Beth Studley Blog Hop: Radiance

Welcome to another stop on the Beth Study blog hop to launch her new Radiance fabric range for Makower and her e-Book, Mini Patchwork Projects.   I confess I only found out about Beth's patterns and fabrics about a month ago when I saw her pod pattern sewn up and was compelled to buy it straightaway so when I got approached for the blog hop, it seemed serendipitous.   I don't usually review e-Books but Beth's speciality seems to be useful little storage makes - this book includes six mini projects - so I made an exception.  I sewed up the trinket bowls with a few adaptations to make them Goldilocks style: large medium and small fitting concentrically inside each other!

Beth Studley is a UK designer and her Radiance fabrics are inspired by antique lace and crochet so I've added some crochet daisies (made by Penny) and some vintage lace found over the years and you can see how the circles and motifs are picked up in the designs.  I get a hot, spice feel from the colour palette, Moroccan even with the rich saturated colours. 

There are six projects in Mini Patchwork Projects:a magnetic picture holding garland, the reversible trinket bowls which I made, a petal pin cushion, hexi needle case, a foundation paper-pieced coaster set and a note book cover .  Each project details the experience level needed (from beginner to advanced) and the techniques covered.  The latter are also detailed at the beginning of the book and there are full size templates to print off at the end.   Beth's instructions are detailed and well explained.  There are a multitude of options to buy the e-Book or individual patterns or even a video  I deviated slightly from the pattern by quilted in parallel straight lines rather than criss crossing, and I changed the size of the bowls.  

Quilting the fabrics to make the bowls does take a while so I chain quilted sewing straight from one piece to another.  I also printed the bowl template at 80%, 90% and 100% to get the size variations.  This worked well on the smaller bowls but the biggest bowl was quite a lot bigger so I used a larger seam allowance when sewing the inner and outer layers together to reduce the size slightly.   Darts are used to create the bowl shape and you can see how I sew my darts above- with a pin marking the end, I slide it out before the needle hits it.  

I hand sewed with a stab stitch method around the top of the bowls using Aurfil 12wt.  I love the thickness of this thread and it's now my weight of choice if I want a chunkier hand quilting or a running stitch as embellishment.  The stitching defines the bowl edges and gives a little extra decoration to the outer bowls (made from yarn dyed Essex linen). 

On each bowl I picked out some of the print motifs to bring out a little definition to the base of the bowls - circles on two of them and a criss cross stitch on the star print. 

The bowls are soft but sturdy enough to hold sewing accoutrements.  I thought they might be suitable for a toy too?  Bowls for play food and teddy tea parties?    For a chance to win some of the Radiance fabrics to play with you can either enter a competition here at Stitch Craft Create or Justine of Sew Justine Sew is having a giveaway here- bonne chance!

{Disclosure: I was sent a free copy of the e-Book and the fabrics to participate in this blog hop.  All opinions and content are as ever, my own}