How exciting! My episode of The Quilt Show is up and you can now watch for free until December 15th 2019 by following this link:

I hope you enjoy watching!

This week I have been fussy cutting hexagons for the new triangle blocks I designed. I wanted to share with you the really easy technique I came up with. I'm sure this must have been done before but I haven't seen it around.

For the new blocks I released last week I have decided to use Tula Pink fabrics. There are so many wonderful motifs just perfect for fussy cutting and I wanted to explore this for the triangle based pieces in my quilt.

Here's the hexagon I cut out with just two cuts:

Isn't it cute?

So here is how I did it:

Step 1:

My hexagon needs to have a finished height in the quilt of 4". I cut a 4 1/2" strip, fitting in the pattern I wanted:

Step 2:

Fold the strip of fabric in half - note, the fold is at the bottom of the photo.

Step 3:

Place your 60 degree ruler on top of the strip. Line up the centre line of the ruler with the centre of the pattern you want to fussy cut.

If you have a ruler with a tip like the C&T ruler here, put the 4 1/2" line on the fold.

If...

Welcome to my binding tutorial. If you haven't done so yet, make sure you read parts one and two before moving on to this step.

Ok, so now we have reached a corner.

Take your quilt over to the ironing board.

Take the binding strip and fold it out to the right, making a 45 degree angle like this and press:

Fold binding to the right

Keeping this fold in, fold over to the left and press.

Fold back over to the left

Continue sewing from the top edge of the quilt.

Start sewing again from the top

Carry on all the way around, repeating this method for each of the corners.

This is what the corners will look like from the front:

Once you reach the final side, stop sewing at least 12" from where you started. Don't cut off any of the binding strip yet, we will use it in the next step when we make the mitred join.

The orange pins show where I started and stopped sewing

Join me next for part four - my mitred join technique.

Hi and welcome to Binding 101, the final step.

Don't you love it when you get to the end of a project and know that all the hard work you have put in is finally done, and you can move guilt-free onto the next one?

Once I have my binding sewn down by machine I look forward to spending the evening quietly contemplating the enjoyment of the project, and anticipating the next, while sewing down my binding.

Love it or hate it, hand sewing does make for a lovely finish, and hopefully with these tips you will find it enjoyable.

To start off, I press my binding back.

Press the binding back from the face of the quilt

This is what the corners will look like

Fold the binding over to the back of the quilt.

Use a fine needle to sew down your binding, this makes it easier to achieve an invisible stitch.

I use a fine applique needle #12 (Clover or Bohin brands are what I have available). These are easy to thread with the Clover desktop needle threader.

I am using Aurifil #50 cotton in Dove...

Welcome to part two of my binding tutorial!

We are starting with the trimmed quilt and binding strip that we prepared in part one.

Now we are going to attach the binding to the front of the quilt by machine.

First you need to set up your needle position. I like to sew my binding on with just over 1/4" (about 5/16") allowance.

Use your ruler to work out where your needle needs to be. If you have a machine where you can adjust the needle position, this is easy.

If you can't adjust your needle, work out where you need the edge of the quilt to be as you are sewing. You can mark this with a bit of masking tape.

I use my walking foot when attaching the binding.

Set up your needle position between 1/4" and 3/8"

Now lay the binding on top of the quilt with the raw edges together.

Make sure you leave a really generous allowance of binding free - at least 10" for joining at the end.

Start sewing your binding about halfway down one side of the quilt. Stitch length about 2-2.5mm.

...

I decided to hand quilt each of the blocks in my Modern Triangle Sampler with big stitch quilting. There are twenty five blocks in all and each one takes nearly an hour to do, so it has taken a lot of Olympics watching time to get it done!

I used a different Sue Spargo Eleganza perle 8 thread in each of the blocks. These threads are lovely to sew with and there is a great choice of colours. These are the ones I used, some of them are the solid colours and some are variegated:

My next step is to do some straight line stitching in all the white areas. I will use Aurifil 50 weight thread for this as it sits down so nicely in the fabric.

Hi all!

Here in the Lower North Island of New Zealand, five quilt shops run a Shop Hop. It's a great way to visit other shops and see our beautiful countryside!

I took these photos yesterday on my walk in Fensham Reserve, near Carterton.

On this year's Shop Hop we are giving the participants three fat eighths at each shop, plus a pattern to use them. Each of us has chosen a different fabric range, and you can pick which range you want to collect. My choice is Moda's Grunge Blenders in rainbow colours.  How great to have spotted the rainbow on my walk when I had already been planning a rainbow quilt!

I just love the textures in these fabrics!

So I have been giving some thought to writing my Shop Hop pattern. Here it is, Candy Drops in two different colourways. This pattern will be available soon on Craftsy, complete with Grunge fabric numbers.

There are quite a few flying geese units...

Hi all

This week I have been dealing a lot with striped fabrics. I thought I would write a post about cutting stripes when you have to deal with triangles.

Often people shy away from striped fabrics, apart from using them in borders and bindings (which they are great for). One of the reasons is that they behave very oddly when you are cutting them into triangles.

Take a half square triangle, for example. The way the stripes go will depend on how you place your ruler.

If you put your ruler like this, you will get stripes leaning to the right (I call them 'righties')

However, put your fabric the other way under your ruler and this is what you will get - 'lefties'

Making quarter square triangles is even more confusing! If you cut a square and then cross cut into four, here is what you will end up with

Hm - two of the triangles have the stripes going horizontally, and two are vertical. How can we get around that without wasting fabric?

Make a Template

If you cut a...