Cath Kidston Interview

It was my husband who prompted me to listen to Cath Kidston on BBC Radio 4 Desert Island discs and I am so glad that I did.  I have always been a sucker for her vintage shabby chic but these days I see it all day long.  I live in a student area in a University city, there are so many female students with Cath Kidston bags.  At work I see children dressed in Cath Kidston and Cath kidston nappy bags everywhere so it can become a little over familiar.

But I can't deny that every time the catalogue comes through the door I flick through and think she has nailed it, always something new, the vintage continues to inspire and every now and then I'll be tempted to buy a little something.  Listening to her interview I was impressed by her resourcefulness and resilience.   Yes, she has come from a moneyed and comfortable background but there were hardships.   It caught me out,  she is a quiet, thoughtful, and honest interviewee with sensible ideas on business and life.  I was impressed by her integrity.   I don't know if the link will work outside of the UK, but if you can, have a listen, you may be surprised.

Shortest day, last quilt of 2010

 Love hate love hate love love love ♥ ♥ ♥

 - is how my relationship with this quilt has been-finally finished, hurrah!  And I admit to being very pleased with it, although not as pleased as Lula is which the best thing as it is for her.  She refused to let me drape it artfully over a snowy fence, that can wait for another time, so bedroom pics for the moment.  

The germ of this quilt started last year when Manda McGregory included a little Urban Chiks Swell Moda charm pack baby quilt in an early edition of Sewhip, and I bought the charm packs and a jelly roll from USA after searching for them feverishly online.  I mixed with a little Cath Kidston, Katie Jump Rope, Old Laura Ashley fabrics (the Cath Kidston figure of  1970s and 1980s), vintage prints and the placement of large applique motifs inspired by this quilt (Material Obsession)

Lula chose her favourite themes- ice cream, cup cake etc and I made these the feature blocks.  She helped me layout the charm squares to avoid repetition.  The quilt was made in six sections, each is quilted and then joined to the next section with narrow strips- quilt-as-you-go style.  This Happy Zombie tutorial shows the technique but I machined instead of hand sewing when finshing the back strips.  The binding- attaching this was driving me nuts this morning, it took forever- is pieced red and pink strips from the jelly roll.  I use Rita- Red Pepper Quilts machine binding method but I start attaching on the back and so my final line of stitching on the front.

You can see her pillow case and a bit of wall paper- both Cath Kidston, that the same print is repeated in the quilt here and there.

Each time I embark on a quilt I forget how long it takes me to finish one, I refilled the bobbin four times this morning.

Quick view of the back- not too exciting, all old Laura Ashley prints, the largest part form an enormous circular table cloth I picked up at the boot sale.  

A little stamped label.  I asked if she would prefer 'Mum' or 'Mummy'- you can see her choice x

You can see another proud mummy quilt at Leila's blog Where the Orchid's Grow.  She beat me and finished yesterday!  It made me laugh when I saw her pic, I felt the same need to get mine done for Christmas, and the extra cold weather driving me on.  I made 4 quilts this year, it seems paltry compared to some amazing mosaics I've seen recently but I made a whole load of smaller stuff and each quilt is a labour of love and a labour of plain old hard work.

1. D quilt, 2. Quilt for Lula, 3. I have heard the mermaids... baby quilt, 4. Moda Nest Quilt

I love making clothes and small stuff but the quilting is intensely rewarding, especially when finished!   My next biggish project- a baby quilt for a friend- baby due Feb.

 This is my last entry before Christmas so a vintage pic of seasonal good wishes on the shortest day of the year and a big thank you to all of you who read,  comment and email- I am truly touched when you do so!

Have a lovely Christmas, wherever you are and however you choose to celebrate x

GIVEAWAY!

I was so happy to get both the pincushion tutorials up on here that I thought I would make another pincushion to giveaway.  I am on avery busy time of year at work and at home and I know if I did n't have some sewing time I would break!  I went for a shabby chic style Cath Kidston Stanley dog pincushion with a bit of text- I love text in fabrics.

and the other side

and then I thought it was a bit lonely and I know if it was me I would love some fabric scraps as well so I went through the Sweet Jelly Roll that supplied some of the fabrics plus a bit of Cath Kidston craft fabrics- Stanley and Strawberries, cut a supply of scraps and added a bit of braid and ric rac so the winner can make a pincushion or two of her/his own.  I'm have a teaching background, can you tell?  I feel a bit like the scraps and making a pincushion of your own are  homework and the completed pincushion is the carrot of encouragement!

To enter this giveaway and win the pincushion and the scraps- leave a comment, tell me what you are making at the moment if you like or just comment- I don't mind.  If you are already a follower you can have an extra entry- tell me in  your second comment.  Or, if you become a follower (no obligation, only if you really want to!)you can have an extra entry-tell me in your second comment.  And finally if you add the button and link this giveaway on your blog you can have another entry - just let me know in your comment again!  So up to 3 chances each.  Closing date is Midnight Tuesday 27th July (British summer time GMT+1)

To add the button- 

1.  Copy the giveaway picture, I right click and choose "save as picture"- I normally save this onto the desktop, it is easier to find.

2.  Go to your blog dashboard- "layout".  Choose "Add a Gadget" and then select the "Picture" gadget.

3.  Click on "choose file", if you stored the picture on desktop choose that (or wherever else you put it)

4.  Copy this link http://verykerryberry.blogspot.com/2010/07/giveaway.html and paste it where it says link.  You will need to delete the http:// that is already in the box otherwise there will be two of these and it won't work!

5.  Click "save"

Don't forget to leave an email address that I can contact you on- if there is no email I will have to choose someone else!

Good luck to everyone!