End of Summer

Goodbye to a beautiful summer of visits,

Exhibitions

Birthdays

 And evening walks in the sun

 Hand quilting

Hand piecing

and more hand sewing

 Beach and time with my favourite people

 More beach

Never enough beach

Mini break to Oxford

Lots of cooking and eating from this amazing book- we have eaten well this summer

 A glorious walk in the sun today picking these and the smell of blackberry and apple crumble for later

Ready for autumn with new projects

Bring on September, my favourite month- my birthday, later summer sun and still warm.

August at Seamstar

I was going to do my August visit to Seamstar next week but as a newsletter pinged into my inbox with news of offers- 25% off all fabric (exception of the already reduced sale fabric) for a very limited time with the code 25fabric - I thought now was the time before the offer runs out! 

You could chose one of Courtney's kits.  I like her Giant Denim Cushion Kits with their pops of colour:

Available in yellow, cyan (blue) and shocking pink.  Suitable for the bedrooms of teenagers male and female- not usually an easy age group to make for!

There is a limited edition quilt kit to make a Moda Bake shop project- great idea and a total bargain with the discount. This features a layer cake of the V and Co simply Color Me Happy:

The kit also includes 1 metre of plain white cotton and 6 metres of ready made polka dot binding in mint- bargain!  You can see the Moda project here, Scrappy Chevron Picnic quilt.

You will need to supply your own backing fabric and wadding/batting. 

If you want binding for a project, Courtney has just put this polka dot colour selection up in the shop:

All you need to do is choose your colour.

For those of you into Kawaii cute, there is a Hello Tokyo range in Seamstar, from iron on badges (reminding me I have blazer badges to sew this week for my daughter and friends)

to fabric bundles:

You can buy all these prints individually too.  And there are also adorable shiny buttons:

And ending my selection with some vibrant autumnal colours and prints.  Firstly Norwegian Wood by Michael Miller.  This print is called Patchwork:

I really like the Leaf print in this collection too.

Here's another woodsy print, this is 'Twig' from "Annali by Stephanie Thannhauser.  I think this would play nicely with Norwegian wood too.

And lastly, this felt bundle 'Daylight' as I loved the colours and it reminds me that summer hasn't gone yet.

If you want to be an earlybird and get first news of discounts at Seamstar, you can sign up to Courtney's newsletter here.

Fat Quarter Style Book Giveaway Winner!

Woah that was a popular giveaway!  150 entries on the blog and 100 entries on Instagram.  That tells me that lots of quilters want quilt books that concentrate on using fat quarters, and that the style of 'It's Sew Emma' books is spot on with it's large format and generous photos.  

 The winner is Linda!  I have just emailed you Linda, congratulations!  A copy of the Fat Quarter Style book is on its way to you and let's hope that more It's Sew Emma books will be available through Kaleidescope Books/Quilting for those in UK and elsewhere.

August at Eternal Maker

Anna and the team at Eternal Maker have been working very long hours not only to attend Festival of Quilts a couple of weeks back but also to expand the Eternal Maker bricks and mortar shop experience to include a bakery- The Eternal Baker of course and add a yarn department and knitting club.  You can see a few pics here on their blog and I am just borrowing a pic here to show their delightful hexagon yarn shelving!

You can see wool and crochet and knitting kits here.  It really is one of those shops that I long to visit in person!  But meanwhile, I am off on a virtual trip and- although it pains me to say it- I have to admit as I write this in dimmish light that the summer is on its way and hints of autumn are showing in the UK.  So thinking warmth- temperature and colours, and starting with some Charley Harper Bank Swallow cotton flannel: 

It's a great print from Birch fabrics, I love the little nest feature in the cream dots amongst the Charley Harper swallows.  Great for PJ pants, pillow cases, cot sheets- all warm snuggly uses!  There is a companion print, Twig Fall, in teal and also in a rich tomato red:

A new one for me is a brushed cotton/linen blend, from Kokka of course and very much their style with the graphic elephant print available in pink, turquoise and red:  

Other elephant prints can be found here and here.

A little Nani Iro brushed cotton can't be passed over in my virtual tour of the warm and snuggly.  This Bird's Eye print in lilac is calling out to me to be made into a simple long dress with pockets for when the weather really turns cold.

Eternal Maker have an extensive cute and quirky button collection and some truly amazing animal buttons.  These bunnies are the cutest thing:

They are pricey, but buying one as a feature for a simple cardigan or bag fastening could be justified.  See cats, mice and more mice too and a cheaper option here.

I think of corduroy as an autumn fabric.  Light enough to be a shirt, heavy enough to be trousers or a skirt or even a quilt backing for some weighty warm luxury.  This blue Japanese Kiyohara pincord caught my eye:

And the less restrained Kokka Cream cats pin cord got my attention too, I imagine this in a little jumper dress:

And thinking of quilt making, I couldn't miss the richly coloured Plum Pudding Kona bundle

And I also could not miss giving this doggy themed bundle (curated by Daisy) a mention- I think these fabrics are only available in this bundle so it may well be a last chance option if doggies are your thing- the bone print is hilarious!  I would happily make a simple squares quilt for my dog Lottie from this bundle.

And whilst I am on a doggy theme, let's finish our trip with a brilliant dog themed fabric, Scottie Houndstooth from Michael Miller.

The quilts are out tonight, I believe a frost is forecast in some parts of the UK.  That's going to make for a nippy start to the car boot sale tomorrow!

Fat Quarter Style Book Giveaway

I have a giveaway on offer today, 'Fat Quarter Style'  book of 12 quilt designs all made using fat quarter cuts of fabric from the Fat Quarter Shop's publishing arm 'It's Sew Emma'.   

Its a 65 page large format (A4 style) booklet : check out the youtube video showing you more here.  These are my favourites below:

'Primrose' is a lovely floral design, I like the staggered grid layout and as with all the quilts, there are easy instructions and diagrams showing you the requirements and changes to make a large range of different sizes.  I like the dark contrast background here too, it would look great with a navy pin dot print.

As with the books they did with Lori Holt, the photography is generous and clear.  The instructions are excellent and there is there usual tools/techniques section at the beginning to get you started or to pick up a few tips for you more experienced quilters.

I also liked 'Blossom' and it's easy strip pieced construction.  I have picked the griller vintage style quilts first (no surprise there) but there are more graphic bold shape quilts inside, many of which would make a good boy/man quilt.  I thought the 'Raindrops' design had a lot of potential to explore colour value and solids/textured fabrics and create a variety of different effects.

To win a copy you have up to three entry chances:  GIVEAWAY IS CLOSED, a winner has been drawn!

Entry one: Comment on this post- anything you like
Extra Entry: Blog followers get an extra entry
Extra Entry: I am @verykerryberry on Instagram, leave a comment on my  giveaway pic of the Fat Quarter Style book cover there for an extra entry.

Entries will be drawn on Monday 25th August.  The winner will be chosen by Random Number generator.  I will start the numbering with the blog entries and add the IG entries on after that.  I must be able to find contact details for you, if I can't I will draw another name.  I have the book here generously supplied by the folks at Fat Quarter Shop and it is on my bookshelf ready to send so international entries are welcome.

For those of you in UK and Europe, Lori Holt put a message out on Instaram that Kaleidescope books- Kalquilts have started selling Quilty Fun and Great Granny Squared.  I don't know if they will stock subsequent Its Sew Emma books but it's a start!

Simplicity 1419 Lisette Round Trip Jacket

From the packet illustration, you could totally miss this Round Trip jacket on Simplicity 1419.  It isn't photographed which is a shame as it is a lovely shape and a great entry level jacket.  During Me-Made-May 14. I saw a black version that Liesl Gibson (days 2 and 3 in the link pic) had made of her pattern and was rather smitten.    There are a few versions floating round the blogisphere so you can see what other sewists have done.  I had also ordered some Flight jersey by Birch Fabrics from Village Haberdashery and it was a lot less stretchy and also thicker than I had anticipated.  In fact it was so stable with only a little stretch so I hatched a plan to make the Round Trip jacket from this fabric.

I had .5 metres of 44" wide fabric- about 70cm short of the recommended amount so I had to do some very creative cutting and for quite a long while, I was just exasperated by the tessellations.  Eventually, after much wiping of bro, I got it to work.  Let's just say there was no wastage and I would not recommend trying to be so economical. 

I cut a size 10, adjusted the darts to make the bust smaller on the front piece but otherwise, everything else was size 10.  I ended up taking the side seams in by ½", equivalent to a full inch each side and this went into the armhole and was blended along the upper sleeve just under the top of the arm.  The jersey was quite thick and very flat so I used lightning stitch and a ballpoint needle on my Janome and the seams are a mix of unfinished (centre back) and serged.  I need a fairly nipped in shape to suit my proportions otherwise it would look too boxy.  

The shawl collar style lapels are the hardest part, there are a lot of layers and seams needed multiple layers of grading to deal with the bulk.

I added shoulder pads. I already had a ready-made pair of standard haberdashery spongy pads  and I used my remaining scraps to cover them and then stitched a few anchor points to secure them on the seams inside.  It just added a bit of extra shape to the shoulders. 

I used a stretch interfacing on the collar which I bought locally sometime ago. It added a bit of substance to the lapels and the stretch worked well with the jersey.  It looks a bit weird when you are handling it but it fuses easily ( I used a press cloth- basically just another layer of thin cotton fabric) at a moderate heat.  I used dental floss and zig zag to gather the frill- find out how at Indiesew and I've see it elsewhere too- a good method for bulkier fabric.

The sleeves are cropped, for me this worked out at bracelet length.  I used the flat method to set them in which is standard for knit construction and can be used for wovens too.   The Round Trip jacket is a great transitional piece, one up from a cardigan to wear with summer dresses and short sleeves as Summer gets a little cooler and goes into Autumn. A stable jersey like this is great for a simple jacket;  it makes the fitting easier as there is some stretch and the fabric is very forgiving.  A little bit smarter than a hoodie too (thought I do love a hoodie).