Sweet Lily Cushion | Bookmark Mania !

It's been over 6 months since my mum passed away, but there are days when it feels like it was only yesterday. She's been in my thoughts a lot lately so I decided to make a special pillow in her memory featuring lilies - they were her favourite flower...

This is my modern take on the more traditional lily quilt blocks you may have seen before. For the fabrics I used pinks from my own Rhapsody collection for Riley Blake, and the greens are from a Vanessa Goertzen line.

The PDF pattern is now in my shop! For those of you who prefer paper patterns they are on their way from my distributor and I will list them as soon as they arrive. If you would like to see all the alternative colour schemes that my very clever pattern testers used in their own versions of this cushion, pop over to my Instagram post from a few days ago. I like to think my mum is watching from up above and smiling at all these lovely cushions being made in her memory - it's quite a comforting thought. <3

Those following me on Instagram would also have seen that I made some more of my incredibly popular sewing machine bookmarks that I shared back in January - this time I made them in pink and white as well as aqua. They sold out in MINUTES - sorry if you were trying to grab one and weren't fast enough! I have added some more stock since, and have more on the way, so you can grab one in my shop - available in pink, aqua, white, and black. As a book loving sewist I'm absolutely delighted by how much love these sweet bookmarks have received!

Also in the shop you can find my bookmarks with charm initials - a few letters have sold out but most are still available.

In other news, I have a new quilt pattern dropping next week, so get ready! It's currently with my pattern testers but here's a sneak peek for you...

Pillow Fight Time !

Today I'm joining the 'Pillow Talk Pillow Fight' event being hosted by the Fat Quarter Shop! This is a super fun event with selected designers making pillows from Edyta Sitar's new book 'Pillow Talk:  25 Lovely Pillows for Your Home Sweet Home', and then going head to head with another designer, with readers voting on their favourite pillows each week.

We are now in round 6 of the event in which I'm going head to head with my fellow Riley Blake designer Bev from Flamingo Toes. For my entry I made the Mother's Day pillow from the book. This was really calling my name, and I wanted to see how it would look in my own fabrics.

I've used a mixture of my last two collections for Riley Blake - Rhapsody and Summer Blush. I'm really pleased with how well they go together and how the colours 'pop'. I free motion quilted the pillow top on my Brother Luminaire - still finding FMQ a bit nerve wracking but the more I do it, the easier it gets. For the applique, I followed Edyta's advice in the book and used invisible thread (a clear polyester monofilament - available at most big sewing stores). Generally speaking I would never use a polyester thread, but I've got to say, it was a revelation. With so many different colours on the pillow front, it was great not to have to change the top thread every few minutes as I moved from one shape to the next. I also quilted the pillow with the invisible thread, so the quilting does not detract from the pretty flowers!

Would you like to win a prize? If so, please visit the Fat Quarter Shop blog to see Bev's gorgeous pillow too, and then you can VOTE FOR YOUR FAVOURITE PILLOW! The winner from this round will go head to head with the other quarter final winners, as you can see in the table below, until an overall champion is declared! Fat Quarter Shop are giving away prizes each week to one lucky voter, so get clicking.

Thank you so much for visiting dear friends, I will be back soon with two new patterns which are both in the testing phase. Can't wait to show you!

Butterfly Heart Wall Art Tutorial

Today I'm back as a guest blogger on my friend and fellow Riley Blake fabric designer Amy Smart's blog Diary of A Quilter, where I'm sharing a tutorial to make this sweet butterfly wall art!

There is something about butterflies that are just so cheerful, don't you think? I loved making them in all these mixed colours, using some of my favourite fabric prints. The butterflies are backed with felt, and the fusible web used to adhere them to the felt adds an additional layer of stiffness. So they are quite durable, and stand off the quilted the background so the finished art has a 3-D feel to it. Laying them out in a heart shape like this was inspired by a greeting card - I'm so happy with the ombre rainbow effect.

You can find the tutorial on Amy's blog - including the templates, positioning guides for the butterflies, and a step by step tutorial with photos.

Please tag me or email me if you make this wall art, I would love to see your finished creations!