Quarter Inch Mark Patterns

I have been friends with Chase for some time now.  She's just one of those people that I really hit it off with and we regularly email each other about what we are making, our daughters, what's going on in our lives and try and support each other from afar through the tricky bits.  Chase is a hugely talented and creative person.  Her photographs are always beautiful and her patchwork and  hand sewn quilting makes me want to reach out through the screen and feel the texture and stitches.  She has been working on a new project,  quarter inch mark studio where she is selling a mix of PDF patterns and also ready-cut fabric sewing kits.  Kin-cha-ku is her first and it's a beauty.

A Kin-cha-ku is a traditional Japanese drawstring bag.  She details all the construction in the pattern from fabric choosing, through all the method and finishing and you can hear her voice talking through each stage.  Chase made we one of these last year and I like to use it for carrying hand sewing bits and bobs on train journeys as it stands on the fold down table and holds lots of little pieces easily.  More patterns are on their way so keep a look out on her shop and blog.

She is also running a Pack Patch mini quilt along which is a little easy to follow project that creatively uses your scraps in a simple patch block.  Each week there are two themes to help you pull out your fabrics and tell a story with your mini. You can read more in the Flickr group

Photographs courtesy of Chase quarter inch mark

Chase doesn't know I've written this, she is very modest!  I just wanted to share!  Enjoy x

Lady Luck

I struck lucky in December, I won a couple of giveaways.  Firstly, I won Mia's seasonal giveaway with the first entry that wasn't really an entry!  Mia was giving away a custom pair of hand felted and decorated mittens.   Wool next to the skin makes me itch  so I couldn't have mittens, I always admire Mia's creations especially her wall hangings so she offered to make me one of these instead.

I have known Mia a while now, she is the most lovely and generous person with a wonderful creative talent. Her felted creations have such happiness and humour.  One of the reasons I wanted a wall hanging was so we could all see it, and now we do; every time we go up the stairs, the silly fox and the little birdies look down on us.  I love the lily of the valley in the right corner.  

The fox reminds me of Lottie, our very silly dog with her eternal optimism

I love the different colours intermingled in the branches and the lining matches perfectly.  Mia has an Etsy shop and will do custom orders too, I had the most wonderful bag last Christmas!

And then in the Sew Mama Sew December giveaways, I won a Denyse Schmidt Daisy Mae charm pack and scraps from Chase.  I knew Chase's Etsy shop because she sells Yuwa prints including Suzuko Koseki  and other delights.  I didn't know she had a blog, I only found that in the Giveaway and followed her straightaway.  She takes beautiful photographs of fabric, quilting and the things that surround her and her writing is from the heart.  She included a drawstring bag and with the scraps you can see the sort of fabrics she sells.   I didn't have any of the fabrics she included so I was mightily pleased with everything!  I have already cut the charm squares,  it is the first time I have seen all these prints and boy are they good.   I am compelled to make a mini quilt inspired by this.  There are other things to be sewn but hopefully I can fit them all in this weekend.

Thankyou Mia and Chase, lovely gifts from lovely people xx