Quilty Fun Birthday Block

Lori Holt of Bee in My Bonnet and Fat Quarter shop are celebrating a year since the publication of Lori's Quilty Fun book with cutting instructions for a free birthday block which you may have seen popping up on Instagram, blogs etc.  This is my version- I added a little flame to the candle too!

I went for saturated colours and a bright background- Michael Miller cotton couture in turquoise.  The little flame addition was a mix of a little Y seam and then paper pieced, fiddly but I like the effect.

The download is cutting instructions only- its easy to assemble if you are familiar with Lori's easy techniques like easy corner triangle which she covers in Quilty Fun and in her blog tutorials. 

For UK and non USA people looking for the book, it is available here at Kaleidoscope quilting and books.  Its an easy block to make, I cut mine out and laid it as the diagram on a tray and then worked my way through the main sections of the cake.   It would make a lovely block for a first birthday baby quilt too!

Great Granny Giveaway

Hot on the heels of Quilty Fun, the lovely Lori Holt has also managed to produce Great Granny Squared, published by Sew Emma, the publishing arm of the Fat Quarter shop.

Kimberly has been kind enough to send me two copies so here are some of my favourite pics from the booklet and I have another copy right next to me now waiting to be claimed- see the giveaway at the bottom.  Beatiful pictures, clear instructions and diagrams and as ever, wherever Lori is involved, there is quilt and vintage eye candy.

GIVEAWAY CLOSED. WINNER DRAWN

It is a lovely booklet, Granny blocks in a range of sizes and instructions for two quilts, a table runner, a pillow and two embroidered label designs.  This booklet is only available through Sew Emma.  For the giveaway, here's how to enter with three possible entries- make a separate comment for each:

1. Leave a comment.

2. Share the giveaway on a social media place of your choice- Facebook/Instagram/Twitter and leave a comment saying which you did

3. Extra entry if you are in a country UK or Europe  outside USA  as these books cost a lot to order from USA so I wanted to up your chances! Comment and mention your country.

Make sure  that I can contact you or leave your email like this - kerrykit (at) yahoo (dot) co (dot) uk - to prevent spam problems.  Open to all wherever you are.

I will draw an entry randomly next this time next week- good luck!

Quilty Fun Blog Tour

Welcome to the first stop right at the beginning of the Quilty Fun Sew Along and Blog Tour: Apples!

I am a huge fan of Lori Holt's work, she is such  a sweet person and she shares so many tips and ideas  at her blog Bee in My Bonnet so I jumped at the change to take part.   Her new book is a collaboration between Lori and the Fat Quarter Shop. You can see detailed photos of Quilty Fun book here- the photos, taken in Lori's home are to die for, all the retro styling and colours which I just know is not just for the cameras but how Lori lives her life.  The Sew Along is to make a quilty sampler from many of the blocks in the book and each stop on the hop comes with its own companion PDF that works alongside the book so you can make this quilt- Download 1 Apples is here

The book is well laid out and the spiral binding allows it to lay flat and makes it great to work alongside.  The instructions are displayed in a checklist style as is the download so you can cut exactly what you need for the sampler apples.  I did all my prep in order of the list and labelled and lined the pieces ready to use. 

 ***Edited to add***

Additional Yardage 

You will need 3 yards of background fabric in total for this quilt top

½ yard for red postage stamp border

1 ¼ yards outer border

All the blocks in this quilt are rotary cut and simple to make. Lori has such a systematic, efficient approach with tips along the way.  You can put the time into chosing your fabrics as the construction is very straightforward.  

This block took me 15 mins to prep and 1 hour to sew together.  

I love her graphic picture style, and the book is packed with ideas like these apples.  Other favourites in the book include the Town Square quilt the Apple-licious quilt- obviously.

Each stop on the tour comes with a giveaway and for this stop you will find two 3.5" Rolie Polies of Lori's new fabric line, Gracie Girl up for grabs.  To enter,  you must make the apple block using the tip sheet and page 22 of the book and post it to the Quilty Fun Flickr Group and the winner will be announced on the Jolly Jabber 11th Nov.   Enjoy!