CHARM ABOUT YOU

I bought fabric at Festival of Quilts and the Stitch Gathering - supporting those artists and shops I love - but there's not been much fabric shopping going on and that's mostly down to the fact that I want to be using what I have. There are plenty of times I do 'fake shopping', adding beautiful fabric to online baskets but I don't hit 'checkout' because I know that it will ultimately end up in the piles and piles of fabric I already have. The decision to buy fabric now has to be because I need it for a project I am actually working on. For my Manx log cabin blocks I am using woven fabric for the back of each block. I thought I had quite a selection but turns out no where near enough, so I picked up this gorgeous selection of fabrics from Patchfinders. It's a mix of shot cottons, Robert Kaufman Fabrics - yarn dyed, herringbone and gingham.

As the blocks are similar to quilt as you go, it's going to be so cool seeing a patchwork back of the woven fabrics. I've realised (thanks to comments on instagram) that this will be a coverlet rather than a quilt because there's no wadding in it. We have so many quilts in our house I am excited to create something slightly less structured and more blanket like. My Manx coverlet started with a peachy/pink and navy combo but I decided to add some mint to the mix too. I pulled all the mints from my stash but it was still lacking so I added these three from Patchfinders.

This month's Aurifil Artisan challenge was to make a wholecloth quilt. I was sent fabric and thread to work with and given free reign to create. There were a few ideas swimming around my head but when we went to the Keith Haring exhibition in Liverpool recently I couldn't resist doing hand quilting inspired by his designs.

I am doing a lot of hand piecing, English Paper Piecing and hand quilting and am loving it more and more. I think I need to turn my machine on just to make sure it's ok but I'm content spending my evenings curled up with a needle and thread for now.

I've done more green tea and sweet beans blocks, here are my first two Garden Paths (just one more to do):

It's quite hard to get hold of but obviously we have some at Patchfinders and we do postal orders, so give us a call if you fancy some!