Introducing 'Sweet Prairie'

The moment I've been waiting for! Dear friends, I am delighted to introduce to you my new fabric collection for Riley Blake Designs, called 'Sweet Prairie'!

This line was inspired by my love for all things floral and also includes two blenders - mini dots and bias ginghams - which work so well to break up all that flowery sweetness. For the colour palette I strived to achieve a happy, vibrant mix of colours featuring pink, mint, sunny yellow, earthy grey, and brick red. I am extremely pleased with it and pre-sales are in full swing already - I hope you like it too!

I've received my first set of strike offs (test batch run by the factory to fine tune the colours) and they are pretty spot on! I've already cut into them to make my April blocks for Fat Quarter Shop's 2017 Patchwork Quilt Along - the pinks and reds work so well with the pink, red and grey quilt I am making for this sew along.

'Sweet Prairie' will be available in shops in the US and Europe in August, and in Australia in September. I will share a list of stockists nearer the time - if you are a shop who will be stocking them please drop me a line to let me know!

Sweetie Pie Sew Along

Have you been following Lori Holt's Sweetie Pie Sew Along? This adorable quilt (featuring Lori's own Sew Cherry 2 fabrics in the picture below) would be such a happy addition to any home! You can download the free quilt pattern here, and Lori has been publishing a series of posts on her blog, literally taking you through the making of this quilt step by step with great photos and lots of tips. To make this quilt you will need Lori's 'Fruit Salad' Sew Simple Shapes (applique templates), and also her Pie Ruler to make the Dresden plates.

This week it's my spot in the Sweetie Pie sew-along, for which I picked the apple block. Instead of making the standard Dresden block, I wanted to demonstrate a different and fun way of using the Fruit Salad templates, so I used my apple template to make a pair of coasters. These templates are so versatile, so why not use them to make other things?

The two green fabrics are 'Apple Farm' by Elea Lutz for Penny Rose Fabrics and the red floral is from Nadra Ridgeway's 'Backyard Roses' for Riley Blake Designs.

To make the coasters I first made a 6" circular base using linen back and front with a layer of wadding in the middle. I then appliqued the apple and leaf shapes (C11 and C5 from the Fruit Salad shapes) using fusible web, and stitched around the perimeter of the apples in black twice, and also did the same to draw the stems and the leaf detailing. Oh and I cut out a chunk off the green apple with scallop edge scissors for a cheeky touch! They were a super quick sew and I'm thinking they will make great teacher gifts. Hope you like them.

These coasters were the very first things I made in my new sewing room, in our beautiful new home. We moved here a week ago and I'm exhausted beyond words with all the unpacking but also so happy we did it - the house is magnificent, and so are the 360 degree country views we get to enjoy, such as this one taken at sunset. The kids are so excited and I'm looking forward to all the happy memories my little family will make here! I will share more pictures with you as soon as it's looking a bit more presentable. Thanks for visiting today!