pieces together.  Straighten the edges of your quilt so it is 45 inches wide and the length you wanted (mine ended up being 60 inches)  Quilt as desired (I quilted using a straight lines using 50 wt Aurifil thread in 2410 along the length of the quilt) add your backing and then bind (I used the red colour way from Lecien Basic Color collection for my binding).  If you are unsure how to bind, Jera has lots of brilliant free tutorials on her blog all about binding.

Thank you so much for stopping by on the blog tour.  For the next 6 weeks every Monday and Thursday a new project is going to be featured showcasing the versatility of the La Conner collection.  Drop by Jera’s blog to find out more and be inspired by all her beautiful photos and tutorials.

Happy Stitching!

Ange

 

 

 

 

Fat Quarter Shop Lady of the Lake Quilt Along

Today is the launch of the Fat Quarter Shop Lady of Lake Quilt Along!  The pattern is a part of the Classic and Vintage quilt series.

This quilt pattern is ideal if you want a quick finish featuring classic blocks, as each block finishes at 12 1/2 inches.  And if like me you tend to makes smaller quilts you’ll be happy to know the pattern even comes in Lap size (as well as all the way up to a King size).

For my first block I have used a combination of Tasha Noel Pixie Noel prints and Kona solids from my stash.  Fat Quarter shop are giving the opportunity to try before you buy as you can download the block pattern for free from their website here.  Then if you want, for only a few dollars more you can purchase the downloadable quilt pattern directly from the Fat Quarter shop.

If you haven’t participated in a quilt along before I highly recommend it!  You essentially follow a schedule of when to complete your blocks and you can choose to post your pictures on social media so the Fat Quarter Shop and other participants can see all your wonderful work (the Instagram hashtags are #ladyofthelakequilt and #fqsquiltalong.

I find quilt alongs help me stay motivated to finish a project and whether you follow along via Instagram or Facebook you’ll love seeing how different all the blocks can look depending on the fabric that is used.

If you want even more information and/or see exactly how the block is pieced together pop over to the Fat Quarter Shop You Tube Channel!

Happy stitching!

 

 

 

Pretty Handmades Blog Tour

I am so excited to help celebrate the launch of the  Pretty Handmades a new Tuva Publishing release by Lauren from the studio for pretty stitches Molly and Mama.

Lauren and I have become good friends over the past year or year and I’m continually inspired by her perfect tiny hand stitches and the way she expertly combines felt with fabric.

Lauren’s book Pretty Handmades is as pretty as it is inspirational especially as Lauren has a way of adding the perfect amount of detail to truly make a handmade project unique and precious.

I decided to make two projects from the book for the tour (and look forward to making my way through the entire book especially as Christmas is only a few months away).

The first project I made was the Garden Path mini quilt. In the book Lauren has made a gorgeous version using linen and Liberty print fabric. I decided to make the mini for my brand new baby niece so chose to use Little Dolly fabric from Elea Lutz for Penny Rose. I hand stitched the hexies together using 80wt Aurifil thread (which remains my favourite thread for hand piecing). I then hand stitched around each individual hexie with 12wt Aurifil thread. I find this thread has a nice thickness that doesn’t disappear nor overwhelm the print.

 

Lauren embellished her version with the sweetest embroidered ribbon however Idecided to try my hand using felt for the first time. I cut out a felt circle using pinking shears and then cut a slightly smaller fabric piece that I had backed with thermoweb. Applying thermoweb to the wrong side of the fabric meant it becomes like a sticker (when you remove the backing paper) and I ironed the piece to the felt. I then stitched the button to the mini quilt using the 12 wt Aurifil thread and added an extra row of stitches to the entire project.

 

For my second project I made the Posie Patchwork Pouch. I had never made a box pouch before and Lauren’s instructions are so well written I’m confident even someone new to sewing could make this project. I used a combination of linen, sweet orchard stripes from Riley Blake and prints from the latest Tilda release Cottage.

 

 

I love how Lauren also used a lace zipper for the project. I often buy these pretty lace zippers without a project in mind (and I know from Instagram a lot of other crafters do the same). And now thanks to Lauren’s wonderful book we have the perfect project to get the lace zippers out from our stash and used in a pretty AND useful project.

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you so much for stopping by on my stop of the blog tour. Yesterday’s make by Sarah of A Little Happy Place blog has showed how different the Posie Patchwork Pouch can look based on your fabric choice. And I can not wait to see how Lauren’s book has inspired one of my favourite designers Elea Lutz when she features tomorrow. Make sure you also take a moment to stop by Lauren’s blog as she has a full list of blog tour participants and you can also enter to win a signed copy of her book!

Happy stitching