Keep Calm Brit Hop

It's Day 12 (I think?) and it would appear to be my turn on the #KeepCalmBritHop organised by Jo Westfoot at The Crafty Nomad. The purpose of this little blog hop is to introduce you to British quilters, designers and shop owners who might, for one reason or another, not be within your radar. Times are hard for small businesses at the moment, but the quilt industry is one of the best at being supportive when the chips are down, so a big thank you to Jo for organising this.

So a little about me if we haven't crossed paths before. My name is Joanna and I've been quilting for over 30 years now. I'm a traditional quilter at heart with a nod to modern quilting. I'm a sucker for an ombre fabric and I think my favourite fabric collection ever is the original Ombres designed by Vanessa Christenson for Moda; they are my go to fabrics when I'm thinking of designing something new.

I've been running my online quilt shop, The Crafty Quilter, for over 20 years selling bright, exciting fabrics from Moda, Robert Kaufman and the like, King Tut and Bottom Line threads from Superior Threads and just recently, the wonderful applique patterns from Pattern Poole in Australia. I also attend various quilt shows around the country including Quilts UK in Malvern and the Festival of Quilts at the NEC in Birmingam. My 'day job' for the last 10 years has been Editor at British Patchwork & Quilting magazine, the oldest monthly magazine in the UK 

I also design a lot of patterns myself, although not all of them make it as far as a finished quilt. But that's ok; sometimes a design doesn't quite work out how I planned it or I go off on a complete tangent with it. My designs are definitely ones that evolve as I'm making them!

A couple of my popular ones have been the Ombre Squares quilt which uses my favourite ombres (of course!). You can buy the pattern and the kit here from my website.

The second one is my Strip Race Interrupted Quilt which is strip-roll friendly. It looks great made in batiks, don't you think?

To celebrate being part of this blog hop, I'm making my Strip Race Interrupted pattern free until 10pm on Monday 13 April 2020. To claim your copy of the pattern, email me here. I've also reduced the price of the last few Bali Pops I have in stock if you want to sew along with me while I make a new version of the quilt over the Easter weekend.

Thanks for reading and again to Jo for organising the blog hop. I'd love to have you follow me on Instagram, and who knows, maybe this is just the nudge I need to start blogging again. Stay tuned!

Next up on the blog hop tomorrow is Jo Avery, but below is the schedule and links to everyone in the hop. Do go and visit them all; there are patterns, tips and giveaways aplenty to keep you entertained during these difficult times.

Saturday, 28th March: Jo Westfoot | The Crafty Nomad Sunday, 29th March: Amy Ball | Coffee Rings Studio Monday, 30th March: Jo Hendy | Villavin Crafts Tuesday, 31st March: Nicola Dodd | Cake Stand Quilts Wednesday, 1st April: Rachel Concannon | Rachel's Textiles Studio Thursday, 2nd April: Lou Orth |  Lou Orth Designs Friday, 3rd April: Sonia Spence | Fabric & Flowers Saturday, 4th April: Fi | Pins & Needles Grayshott Sunday, 5th April: Sarah Ashford | Sarah Ashford Studio Monday, 6th April: Abigail | Cut&Alter Tuesday, 7th April: Karen Lewis  | Karen Lewis Textiles Wednesday, 8th April: Joanna Kent | Crafty Quilter Thursday, 9th April: Jo Avery | Jo Avery Stitch Friday, 10th April: Round Up Post | The Crafty Nomad

Joanna

What's New at TCQ - Galaxy!

The Galaxy collection from Makower arrived in stock a couple of weeks ago. It's a great space-themed range of fabrics which also includes robots.

I cherry picked some fabrics to make this quilt that was featured in the April issue of British Patchwork & Quilting.

Image courtesy of Sharon Cooper Photography

I love the Planets print

And these Rockets....

The Spacemen print is a good low volume/background

And this Stars print is just a really useful print!

All the fabrics are on the website, as is a kit to make the quilt which also includes four matching Linea prints.

Disappearing 9 Patch Mini Quilt Tutorial

Here's a quick tutorial for this traditional pattern.

 

All you need is a Hoffman Snap pack and 50cm of a zinging
co-ordinate fabric and it makes a quilt 29" x 36".

 

 

I've used the brown Caramel Snap pack for mine and a hot orange. You can buy the Snaps here.

First up...........open the packet! Its always the hardest thing for me to do.

1. Split the pack up into five sets of eight squares. Ensure you have a mix of light and dark colours in each set.
2. Cut one, 5" strip from your zinger fabric and sub cut five, 5" squares from it.
3. Take one set of eight squares and arrange them around one zinger square.

4. Join the squares into three rows of three. Press seams for each row in alternate directions. Join the rows together to make a nine patch block with the zinger square in the centre.
5. Press the block and then cut it into quarters.

6. Repeat with each set of squares to make a total of twenty quarter squares.
7. Lay the quarter squares out into five rows of four squares. Rotate them as desired until you like the arrangement.
8. Join the squares into rows and then join the rows together to make the quilt top.
9. Cut four, 2 1/2" strips from the zinger co-ordinate for your border and add to your quilt top, opposite sides first and then top and bottom edges.
10. Quilt as desired. I quilted mine in spirals and my favourite wave wiggle which is really easy to master and is great for filling pre-cut strips.

11. Double bind the edges. I use 2 1/4" strips.
12. Add a hanging sleeve.

A quick and easy quilt in twelve steps!

Make it in pink or blue for a cosy cot quilt or how about the Liquorice  colour with a zingy red? 

Anything Happening?

I guess its about time I updated you on what's been happening now that I have recovered from the Festival of Quilts.

The show was really busy and was the best show I've done there. It was so busy that for the first time I didn't get to see all the quilts! I usually manage to have a quick whizz round them first thing in the morning but this year I only managed to see about half of them. And as for the galleries, well I haven't taken a look at those for years.

 

It's always nice to have some new fabrics in for the show and this year I managed to get some great new texture prints in from Robert Kaufman. It was touch and go whether they would arrive in time but I'm so glad they did.

They are called Fusions Textures and are really rather yummy.

 

 

Twenty eight colours are in stock and on the website.

 

I also introduced a few new patterns at the show, all showcasing the batik pre-cuts.

 

First up is Strip Race Interrupted, a really quick quilt to make from a Bali Pop.

 

 

Next we have Snap Pop Squared which uses a Bali Pop and Snap pack.

 

 

And finally we have Square Up which uses Mini Treat pack from Timeless Treasures. These offer different design possibilities because they have two of each fabric in each pack.

 

 

I love working with these pre-cuts now and am working on a couple more designs at the moment. The next Bali collection from Hoffman is due for delivery in October, which is all of just over a month away now!