On 3 August Nicole Calver (of Snips Snippets) and I will be kicking off the Jen Kingwell’s Gypsy Wife Quilt Sew-along. Jen...

Borders: Framing Your Quilt You have many options when it comes to borders or framing your Gypsy Wife quilt. I am wanting mine to h...

I have my first big quilt finish of the year to share with you today - it's my Gypsy Wife quilt. I started this as part of the quilt-along hosted by @GnomeAngel back in the summer and decided to go totally scrappy for the blocks and low volume for the background.This was the recipe I had used for my Long Time Gone quilt and I love it. After a few blocks, I decided I didn't like it this time. We had to take Mia into A&E one Sunday (nothing serious) and while we sat in the waiting room, she played on her tablet, and I coloured in a print-out of the quilt - can't go wrong with a rainbow. And I started again. Of course, I was well behind, and I stayed that way unfortunately. Even in the week after Christmas, I still believed I could make it - a finished quilt top by the 2nd January. I spent a few hours cutting all the background strips (what a job... not just the cutting, but keeping them organised)! But I had to give in. There was just too much to do and definitely not enough time. So the 2nd January passed. I still had some blocks to make and the construction of the quilt itself looked like quite the task. It was my birthday at the end of January, and for the first time in my life, I treated myself by taking a couple of days off work. Two whole days to sew - uninterrupted! Which was exactly what I needed to get this quilt done. I managed to get all the blocks pieced and a couple of the sections together ahead of my two golden days. But let me tell you, this quilt, and the construction part in particular, is not for beginners. It really stretched me - working out what seam to sew next, knowing I had some partial seams, and just making sure my layout was spot on. It was so much more fun than boring sashing! By the end of day 1 I had a finished quilt top, and that evening, at our local quilt group, I got it basted. The next day I set up the machine to free motion quilt and 3 hours later it was done. I quilted it with an all-over free motion stipple with cream thread on the front and pale green on the back. The backing is a duvet cover from Dunelm and I love the large scale of it. I pulled all the dark greys from my stash and cut myself a scrappy binding and by 3pm the quilt was finished! How very efficient! My birthday quilt! With the exception of the wadding, every piece of fabric in this quilt came from my stash. I made a vow this year to try fussy cutting, and I'm pretty pleased with the odd piece I included - I especially love the telephone. I also love that my quilt has "pissed" on it! Wonder how long it will take my mum to notice that! It's just such a happy, rainbowy quilt! I'm sad I couldn't get it done in time for the end of the quilt along, but I had a ball putting it together in peace and on my birthday! This is a finish from my Finish Along list, which you can find here.

The Jen Kingwell Gypsy Wife Sew-along kicks off next week (August 3) and I thought it would be a good...

This is my version of the Gypsy Wife quilt by Jen Kingwell - I used all Bonnie and Camille fabric by Moda. This has been such a fun quilt top to make and I'm excited to work on quilting it!

Hello fellow Gypsies (and everyone following along)! It’s time to finish our sampler quilt journey. I’ve really enjoyed cohosting the 2019 Gypsy Wife Quilt-Along with @ScrappyViolet . It’s a quilt I’ve wanted to make for a long time.

Designer: Jen Kingwell Second edition Quilt Measures 150cm x 173cm (59” x 86”) Gypsy Wife is Jen’s top seller. A puzzle of beautiful blocks – a signature style of Jen’s! This clever quilt will keep even the most advanced sewers entertained. This pattern is written for machine piecing. Block of the Month friendly. Skill Level: Intermediate-advanced. Printed in Australia We will customize your order to combine shipping for International, If you want to buy multiple items,Please send us a message

Life on the Northern California coast, gardening, sprouting stories and More........

I never did make it to the fabric store. Maybe this weekend? But my week was full of Gypsy Wife progress, and since I'm pretty sure I'll thr...

This was a fun one, and I am so so pleased with how it turned out!! Back in April, Billie told me she'd like to order a quilt. That started off a flurry of messages, and sending links back and forth so I could get a feel for what she liked. We ended up choosing Kathleen's Gypsy Wife quilt as inspiration. I thought at the time that it was not an actual Gypsy Wife, because her fabric choices made it look so different from all of the others I'd seen but Hydee assures me it does follow the pattern. Not knowing that, though, I drew up my own pattern /map. I told Tyler and Brandon during a brain storming session that I wanted a name that was similar to Gypsy Wife but more appropriate for this quilt and for Billie and Andy, and when somebody tossed out 'sojourner', I knew we'd found it. You see, Andy and Billie are currently living in Bosnia teaching English, using the Bible. Not only are they currently literally sojourning, they live their entire lives with a Kingdom focus, as if this earth is not their home, so the name was doubly perfect. I ordered lots of fabric and even ordered a couple of jelly rolls for greater variety (there are at least 156 different fabrics in this quilt!) and started piecing on May 23rd, not long after finishing up my niece's epic quilt. I finished the 64 x 80 inch top in mid July and then sewed the backing. We went with a wool batting and lawn backing to produce an exceptionally luscious quilt and I basted the layers together with Lily's help in late July. I didn't actually start on the quilting until mid September because I quilted Sparkle first, so I could give it to my sister sooner and also so I could just get in more quilting practice. Using a quilt of Kathleen's as inspiration was rather intimidating! I'd already told Billie that my quilting wasn't going to look anywhere near as good as Kathleen's, but still, I didn't want her dissappointed, ya know?! I watched videos and practiced practiced practiced a whole bunch of new to me quilting motifs. And then, to make sure I was ready, I made a whole practice quilt. All of that paid off, and I am ridiculously proud of the quilting on this one! I feel like I have grown so much as a quilter this year, even though I was sooo busy with building that I only made a few quilts. I know that Angela Walters says that seam ripping doesn't make you a better quilter, so you should never un-do your quilting, but I unpicked quite a few less than excellent lines of quilting anyways. It might not make me a better quilter, but it makes the quilt better, so it makes me a happier quilter. And that's better ~ right? Because I love adding scripture to quilts, I quilted in 2 verses; "How beautiful are the feet of them that bring good news" and Psalm 146:9 "The Lord watches over the sojourners." How perfect is that?! I love the image of God himself watching over my friends. My photographer friend, Lisa, was going to take pictures of this beauty for me but I wasn't done with it at the appointed time : / I finished sewing on the binding about 26 hours before they were going to be picking up the quilt. (and still had to make the label!) Even though it wasn't done done, all washed and crinkly, the sun was out, so I threw it down in a spot of sun got a few pics with my phone, then grabbed the boys and told them to grab something to stand on and we quickly ran out in the 15 degree weather and snapped a few more pictures. I made the label after everyone was in bed, sewed it on yesterday, tossed it in the wash and pulled it out of the dryer about 10 minutes before Billie messaged me that they were on their way. Cutting it a bit close, eh?! Sojourner was a joy to make and I am so happy to get to make a quilt for such precious people, and to start the year off giving a couple of machines to Rahab's Rope! Andy and Billie - we love ya! Thanks for being such wonderful examples of love and generosity. Thanks for partnering with me. Oh, and Billie - you know how you said India is becoming more closed to missionaries? That's where our machines are going. 💗 linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts

" Roulotte ". Détail. 60x60cm. 2012

This long awaited book by Beshlie, her longest to date, describes her itinerant life in waggons and trailers, giving a first hand account of the life of the Traveller, and giving an insight into the Romani culture. The book is enriched by many of Beshlie's own illustrations.

Have you taken a good look outside recently? I mean a good look, in detail. It's such a wonderful time of year when nature gives us a last fanfare of beauty before the long winter sleep. While it has always been my favourite time of year this year I can appreciate it so much more as I look at it through new eyes, well, one new eye so to speak after having the worst of my cataracts removed. Thank you so much for all your good wishes and enquiries, I do so appreciate it. I still have emails to reply to and blogs to visit, it is so lovely getting back to normal. Oh the revelations, I couldn't believe it, I knew I was seeing everything as if through a dirty glass, that colours were dull as if the colours were being slowly leached out, but what I didn't know was the glass I was looking through was a dirty YELLOW. Thats right, everything I was seeing had a strong yellow tinge, imagine what THAT has been doing to my colour vision. Whites were cream, imagine, and it comes in so slowly you don't realise it has happened. But now whites are brilliant, blues are so clear and beautiful, how didn't I realise I was missing all this? The procedure itself was fine, I did a meditation all the way through and it didn't take long at all. I just want the other eye done now. Oh but I have to tell you, now don't laugh, one of my biggest revelations came when brushing my hair, in fact it came as a bit of a shock, I HAVE GREY HAIR!!! Seriously, I didn't realise how much I had. I knew I had some around the front and underneath, but my hair is peppered with it but the yellow tint made it look like light brown and blond hairs. Yes I know I should have realised, you can't get to my age without getting grey hairs, it's a natural part of ageing, but as I don't think of my age often (who does) it didn't even enter my head. I WONT be colouring my hair mind, I have strong views about all the adverts and the way the media encourages women to look younger and conform to stereotypes, at all ages, and I really don't like the idea of dousing my head with chemicals either, who knows what is absorbed into the skin and what effects it has. However, I'm just spouting off my own personal opinion here so please feel free to ignore me. So, first I'd like to show you the last bee blocks I made for Janice, Color, Creating, & Quilting. They are 8 inch finished, Janice asked for brights and that is what she got. I even used some of my Gypsy fabrics, that's twice I've dipped into them, it gave me the shakes I can tell you. Speaking of Gypsy you are way behind in my blocks so here is the update: Two half square triangle blocks, I used some of the leftover triangles for these, none of the coloured ones are repeated over the two and I used sixteen of the background fabrics so it is used only once in each block. Old Maid Puzzle in two colour ways. This is the last of the main blocks, the rest are classed as filler blocks, even though a couple are really quite big. Pinwheel blocks four are bordered but I think I will change the border on the bottom right block, I've been laying the blocks out together and looking at them in the PiZap app and it doesn't look right next to it's neighbour. Courhouse Steps. I may well replace the one on the bottom right, I really like it but I think it is next to a block of the same colour. Want to see them all together? It's not all the blocks and it includes some of them you haven't seen 'officially' yet, but you get the drift. Can you see the bordered pinwheel block near the top just under Crazy Anne? As you can see it's next to a dark blue, I think if I leave it it will always bug me, but I will make the final decision as I put it together. I had already made most of these before I had my eye done, I haven't been on the computer much and only for short periods at first. I do have one problem with my eye though, well, not my eye exactly, my distance vision is fantastic out of it, only the cataract in the other eye has made the vision in that eye a lot worse, and my eyes just won't play together. I can see much better wearing the old glasses but without glasses everything is just weird and it hurts my eyes too as they vie together to focus. I go back end of next month for a check and I will ask for the second one done. It wasn't planned as it is at an earlier stage, but I was told they may have to do it if my eyes didn't settle, and they haven't. So, that's the last three weeks in a nutshell. I have got some other stuff going on, one of the oldies is poorly in hospital again, this is the fifth time this year, they seem to be taking turns, but such is life and none of us knows what we have to come to, so I just count my blessings, and believe me when you look at them there are many. Until next time, With smiles from, Kate x Linking up with Let's Bee Social Wednesday Wait Loss Midweek Makers Can I Get a Whoop Whoop? Anja Quilts hosting for TGIFF

THEVELVETRABBIT is thrilled to present this wonderful image that is from our private collection of prints and postcards that we have been acquiring for over thirty years. You select the size you want. This amazing fabric block design was created by THEVELVETRABBIT right here in our studio on Nutmeg Hill. Imagine it framed or made into pillows, or a sachet or a keepsake book. Cards, tags, place cards. Oh my gosh it is sure to capture everyone's attention at a wedding, shower, engagement party or family gathering. Place on napkins, towels, bookmarks. Use these fabric blocks just like any fabric you sew with. You can make pillows, door charms, sachets and so much more. This is a perfect size for picture frame pillows. Use this for an everlasting creation. Use for altered art and decoupage. Frame for a dazzling display. We use the best printer, the finest fabric sheets, and wonderful images, so that you can have professional results time after time. We always use brand new ink cartridges. NEVER recycled. Quality is our business. The water mark will never appear on your fabric blocks. Need a different size? Custom order. Email me and I will list it for you immediately. We have the following sizes available. 8x10 5x7 4x6 3.5 x 5 Sizes may vary depending upon the image you select for your fabric block. FREE SHIPPING WORLDWIDE.

It’s the first of two assembly weeks for the Jen Kingwell’s Gypsy Wife Quilt Sew-along. This week you’ll be assembling...

...in which the blocks are finished! I had enough time to squeeze in one more stitchery marathon before my classes (and the boys' return from Camp All-Fun-All-The-Time-Grandparents). The gypsy blocks are done!! The assembly is going to be kind of a bear, but I'm up for the challenge. I want to finish the cutting this week so I can clear out my sewing area. I can't stand all the piles of fabric leaning and draping over every flat (and semi-flat) surface. I know "they say" that creativity is messy, but my left-brained self can only handle so much of it before I snap. So, photos! Square in a square with pinwheel centers (various sizes) Gypsy Wife "Square in a Square with Pinwheel Centers" blocks Bordered Square in a Square with Courthouse Steps (various sizes) Gypsy Wife "Bordered Square in a Square" blocks Square in a Square with Courthouse Steps (various sizes) Gypsy Wife "Square in a Square with Courthouse Steps" larger blocks Gypsy Wife "Square in a Square with Courthouse Steps" smaller blocks Square in a Square in a Square (4" finished) This one required a complete remake. The pattern called for the use of one of the small square-in-a-square blocks that I made yesterday, but when I added the third row of triangles and trimmed to 4 1/2", it was obvious that every one of the points would be cut off when I sewed it into the quilt. This is the Very Last Block. All of the others look very nice and very pointy. There was no way I could be happy with cutting off four points, even applying my typical "Can you see it from the back of a galloping horse?" metric. (Thanks, Lisa, for that one!) I drafted the whole thing out on paper and made a new one in less than ten minutes. Gypsy Wife "Square in a square in a square" block And that's it!

Im still in love. This quilt is so therapeutic. Here are a few more of my main blocks. This one is just heavenly. I got to highlight a little piece of original Flea Market Fancy Barbells that I have been hoarding. It just seemed so appropriate in this quilt. And as I began to add the filler blocks, the blocks on the wall started to grow, and grow, and are looking awwwwesome (if I do say so myself). If you are as inspired by this pattern as I am, you can find it and all the other gorgeous Jen Kingwell Patterns at Westwood Acres!

Are you participating in the Gypsy Wife Quilt-a-long? I hope so! It’s a gorgeous quilt and I think it’s going to be a lot of fun putting it together. I’m still hoping to hook in a…

Come visit me where the fabric bolts and the glitter gets spilled! I am a quilter, dyer, spinner, knitter, embroiderer and all around fiber fanatic! I am currently teaching workshops on constructing upcycled clothing, surface design techniques like dyeing and needle felting and learning to screen print. Please come check out my blog and grab a free tutorial on something fun!

Lyonnaise, folle de loisirs créatifs et de brocantes 🧶​🧶🧵​🧵​ f ------------------------------------------------------

If you have completed sections 3 and 4 of Gypsy Wife, you might be wondering how it all goes together. The diagram on p.34 of the pattern is kind of helpful but does require a bit of imagination! You can go ahead and sew section 3 onto your completed sections 1&2, and you can also attach section 4, but you need to leave it partially undone. Yes, it's another partial seam, but they're nothing to be afraid of remember :-) Here is a picture of my GW with sections 1,2 and 3 sewn together with section 4 lying in place at the bottom. We need to attach section 4 so that next month we can attach section 5 (simple seam), then later section 6 (simple seam), then finally section 7. Section 7 will be attached to sections 4&6, then across the bottom of section 2 (hence needing our partial seam). If that all seems confusing, don't worry, I'll post plenty of photos along the way. For now, we're going to sew section four onto the bottom of the block that consists of sections 1,2 and 3. As far as I can tell, the HST block should overlap that square in square block you can see by about a 1/4". We're not going to sew all the way to the end though, just to that first orange pin. So there it is, attached most of the way across, with a couple of inches of open seam at the end, so we can attach the other parts later. If you are making speedy progress with this section (and maybe even section 5), then make a start on section 6. It has a lot of blocks in it so will keep you well occupied :-)