Ello - a new app to play with

I've used Instagram for quite a few years now and I love it. You post a nice photo, say what you want about it and people say nice things in return. It has a few annoying things like not being able to post links so you have to add [LINK IN BIO] at the end of a post if you want people to read a blog post or visit your website. 

But in the main, I love it. 

Or I did, until I was one of the 'lucky' few who Instagram decided would like to try out their new algorithmic method of deciding which posts might be important to me and instead of my feed being in chronological order, my posts were all over the place. I hated it. Here was Facebook all over again deciding what I wanted to see and in what order. 

I took part in the 24 hour boycott. I've left feedback with the company in the hope they might change their mind about this. 

But now I've just discovered a new app called Ello and I'm warming to it already. It seems to combine the best of all the other social media apps. You can post just text and interestingly you can add bold or italics and you can also add a link to some text so each post is like a mini blog post in effect

You can add a photo and then continue typing, again like a blog post 

Each post has stats at the bottom telling you how many times it's been seen, comments, loved, you can repost and pull up the interactive menu for sharing

When you post a photo 

You can tap on the photo and it fills your screen 

And better still, you can zoom in on the image which is one thing that's always frustrated me on Instagram if I'm trying to spot some detail in an image 

You can choose to have a traditional layout for your feed 

Or you can choose a Pinterest style of feed 

You can also 'star' people you follow and their posts will then appear in a second feed so you can make sure you don't miss posts of certain people, or friends/family. 

That's what I've discovered so far in less than 24 hours! And I'm liking it. It may be goodbye Instagram. Ello is branding itself as 'the creators' network' so it might be that I can't move my business Instagram over, but at the moment that is still in chronological order anyway

Let's see how it goes. You can find me on Ello @joannakent where I'll be showing my quilting and quilt inspiration 

Joanna 

A Year in Review - the Year of the Bee!

I've been so busy this month I've just remembered I didn't do a review of my quilting year! To be honest, there isn't a huge amount to report on and I mentioned a lot of what I have been up to quilting-wise in my Around the World Blog Hop post a couple of months ago.

 

2014 was definitely the Year of the Bee for me where I dipped my toes into the online world of the virtual quilt bee. The first bee I joined was the Little Blogs Quilt Bee. I blogged about it here last year. We are almost at the end of this bee now with just one more queen bee in February but we hope to keep some joint quilting efforts going in some shape or form.
The second bee I joined was the Modern Instabee on Instagram. This has been a fun bee too making blocks for each other from the book Modern Bee by Lindsey Conner. I am queen bee in March so looking forward to receiving my blocks then!

 

My recent quilting has been to make a quick Plus Quilt for the designer of my magazine who left to have a baby

 

 

 

And I finally found a bit of time to join my #LBQB blocks together. Looking forward to quilting this soon!

 

 

 

So I think that's probably about it quilting-wise for 2014. I've already got lots of ideas bubbling around my head for quilts I want to make this year, including getting back to my City Sampler quilt.

 

Let's see how I get on!

 

Joanna

 

 



 

 

Around the World Blog Hop

Welcome to my blog as the Around the World Blog Hop finally reaches my little corner of blogland! Thank you to Nina at BossyOz for nominating me. Nina and I met on instagram when we both joined the first UK ModernInstabee that I set up earlier this year. We're a group of twelve ladies making blocks from the Modern Bee book by Linsday Conner. We met for real at this year's Festival of Quilts at the NEC in Birmingham.

 

A little bit about myself for any new visitors to my blog. I'm a single mum (by choice having divorced my husband a few years ago). I have a teenage son who is now taller than me and have lived most of my life in East Anglia. I run my own online quilt shop, The Crafty Quilter, and I am also the editor of British Patchwork & Quilting, which is the job that pays the bills! In between my sewing and work I have an allotment which is my new love and somewhere for me to escape to, and enjoy the fruits of my labours a few months later!

 

I made my first quilt when I was 18 for my now ex husband ( I got to keep the quilt in the divorce) and really haven't looked back since then.

 

And so onto the blog hop questions........

 

What are you currently working on?

Obviously as a true quilter, I have more than one project on the go! I'm just trying to finish quilting a little quilt for someone who had a baby recently. It's a plus quilt and backed with cuddle but I'm not enjoying quilting it as I've managed to get a fold in the backing and haven't got the time to redo it.

My latest bee blocks for this month are done; Trellis Crossroads for the ModernInstabee and a scrappy Trip Around the World for the LBQB.

 

 

I have several long term projects that I am working on - a City Sampler designed by Tula Pink. I'm using a Robert Kaufman Remix stripe in every block together with matching solids.

 

 

And the other long term project is Sylvia's Bridal Sampler that I am making by hand. My mum and sister are also making their own versions of this, as is my son.

 

How does your work differ from others?

I'm not sure that it does that much. I am very much a traditional quilter at heart but have modern quilter leanings. I like using batiks but also like using fabrics where I can make them do the hard work for me and make a design look more complicated than it is. A lot of my quilts reflect this. I haven't got many recent finishes to show you but this is one I finished this year called The Red Cross.

 

 

Why do you write/create what you do?

A lot of what I do in my quilting recently has been to do with making quilt samples for my business. A few years ago I realised that in order to sell fabrics in my business, I needed to be more productive making quilts using those fabrics. And then that I need to actually quilt them, so I taught myself to machine quilt, kind of. However now that I have gone down that route, I have struggled a little with finding the time and inspiration to make quilts for myself and have lost my quilting mojo a little; something I need to try and rediscover next year I think!

 

 

How does your creative process work?

Like many quilters, I find inspiration wherever I go. I don't usually have the time to sit down and let these creative juices flow though so quite often I'll get a simple idea in my head and work with that. I can also get inspired by a fabric which will lead me to trying out a design. I will usually just do a rough sketch on paper or draw something in my quilt design programme, but often I'll just dive in having worked out some rough cutting instructions!

 

 

 

Next stop on the blog hop.........

Thanks for taking the time to read my blog. I hope you'll maybe stay a bit longer and continue to read my somewhat sporadic posts! In the meantime please take a look at my fellow LBQB bee member, Alison's blog at Patchwork Alley as the next stop on this Around the World Blog Hop.

 

Joanna

Quilting Update..........it's about time!

Oh dear! How long has it been since I've done a blog post? Let alone one on my quilting antics?

 

Too long is the answer!

 

Well lots has been going on, mainly with the two bees I've joined. I think my last post about my quilting was a tutorial for my Wonky Churn Dash block. This was for the month of May when I was Queen Bee in the LBQB. I received eleven wonderful blocks from my bee ladies and now all I need to do is decide how to put them all together in a quilt. I'm thinking of white sashing but adding something wonky at the posts. Because of the variety of colours used, I'm planning on picking up a charm pack or two when I go to the UK Robert Kaufman distributor in a week's time.

 

I'll do a proper post on my bee blocks once I've joined them together into my quilt.

 

The other bee I've joined is Instagram based. We are using the Modern Bee book by Lindsay Conner. I love most of the blocks in it and change my mind every month about which block I want everyone to make for me when it's my turn to be Queen Bee. That's not until March so I dare say there will be a few changes before then!

In the first month we made the Painter's Palette block for Gina. She asked us to make them a little different so I made mine with pinwheel blocks.

 

 

It was Catrin's turn in June and she chose the Come Together block, requesting certain colours in certain places. I loved putting this block together. It's a big one but so quick and easy to make!

 

 

I got to use some of my new fabrics in this block, which made me happy!

 

I've been making more blocks for my City Sampler quilt but concentrating on the striped version now.

 

And lastly here's a quick quilt I made using the wonderful Dreamin' Vintage fabrics I've got in stock. This collection just oozes summer and makes me smile.

 

 

Full of the Joys of Spring part 2 - and a tutorial!

So the rest of my day yesterday was spent sewing.

 

And yesterday I made a quilt top! It was so quick and easy I've put a quick tutorial together as I'm thinking it has the possibilities to be as good as the #scrappytripalong that is all the rage online.

 

One of the marketing girls at the offices gave me a charm pack of thirty two 5" squares that are subscription gifts for a Sewing for Pleasure show the magazine is attending in a couple of weeks.

 

'What can you do with this?' she asked.

 

I wasn't immediately struck with inspiration but as usual the creative juices starting flowing and I have come up with this. It measures 38" square but if you kept adding blocks you could make a bed-sized quilt really quickly.........and use up a lot of scraps. You don't have to use one background colour either like I have done here, which would use even more scraps up!

 

 

I'm calling it a #scrappychurndash and here's how you make it.

 

What you need:

Assorted 5" square scraps or a charm pack

Matching background or assorted light or dark scraps. I used calico.

 

Cutting:

1. Cut 5" strips from your background and sub cut these into 5" squares.

 

Method:

1. Take one, 5" background square and cut it in half to make two, 2.5" x 5" rectangles.

2. Join these rectangles to opposite sides of one, 5" scrappy square. Press seams towards scrappy square.

 

 

3. Take one, 5" scrappy square and cut it in half to make two rectangles as before and join them to opposites sides of one, 5" background square. Press seams towards scrappy rectangles.

 

 

4. Cut this second pieced strip in half to make two, 2.5" x 9" rectangles.

 

 

5. Place these pieced rectangles on opposite sides of the first pieced strip.

 

 

6. Join the strips together to complete the block. It should measure 9" square (finished size 8.5" square) and the seams should nestle nicely because you have pressed them in opposite directions.

 

And hey presto one very quick and easy block!

 

 

What do you think? Want to play along too? If you do, tag your images #scrappychurndash

 

Joanna

The Little Blog Quilting Bee

So! It looks like I have signed up for my first quilting bee! All the hard work is being one by Lou at http://imstudiolou.wordpress.com/.

The blog is for UK quilters who have never done a quilting bee before and who have blogs with less than 50 followers........which is me!

We have a lovely logo

 

which we need to make into a blog button too (hint hint). We are all hoping to share our tale via our little blogs, instagram and twitter.

 

We are each going to chose a block each month for the twelve of us to make.

So who are my fellow partners in crime? Well there's me and Lou for starters. Then we have (in no particular order):

Claire at www.corblimeyclaireepoppins.blogspot.co.uk

Rosanne at www.notafloralgirl.blogspot.co.uk
 

Alison at  http://patchworkalley.Blogspot.co.uk

 

Jenny at http://notetofollowsew.blogspot.com

 

Sheila at www.mindfulquilter.blogspot.co.uk

 

Nessa at http://nessahux.blogspot.co.uk

 

Celine at http://espritpatch.blogspot.com

 

Heidee at http://handmadesomethings.wordpress.com

 

Gina at http://www.occasionalquilter.blogspot.co.uk

 

and finally

 

Natalie at http://lovenatalieuk.blogspot.co.uk

Looks like we have an exciting year ahead!

 

Joanna