My sewing bag is packed and ready for teaching a class today at Kis Quilting Ltd in Ipswich. Hoping the ladies all have lots of fun!

I'm making steady progress with the applique for "Alice" the first block of The Sopwell Ladies Basket Society Quilt designed by Gail Pan Designs. This was bought as a kit online from Cross Patch in Wales, these gorgeous fabrics are from the Sequoia collection by and Edyta Sitar of Laundry Basket Quilts for Andover Fabrics. All the applique has been stitched in place by hand, and apart from the bias strips, all the applique was made using the applique paper and gluestick method, along with Apliquick tools.

I like to have a few different projects on the go, so I've always got some hand sewing that's easy to pick up and stitch in the evenings, and Blue Butterfly Bag by the Australian designer Gail Pan Designs is another one that I've prepared. This is such a super design. The pattern was included in the kit from Cross Patch in Wales, here in the UK. I managed to piece together the bag front over the weekend, and these fabrics are lovely to sew with - they are by Edyta Sitar of Laundry Basket Quilts for Moda. I used a Schmetz Microtex size 60 needle for the machine piecing, along with an Aurifil 50wt thread in a pale grey, shade 2610. The stitchery design has been traced using a pale brown Micron Pigma pen (my favourite is the finest nib, size 005 but all I could find in my pencil case was a size 01 nib, which is still ok, and 2 strands of embroidery thread will cover this easily. I prefer to use a pale brown colour pen as this doesn't seem to affect the colour of the embroidery thread. Weaveline, a fine lightweight fusible interfacing has been fused to the back of the stitchery fabric - I did this after the design was traced onto the right side of the fabric. You can see that I haven't drawn the shapes of the lazy daisy stitches - I refer to mark a small "dot" where the stitch will start and stop, so I don't have to worry about the loop of the stitch covering the traced line. This has been packed in my sewing bag, and I'm ready to spend the evening with some friends - lots of laughter, chatting and even some sewing!

I had a relaxing afternoon yesterday sitting in the garden, preparing some applique ready for my next large project, The Sopwell Ladies Basket Society Quilt. This was bought as a kit from Cross Patch in Wales, and included these gorgeous fabrics from the Sequoia collection by Edyta Sitar of Laundry Basket Quilts for Andover. The kit included fabrics for the quilt top, borders and binding, and the pattern which is by the Australian designer Gail Pan.
I'm using the applique paper and glue stick method of applique for this quilt, along with Apliquick tools. As you can see, I've layered the applique just for the photograph. The handle has already been stitched in place with Aurifil 80wt thread. The bias flower stems will be next, followed by the basket, then the leaves and flowers, and finally the berries. All the applique will be stitched with Aurifil 80wt thread. There is lots of  hand applique along with machine piecing in this quilt, so I'm hoping to get a block completed each month. 

Seaside Town is all ready to go off to J-Quilts, the wonderful longarm quilter that works her magic on my quilts. This was the mystery button club quilt by the Australian designer Lynette Anderson. I've made several of Lynette's designs - quilts, bags, cushions and sewing accesssories. This will be embellished with hand painted wooden buttons once the quilt is finishex - I've just laid them in place for the photograph! The lighting wasn't very good indoors this morning, normally I prefer to do my photoshoots outside. Mr F kindly dismantled my washing line as he's re-designing the garden - so worse than having nowhere to hang my laundry, there's nowhere to hang my quilts for a photoshoot!

Seaside Town was first launched back in April 2017 - it was a mystery button club quilt, by the Australian designer Lynette Anderson Designs. I'd signed up with Cross Patch in Wales, and each month the pattern arrived in the post along with a cute hand painted wooden button (these will be stitched place once the quilt is completed). The outer border has now finally been pieced together and stitched in place. This border consists of lots of small blocks - 16 patch, Snail Trail, foundation paper pieced houses...

...and some really cute appliqued seahorses. After starting this BOM back in April 2017, Seaside Town is almost complete. I have learnt lots of new techniques whilst making this quilt - and discovered that I really enjoyed foundation paper piecing!...

...those tiny squares in the 16 patch blocks are just 1" finished size! I'm really pleased that I remade the Snail Trail blocks - initially I had made several cream and blue blocks to resemble the waves and the ocean, but I think these ones look much better.

Ohhh I have admired this bag for simply ages. This is the Blue Butterfly Bag - pattern is by the Australian Designer Gail Pan Designs - and this gorgeous kit arrived in the post this morning from Cross Patch in Wales. The kit includes the pattern, fabrics, ric-rac, AND a skein of Cottage Garden Threads for the hand embroidery. I've suddenly become very distracted from completing my chores!! This will be the perfect gift for my mother-in-law's birthday in the summer. I've already made her quilts, numerous cushions and a bag for keeping her knitting in, so this will be perfect for when she's just popping down to the shops!
​If you fancy getting yourself one of these kits too, follow this link Blue Butterfly Bag Kit

I was going to say here's my shoal of seahorse blocks (afterall, they are fish) but Mr Google informed me the correct collective noun is a herd of seahorses. Whatever they are, they really are cute! These have been hand embroidered with variegated Valdani Threads (two strands of thread have been used for the embroidery) and hand appliqued using the applique paper and glue stick method along with Apliquick tools. These are all ready to be added to the outer border of Seaside Town, the mystery button club quilt by Lynette Anderson Designs.