Great little competition

Will you be sewing presents and decorations for Christmas this year? Submit a gift idea to The Sewing Directory, run by the lovely Fiona Pullen and be entered into her Christmas Creativity Competition.

You could win a Janome Memory Craft 5900QC worth £799 and the chance to be published in Cloth Magazine. There's a total of £1,000 in prizes and the closing date for entries is October 20.

The judges are Deborah Shepherd Creative Director of Janome, Ali Myer Community Craft Leader at David & Charles, and Harriet De Winton and Ros Marshall, Editors of Cloth Magazine. More information

And watch out for a great new article from Fiona due to be published on our site soon, with some great tips on how to choose a sewing class. 

My latest quilt

I've completed my second quilt. This one was a much easier one than the first,  as instead of blocks,  I went for a simple patchwork.

Again it was all done by hand - apart from the attachment of one side of the binding. I like hand sewing - but have to admit that this one was a lot more boring than the traditional block quilt - especially the actual quilting. I've put a little tutorial on the website on binding a quilt.

The quilt is long  and narrow as I wanted it to use as a throw across the end of my bed. I was still nervous about undertaking a full size one - fearing I'd get bored before the end, but now that I have two under my belt and enjoyed making them both I think that's unlikely. If I were to do another simple patchwork one like this I think I might succumb to the sewing machine - at least for joining the long strips.

I'm not sure what my next project will be - I may try a jellyroll quilt and take advantage of the gorgeous fabrics I have accumulated in my stash.

Clare