Hugs from Helen

Parade of Homes

How lucky am I to be a contributor to Quiltmakers’ ‘Parade of Homes’… to be considered in their 13 favourite designers, alongside some of my own favourites and two other Aussies is very exciting.. and an honour…

 

I wanted to use my new line of fabrics with Red Rooster ‘Primrose Sands’ which meant I couldn’t start my block until two weeks before I left for Market in May – along with making all my other projects for my booth! – nothing like last minute panic. I wanted that soft relaxed look of a seaside villa in spring. Of course I needed to add some of my favourite techniques – a little applique and some embroidery. Which meant I was almost still stitching as packup started on the Sunday at market and poor Carolyn came by for the fiftieth time to pick up my block! oh I work well to a deadline!

I used my applique paper to add window boxes full of flowers, pots in front of the home with espaliered flowering roses and an arbour of flowering vine around the entrance ,can you smell the sweet scent as you enter? A lovely ornate door knob was also embroidered over the print of the red Lace fabric.Of course the prefect seaside retreat has lacey curtains on the top floor with the breeze flowing through and lower French windows neighbours can peek in as they stroll up the cobbled path.

You can all have a chance to win this original  version of my block.. you just need to go to http://www.quiltmaker.com/articles/parade-of-homes and leave a comment to win the blocks and a copy of the magazine. Plus many other giveaways and goodies they are offering during the blog hop.

I have a little kit of fabric to give away – so you too can make this little seaside retreat – and I’ll include a pack of applique paper – you can see how I use it on YouTube here.

 

Check out my videos on Gluestick applique–that's needle turn without the turning… by hand or machine–you’ll love it.

Just leave a comment below – what would your favourite seaside retreat be like? we are allowed to dream, who know’s maybe one day someone it will just appear if we wish hard enough..

and the fabric pack and applique paper could be winging their way to you. For those who don’t win, Im offering a 10% discount on the applique paper for the duration of the Parade. Use the discount code: parade10  to apply your 10% discount until the 28th August.

 

PS: I have just been reminded I can also give away a copy of the magazine! yay!!!  I will send the winners name to Quiltmaker and they will post it direct to the chosen winner.... so enter now - leave that comment below....

hugs for today

Helen

and the winners are……

Wow what a big week! and a big blog tour… Welcome to all of my new visitors – to the blog, the newsletter or my Facebook page… you are all most welcome here….now to the winners!

One magazine copy and one pack of iron on hexies goes to a new Facebook liker

Judy Norton Forkner

Welcome Judy!!

 

and to a newsletter subscriber:

Lori Smanski  - welcome Lori

 

For your blog comments a copy of 100 blocks will be sent to

Jenn Reed  from Quiltemaker…

 

Ladies, as I don’t yet even have my copies of the mag to giveaway it may be a week or two before your prizes arrive. But please send your mailing addresses so we can be ready and waiting once they come

hugs for today

Helen

check back tomorrow for another giveaway – actually I need your help now…

100 Blocks blog tour & giveaway

I am very honoured to once again have a block in the new issue of Quiltmakers 100 Blocks magazine.. These mags are becoming collector items now with everyone keen to have the full set in their library.. A great resource for blocks for any occasion or technique from some wonderful well known and not so well known designers from around the world…

So it is very exciting to see my name on the cover alongside some amazing designers…

And this is my little contribution….

Fairy Floss

featuring Nice People Nice Things fabric (By Red Rooster), EPP Hexies and a touch of my beloved embroidery.

Of  course I had to use my passion of the moment – hexies… using none other than my so simple to use iron ons…. If you have been following my blog in the past you would have heard lots about these and know that I am totally addicted. If you are new here on the blog tour then read on…. you too will be totally hooked on this latest and most definitely the new and only way to do hexies and other English Paper piecing… I thought I’d include a little tute for all of the new visitors today..

Iron on Wash out hexies….

These hexies are precut from Hugs ‘n Kisses Appliqué paper which is a 50% soluble natural paper with glue on one side. 

So you just iron on

Cut out roughly – you don’t need  special template, just use your scissors in front of the telly and cut out approx 1/4” sa

Use a glue pen (I use the Sewline glue pens but there are lots of brands)   A little bit on the edge of the paper (no wider than the seam allowance and you’ll never get sticky fingers)

Fold the edge over with your thumb and forefinger until you feel the edge of the paper and then press down onto the glue.

continue around each edge of the shape

until your shape is complete

tada! - ready to assemble hexie… with not a single tacking stitch in sight.

Now you just stitch them together as normal – use a  whip stitch, appliqué needle and fine thread, OR you can actually stitch together by machine if you are in a big hurry..

NOW – the kicker is…. normally you would now need to take the tacking out or pull up the glued seam allowances and remove the paper! ughh…. not the fun bit…. but with this paper – you just leave it in there – its lovely and stable, holding everything nicely in its place… Just  glue down onto your background fabric (I use Roxanne’s glue baste it) – then appliqué into place.

When you have finished wash your project  and the 50% soluble stiff bits will dissolve and the rest (natural soft fibres) will just stay safely in your quilt.

well there you have it! are you simply amazed? Just have to try this right now? well if you want to you can get the hexies here right now OR in just a few more days (they are on their way) from here in the US.  The appliqué paper can be used to use this method in any English Paper Piecing design and of course turned appliqué as well. there are some more tutes on the right here under pages about this.

 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

the giveaway!

Quiltmaker will send one copy of this issue to a lucky commenter on this blog post…

and as a thankyou for visiting and getting through this far on this epic post – I will give another copy plus a pack of iron on 1” hexies to:

one new facebook liker – like my page here  and write a message on my wall saying hi!

and one new newsletter subscriber – yes cheeky I know but I want you to come back and visit me again :) now that I’ve met you here..cos I have so much to teach you, show you, inspire you with…

hugs for today,

…off to make more hexies

Helen

Embroidery for the next Generation

Have you seen this magazine?  Its GenQ, They are relatively young and started as an online magazine, quickly progressing to print version after a great debut into the younger market.

The magazine is a different sized format to what we are used to here, quite cute actually… it contains the usual advertising but also interviews, shop reviews, products reviews, projects, articles and general news…. quite a bit of reading actually.

This issue has an interesting test drive on several embroidery floss brands.. They were tested by a range of stitchers from young and new to older and experienced. Pleased to see that my preferred brand Presencia fared well.

On their website at www.generationqmagazine.com they post a few times a week, with projects, review, features, columns and other fun stuff – and that’s all free.

This mag finishes with a list of 25 cool embroidery sites they have chosen… alas not mine….. feeling too old to be cool….but some good and interesting ones there..

I was asked a couple of years ago it feels like to do a project for their upcoming embroidery issue…. it has taken I am sure almost two years for it to come out in print but its here now…

 

I used Colourworks solids from Lloyd Curzon Textiles  (Northcott) and they were great to work with – I very rarely work with just solids and it was fun to do so….

Simple quilting using the pieced squares to give a cathedral window design added to the quilted cushion cover..

and various simple embroidery stitches on the front to create these stylised flowers… I even made a second colourway for Tess (no 2’s) new bedroom…

The bit you have been waiting for….. I have four copies of the mag to giveaway….

 

So, the first four orders that are placed on the website – with free GENQ mag written in the comments – will  get an extra surprise with their order…

okay, now I need to go ‘cool up’ my website…and maybe make next years list!

hugs for today, be back soon with Europe pics to share….

Helen

Feeling Christmassy?

This magazine arrived on my doorstep some time ago (actually I think the next issue may be out) but I have just found it in a pile and thought I’d let you all know..

If you have loved Twas the Night before Christmas and the coordinating patterns – the table runner, tree skirt and Santa sack, then you may be interested in another to match..

There it is… a little table centre – little in size but not in the amount of stitching – sorry, lots of therapy in there for you.. I think you need to subscribe to this magazine to get it here but it is well worth it – always a treasure to flick through the pages. It is the Simply Vintage mag from Quiltmania.

hugs for today

Helen

win win win..

Have you seen the latest Homespun?  its the Pink issue..you can win a fat quarter bundle of my fabric and/or patterns….. you have to do the 25 word thing (and personally I never do these as never know what to write) but I know from inside knowledge that there is a pretty good chance so its probably worth a go…

Of course there are lots of other yummy things in there too, I think this is my favourite (the case or the kitties?)   A lovely bright version of Nice People Nice Things from Patchwork by Sea

Melissa’s BOM ‘Thankful’ which teaches you heaps of dimensional techniques And a Tassie feature (okay I'm biased) but I hadn't actually heard of a couple of these stores..

Good luck!

hugs for today

Helen

Oh – and I also know that the Life is Beautiful fabric shipment arrived Friday and the Distributor spent the weekend unpacking to send to stores this week! yay…..

The biggest badge…

Whilst at market it was lovely to meet the 100 blocks team from Quiltmaker and receive my BIG badge and coffee mug… Now I’m big on Boobie buttons but this was just a tad big to wear proudly on my chest so it was positioned in my booth so that visitors could search out all the participants at the show. Not sure that all 100 were there but there were certainly a lot..

I was amazed at how many people are collecting this series of magazines and keeping them as reference tools for 100’s of block designs.

I was also surprised but excited to find this soon to be released book at the Martingale booth -

 

and even more excited to see that my first block had made the cut. I loved that block design – I really should use it in a quilt one day..

anyway, the lovely folks at Quiltmaker have sent me four copies of the Vol5  mag to give away…

  

so because we have so many new patterns to show you over the next two weeks we will choose four lucky winners from orders placed over the next two weeks and include a copy in their package…. so no need to comment here to enter… just watch this space for what’s new and a must have on your ‘to do’ list…

treat yourself and you  could be one of the lucky four…

hugs for today..

Helen

Quilt Mania Spring Special

As I head up the highway for the last Rowing Regatta weekend of the season I just wanted to quickly show you that the Spring Special of the wonderful Quilt Mania Magazine has arrived. This is the issue that has the matching Pyjama bag to the Bunny quilt which was in the recent Homespun magazine many of you have already coveted. 

This uses the leftover strips of scallops from the quilt which I made using the new Scallop rulers – fun! They have been running out the door here so I gather many of you are having fun with them also.

  

Aussies, not sure if you can get this issue here or if you have to order it from Quiltmania but its a great mag…

hideho up the road I go, have a great weekend everybody..  

hugs for today

Helen

AP&Q – the American one that is..

Whilst away I had several messages about a project I could not remember…. so I was keen to get home and see what was in my pile of mail….

This little quilt was left with the Editor over two years ago and finally made its appearance in this months issue of American Patchwork and Quilting. If you have been a blog friend for some time you may just remember tiny peeks several years ago as I had promised to use up the cutoff triangles from the Great Summer Mystery Quilt – do you recognise them? The red spots? I'm right down the back, page 100 actually, but I am still very excited… For those that have asked it is an old fabric range now by Tanya Whelan for Free Spirit Fabrics… But this would look great in any range of soft pretties – and you can always get a red spot and a pink stripe somewhere! I used my Glue stick appliqué method but of course you can use any method.

Hopefully this may be the first of more to come now that we have the logistics (legal stuff) worked out for international contributors.

For those of you who get to see it, hope you like it!

hugs for today

Helen

PS The images in this post were  “Used with permission from American Patchwork & Quilting®.  ©2012 Meredith Corporation. All rights reserved.”

Hide and Seek!

Have you seen this months Easter edition of Homespun? Not sure if its on the stands yet but I am very excited to have a little teeny weeny part of the front cover..

It seems so long since I was playing hide and seek with these little bunnies and my appliqué needle… but all the fun memories are returning now..

I always look forward to how Catherine and her team display and photograph the projects – and I think I'd love to snuggle up under this quilt in this bed!

This quilt uses a fantastic ruler I found at Quilt Market last year – the Scallop ruler! it was so easy to make long long lengths of these scallops to cut and use on all sorts of things.

Remember this?

   it was from the leftovers – and if you watch out for the next edition of Quiltmania you’ll see a few more leftovers along with a matching project for this quilt.

So, if you want to try this groovy new ruler I have them! yes you can find them here or ask at your local store

I have only the 1.5” version used in this quilt at this stage which comes with this great and handy pusher tool to make perfect smooth scallops..

If you’d like kits in a similar fabric contact The Quilted Crow or Sarah at Quilt Fabric Delights and I am sure they will be able to help you out.

Oh, and whilst you are perusing the Homespun Mag check out the most absolutely adorable and gorgeous Hunny Buns by Annie of Country Keepsakes…..

hugs for today

Helen