The centre of block 5 of Hearts and Happy Flowers (designed by Leanne Beasley) has been hand embroidered with gorgeous Cosmo threads. Blocks 3 and 4 haven't been embroidered or appliqued yet, they're still "work in progress" and will be completed over the next few months!

My sewing studio is beginning to look very festive! I've changed the quilts around that hang on the walls, and put up some seasonal quilts - both of these patterns are by Lynette Anderson's Designs. Both quilts were made using fabrics designed by Lynette too. "Christmas Fun" was bought as a pattern along with the hand painted wooden buttons from Patchwork Chicks back in 2016 (sadly this super shop has since closed down) - "Christmas Fun" was made with a selection of fabrics from my stash, and was hand embroidered and hand appliqued. I machine quilted this one myself, then embellished it with hand painted wooden buttons. "Scandinavian Christmas" was made last year too (again the patterns had been bought from Patchwork Chicks). I used fabrics from Lynette's Frosty Fiends collection for this one, teamed with some Norwegian linen. Hand embroidered and hand appliqued, this quilt was freehand custom longarm quilted by J-Quilts. "Scandinavian Christmas" was displayed on Lynette's stall at Festival of Quilts in Birmingham last year, and now it's proudly displayed in my sewing studio!...

...and finally "Christmas Blessings", by another Australian designer, Natalie Bird of The Birdhouse Patchwork Designs, is hanging on the opposite wall. "Christmas Blessings" was bought as a kit from Cross Patch back in 2016 and was completed at the beginning of 2017. This was also hand embroidered and hand appliqued. I quilted around the outside of all the applique, and was machine quilted by me, using Aurifil threads. 

Here's my latest project on display! Little Winter Wonderland, by the Australian designer Lynette Anderson Designs, was bought online as a kit from Cross Patch. Here's a picture of this small quilt displayed on a free standing quilt hanger - I stitched a narrow quilt sleeve on the back of Little Winter Wonderland so it easily slips on and off the hanger. Now I feel inspired to making some more seasonal small quilts to display throughout the year! 
*​ Cross Patch really is a super online quilt shop - you really must sit down with a cuppa and have a look at the huge assortment of patterns and kits and fabrics available - and the customer service really is excellent!

My latest project is completed! Little Winter Wonderland, designed by Lynette Anderson Designs, was bought as a kit from Cross Patch - my favourite online quilting shop! The kit included the pattern, fabrics (also designed by Lynette, these are from her Frosty Friends collection), and hand painted wooden reindeer buttons. As you can see, the centre square is hand embroidered (I used Valdani variegated threads for this) and hand appliqued (my favourite method of hand applique is using applique paper and Apliquick tools). This was machine pieced, and then machine quilted very simply. Finally I used a single fold binding and the scalloped tabs were hand stitched in place on the back of this small quilt. I'd stitched a small sleeve on the back of the quilt, so it could slip onto a free-standing small quilt hanger. 

I often get asked what type of interfacing I use for my hand embroidery and applique projects. I tend to use a variety of fusible interfacings and try to keep a good supply in my sewing studio, as I use a variety of interfacings for different projects. My local quilt shop, Kis Quilting Ltd in Ipswich, stocks interfacing, and I particularly like this Vilene F220. This is very fine, and will be used on the back of the "Hearts and Happy Flowers" blocks. My favourite interfacing for several years had been "weaveline" (Vilene G700, which is a woven lightweight fusible interfacing), which I had always bought online. It's lovely to use, and gives structure to the finished piece. I'd used it on the first block of "Hearts and Happy Flowers" but as I didn't have a large enough piece of weaveline to cover the back of block 1 in a whole piece, I'd fused it to individual pieces that were going to be embroidered and appliqued. Unfortunately it was just a little too bulky due to the number of seams in the block.

A gorgeous parcel of goodies from Cross Patch (a super online quilt shop based in Wales) arrived in the post recently. One of the items was a kit for Little Winter Wonderland, a festive design by Lynette Anderson Designs featuring applique and hand embroidery. My evenings over the past week have been spent curled up on the sofa with my embroidery needle and Valdani variegated threads, stitching this project ready for the festive season. Here's a little peek at the jolly snowman - he's looking very cosy wrapped up in a nice red scarf! This will be displayed on my sideboard when it's completed, on a freestanding quilt hanger.

My weekend away on a quilting retreat was very productive and this is the result of my sewing marathon! Blocks 4, 6, 7 and 8 of Hearts and Happy Flowers just need a good press, then I can trace the stitchery designs for all those tiny hearts and mini bunting flags. Some of the mini-blocks that are repeated throughout the quilt were already cut and pinned together and organised in zip lock bags, which made piecing these larger blocks together much simpler...

So this was the view first thing yesterday morning - we'd set up the room ready for our quilting retreat on Friday evening, and some very eager ladies had already made a start then! I'd arrived at Belsey Bridge Conference Centre in Ditchingham, Norfolk, the previous evening, ready for a weekend filled with having fun and also for a bit of sewing! We had a great time on Friday evening, getting to know each other and making new friends as well as chatting and laughing with old ones. And yes there gin involved too...

...as you can see there was so much creativity going on during the quilting retreat over the weekend! I've had a great time, made lots of new friends, and actually managed to sew a few blocks of "Hearts and Happy Flowers" too. I'll share some pictures of my blocks over the next couple of days.

My sewing machine is packed and ready for a weekend of uninterrupted stitching! My bags are packed too, as I'm going away this afternoon with 26 other crafty minded ladies! There will be lots of chatting and laughter, good food and maybe some gin. Oh and lots and lots of sewing of course!

I don't have much of a scrap collection, as I tend to give most of my scraps away! However that might change after looking through this fab book by Stuart Hillard.