​Another quick project (made on Monday afternoon) - a simple quilted journal cover, made with a selection of orange/red batik fabrics, quilted very simply with King Tut variegated orange thread, and embellished with some vintage buttons...

Many years ago (well about 8 or 9) I did a class called "trees" with an amazing tutor, Helen Howes. The background was pieced with an assortment of scraps (all left overs from various quilts and bags!). The idea was to applique trees into place, and to free motion quilt in the spaces - well my free motion quilting, along with my creative inspiration, was sadly lacking, and this was rolled up and put away, and had been long forgotten about. That is until I unpacked box upon box of goodies for my sewing studio. This was the perfect project to practice my free motion quilting skills with...

...I finally had permission to "play" with my new Bernina 570QE and practiced lots of squiggles and feathery shapes and plumes and leaves under the expert guidance and tuition of Philippa Naylor. As you can see, this wall hanging was finished without a binding - instead, it was finished with a facing, and I've added a sleeve to the back so it can be displayed on the wall of my sewing studio...

...an assortment of quilting threads were used for this project - mostly YLI variegated threads, along with some King Tut and some gorgeous Sulky threads that had never been used before! I still need to practise those feathery plumes, and I'm definitely not up to Philippa's standards yet, but I'm not longer afraid to try, and really have enjoyed time to "play" with my machine in an arty way, rather than having to make something specific!

This table topper was started back in December - the machine piecing, the hand applique (using the applique paper, glue stick and Apliquick tools method) and the hand embroidery with DMC threads was all completed, then it was packed away ready to be quilted at a later date - and has been waiting in my "small projects to be completed pile" ever since! Well, yesterday I decided it was time to quilt it, and did some very simple stitch-in-the ditch quilting to outline the snowball blocks and the star blocks. I used some thin cotton wadding and used the green star print from this collection for the backing (this was bought from Cross Patch in Wales). I knew exactly what quilting design I wanted in the borders - so the feed dogs were lowered, the stitch length set to 0, and I was busy with lots of free motion quilting using a variegated YLI quilting thread, shade "Festival" 14V. I didn't want to waste the variegated thread, so used a dark green Mettler 40wt thread in the bobbin...

...once all the quilting was done, all four sides of the table topper were stay-stitched about an eighth of an inch from the edge, using a slightly longer stitch length than usual, and the edges were trimmed. Finally some cute raw wood wooden buttons were hand stitched into place...

...I really do love these holly leaves, and love this variegated quilting thread - it really was perfect for this project, and had been in my thread box for way too long!  I hadn't really played properly with my Bernina 570QE until a couple of weeks ago, and haven't tried the BSR yet - so the holly leaves were all done entirely by me!!...

...and the table topper was finally completed. This pattern is by Lynette Anderson Designs, and these fabrics are from Lynette's Festive Fun collection. I'd initially bought as a kit from Lynette's stall at the Festival of Quilts last year, along with another table runner kit that is still waiting to be made too! 

A few months ago, Lynette Anderson sent me a fat eight bundle of her latest festive fabrics, Frosty Friends. I teamed them up with some linen, and made one of Lynette's gorgeous quilts - Scandinavian Christmas. This was hand embroidered and hand pieced, and Janette at J-Quilts worked her usual magic with some wonderful freehand custom quilting. I was nearly giddy with excitement when Lynette asked if she could borrow it for her stand at the FOQ this year (she was also using Stitched By Me that I'd made the previous year too). Sadly I wasn't able to get a picture of it when I visited the FOQ, but Lynette posted this photograph on Instagram and FB yesterday, so I've "borrowed" it! This quilt was great fun to make, and it will be proudly displayed in my sewing room over the festive season.
If you'd like to make one too, the set of patterns are available from Lynette's online shop Little Quilt Store and there is also a list of worldwide stockists of Lynette's patterns and fabrics on her website..