Summer Sewing

My teaching travelling trips have now slowed down (after a big post-covid catch up) and I am enjoying being at home this summer and getting on with some new projects. Some of which are still too secret to share much about, but read on for a sneak peek or two…

One thing I can shout about right now is the new Thread House Club BOM for 2022/23!

Karen, Lynne and I are so thrilled with this year’s BOM quilt design, Summer Breeze!

This will be our third Club BOM and it’s turned into a wonderful and rewarding online community with friends all over the world.

I’m now busy making my version of the quilt, which is the colour palette shown in the layout diagram at the top of the page. Check out Karen (left) and Lynne’s (right) choices below.

As in previous years we will be selling quilt kits, I am using Dashwood Pop Solids again and the girls have both chosen Kona.  This means they have had to wait a bit longer for their fabric to arrive and so I have a head start on the sewing!

I would especially like to beat speedy Lynne this year! One of the reason Lynne is so fast is because she only does raw edge applique whereas Karen and I always hand sew our applique motifs.  So right now I am making good progress with the machine blocks but while I am slowly stitching away at all those beautiful echinaceas in the evenings Lynne may sneak past me!

As I type this I am 2 down with 4 to go and only the butterflies to hand stitch after that.

I am so excited about this quilt!! I struggled with my quilting sew-jo a bit last year but it’s come back with avengeance right now and this gorgeous quilt design is one of the reasons.

You can read lots more about our club and this quilt on the website here. Club memberships go on sale on Friday August 12th. I hope some of you will join us!

But what about those secret projects and sneak peeks I mentioned?

Here is an extreme close up of a new quilt project I have embarked on, with another below on the left.  I will have plenty to say about this one day soon, but not until nearer the end of September!

It’s quite a big venture and it will be taking up a fair bit of my time over the next year. It is a mixture of patchwork and applique and I think you will be able to tell quite easily from these images that it involves flowers!

And then on the right is a little detail of a second secret project that I have now finished working on. This also involves flower applique (I feel I’m being a little typecast here!) and more info on this will come even further in the future I’m afraid. Still it’s good to have stuff to look forward to, right?! 😉

All of this hand sewing has been taking up my full slow stitching allowance (got to take care of my hands and not overwork them!), meaning I haven’t been able to get on with any embroidery, knitting or crochet.  Once I get Summer Breeze finished I have plans for a new version of one the designs from the Modern Crewel Embroidery book.

But I have had time to finish some new Modern Japanese Rice Pouches. 

This wonderful pattern by Karen Stevens was the project we taught at the June Thread House Summer Retreat. We each designed a new mini block using a different technique and then these were incorporated into our rice pouches. I designed a new bird applique, Karen an ingenious crochet granny square EPP pattern and Lynne an FPP mariners compass (above left).

The class samples I made to both show and teach at the retreat have produced 3 beautiful new rice pouches. The second one is above right and below…

I even added some tiny buttons to this one. And there’s definitely a colour theme going on here!

Here’s the third rice pouch with another of the birds. It’s a lesser redpoll. This is a bird that lives in the area of Yorkshire where we hold our retreat so I thought it would be nice to feature a relevant bird.

I love using up all sorts of precious fabrics (including bits and pieces of Karen’s screen printing that she sends me) and small sample pieces and then adding lots of hand stitching embellishments.

You can see some of the left over scraps from my recent Freehand Rainbow Applique panels in the photo below.

Happy slow stitching summer everyone!