A Little Bit Country

Happy Thursday guys! Now don't you just love a great deal, and even more so when it's from one of these huge companies that seem to rule everything. Well I do, and that's exactly what I got last week when I was drooling over all the different quilt books I dreamed of owning on Amazon - I found this great little book for 1p !! Yes you heard me correct, a penny! It drew me straight in after eyeing up those pretty quilts on the front, I really love the traditional patterns and colours more and more at the moment so I had a closer look ;)

And so there it was, 'available from 1p', and as quick as a flash I added it to my bag and checked outta' there!

I've only just had a quick flick through as it's just come through my postbox now, but on first glance it looks very informative and gives instructions for lots of traditional quilt patterns, just my cup of tea. Also, more importantly how to use speed technique's, very much what I need to take lessons in with my quilt making ;) 

You can find the link to this book with my Amazon widget on the left sidebar and apparently it's still 1p!! Quick ...

And in other country news, I whipped up three more farmers wife blocks yesterday. It was such a pleasure putting them together in my new tidy craft room (more on that next week!) 

I used my new very, very cute kitty and scottie dog prints which are now available in the Sew and Quilt shop! xo

Quilty Barn A-Long Complete!

Yippee! I finally got round to hanging up my Quilty Barn-A-Long mini quilt yesterday, and I am so pleased with it. I had finished it at the weekend but had to delay things slightly as the wall where I wanted to hang it in my craft room had a slight damp issue, (oh the joys of living in a victorian house!) so I cleaned it, treated it and painted it - and now it's as good as new ;) 

I also had a major clean up in here over the weekend too, it was quite a task! I've managed to clear out a whole IKEA expedit unit to free up some much needed space, so the new mini quilt does a perfect job to brighten the place with all my new wall space! It hangs perfectly above my fireplace and shelf of cute things :) Yes, I collect felt and crochet cakes!! 

 ahh so annoyed I didn't get the point on that red chimney top! deep breaths ...

Though I do love all the fabrics, they play so well together :) and the blocks were so fun to make, they've got me itching to catch up on my farmers wife block too! 

Thank's Lori for such a fantastic quilt-a-long, I hope you can all join in too. xo

A Work In Progress ...

So it started with this ...

A very messy and overflowing scrap box, which was completely impractical! With every project I would have to rummage through this banana box in search of a particular colour or fabric print I needed. Most of the time it would be all over the floor, and even more annoyingly; screwed up! So a while back I decided something had to be done about it; an IKEA online shop was needed. A month later (grrhh slow ikea) two antonius units arrived, amongst other things ;) to house my ever-growing scrap collection. 

So the morning after, this is where I'm at right now - it's definitely a work in progress! I've decided to re-arrange things completely in here as it was just getting out of control. I didn't have enough storage units so I was just piling things very precariously on top of one another. You all remember when I first did my sewing room yeh? Well, the IKEA trestle legs have gone, in place of the new antonius units and I will hopefully be plotting some other things in here this weekend too. I'm so excited!! Seriously, I love organising, and even more when it's fabric and craft stuff! 

I hope you all have as much fun as me this weekend! :) See you next week friends, xo

Quilty Barn Along

Happy Monday friends, I hope you are having a good start to the week! It's a bank holiday here so I've been enjoying a longer weekend with time to quilt :) so let me introduce you to my quilty barn mini quilt I've been busy with! 

This is a super fun block designed by Lori Holt; it just screams Lori, right!? She made these blocks as part of the backing for her farmer's wife quilt, love this idea! (really need to catch up with my FWQ!!) and then decided to start a quilt-a-long with just the barn blocks, I've seen more and more cute quilty barns lately so of course I had to join in the farming fun. You can find the flickr group here, with a link to all the tutorials so far. Also, I'm using #quiltybarnalong on IG if ya'll are interested in joining? ;)

Eeeh! Isn't the CK cowboy fabric just the ticket for this!! yeeha! I'm planning on a mini quilt for a wall in my sewing room so I'm not going the whole hog, and I've had to change the sashing from Lori's original instructions to make it the right size to fit my space. I'm really pleased with it so far, so I hope it finishes up that way!

Will keep you posted on how it turns out. Thanks for stopping by, xo

English Paper Piecing, Diamonds

Happy Tuesday! I've been paper piecing some 8-point diamonds recently, which I've been itching to start playing with since they arrived at Sew and Quilt last month, but had to hold the plans until I finished off my other quilt ;) These are the 3" size - so they're big, and because they only have four sides they are much quicker to whip up than hexies, perfect!

This time I was completely inspired by this quilt I pinned on Pinterest a while back, I really love the pink background and bright feedsack prints, so pretty. 

So, that's the starting point - let's see where I'll end up :) xo

The Little House On The Prairie Quilt

I really love the vintage, traditional feel of this quilt. I can just imagine Laura from Little House on The Prairie having it on her bed! I knew I wanted to create something like this the moment I clapped eyes on the Shelburne Falls collection, so after much fabric petting and stroking I auditioned several other fabrics from my stash to pair up with, in order to make a straightforward four-patch design, alternating with square's. It's a really simple quilt to showcase all the pretty fabrics at their best.

I quilted it with a cross-hatch design, which I haven't tried before. It was a lot simpler than I originally thought! I was worried I might get into quite a pickle with it pulling but I managed it pretty well :) I used Darleene Zimmerman's Mother's Melodies spot in chocolate to bind the quilt, it's a favourite binding for me which I've used here (in blue), and here. The backing fabric is a sweet little print I've had in my stash for quite a while - a perfect fit for this, don't ya' think? :)

I've been thinking lately, I'd love to hang a bunch of my quilts on one of those cute display ladder's - like this! in my living room. Another project for the boy ;) hopefully I'll convince him to make one this weekend! 

How do you store/display your quilts? 

Happy Monday, Jessie, xo