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

It may be cold outside.......

............but it's warm indoors, especially if you have a quilt you are working on!

I should have been doing some more quilting on my Kaleidoscope quilt this week as it is lovely and warm with a wool wadding, but I haven't even got it out! It's been a busy week with a trip to Worcestershire for some photography and of course the snow which has meant son's school has closed early twice this week.

We had snow in the east on Monday. It wasn't too bad, but it has been really cold all week. However the frost on the trees and bushes in the garden has been wonderful

(For some reason wherever I post the last image.....it never gets shown the right way round, even though I have rotated and saved it the right way up!)

Then there was more snow yesterday but worse in the west this time. We maybe got about an inch of snow. It was enough to bring all the birds in the garden, which is pretty cool seeing as we never get birds in our little garden. An especially new visitor was this cute wagtail, who was obviously cold as he kept on lifting one foot off the ground

So what sewing have I done this week? Mainly I've been putting together a sashing row and been joining row C onto my SBS quilt. I really need to find a virtual design wall so that I can insert the images of each block in it. Maybe that will be my task today?!

I have also been sidetracked a little with the scrappy tripalong that is doing the rounds in Blogland, thanks mainly due to Katy at I'm a Ginger Monkey. Katy has a serious addiction to this! The original tutorial is at Quiltville. I have been fairly restrained so far and only made two blocks, but I can hear it calling to me!

The trouble is, I'm also thinking how cool it would look if I cut a strip from each of my red and white prints.........

My plan this weekend is to add the borders to the new layer cake quilt I have been working on........assuming I can resist the lure of the scrappy tripalong.......