Some of you may have read some of my stories in the past, stand alone episodes about breaking an Olfa cutting mat, how to tackle a Moda scrap bag, a festive garland with sprouts, shrink-wrapping a Christmas tree, and a charity quilt that got taken to Kosovo on an aid convoy. There was also the…

I’m not one to shy away from a challenge, and so I jumped at the chance to be part of the UKQU blog hop – especially when the theme was flowers. I instantly knew what flowers I would choose – tulips. The inspiration for my flowers and leaves came from bobbin lace making. Back in…

In my last blog I mentioned that, as I got the end of making and writing up the Picket Fence, I thought of a different way to create a fence panel …. So here goes, a Garden Fence to grace any flower garden. The beauty of both of these ‘fences’ is that you can make…

So I’ll finish. . . or maybe not. I’m great at starting, just not so great at finishing. There are various reasons for this. I lose interest in a project usually once I’ve done the ‘interesting’ bit. Sometimes that is the piecing or the basic stitching of an applique; sometimes it is just the designing…

On 16th March, people over 70 years old were told to stay at home for at least 12 weeks. (This was one week before the lockdown was imposed.) My sister, Pat, is in that group and lives alone, 50 miles away from me  so I wanted to give her something to do each day which would help to…

I’m a marketer’s ‘dream consumer’. Put it in a attractive bottle, give me a good reason to buy it, tell me it’ll make my sewing a whole lot better and there’s a good chance I’ll buy it! It wasn’t long before I discovered starch sprays and Best Press is my favourite. When I saw that…

It seems every craft has it’s own language and, for an outsider, this can be confusing.  When you’re always mixing with quilters, it can be easy to forget that there are some that don’t know what we’re talking about.  I was reminded of this the other day on my Facebook page.  So here is a…

For ever my husband has wanted to own a log cabin.   It stemmed from a holiday we had in Dorset one year when our kids were younger and ever since he has brought up the idea again and again, but it just isn’t going to be happening unless the numbers come up on the Lotto. …

Jo Hendy has a treat (or several) in store for quilters once again. I have tried hard to limit my Block of the Month (BOM) subscriptions, and I am a little ashamed to admit that I have some still waiting for me to start them (exactly how many is too many?) – and others that…

Birdnesting…a term used when you start machining and the threads get tangled up underneath causing a birds nest of threads…so annoying! A simple way to avoid this is to hold both top & bottom threads firmly before you start stitching. Another idea is to use ‘leaders & enders’. Let me explain. From your scrap bag…