If you love modern quilting, particularly foundation paper piecing, this is the newsletter for you! You'll find a dose of rainbow, a little creative shenanigans and a bunch of quilty chatter coming your way each week.
Carnival of Flowers has arrived here in Toowoomba - so September is all about the blossoms and the blooms. It seems I have absorbed that, perhaps somewhat subconsciously, or maybe I just really like sewing flowers ;) But I have some flowery goodness to share!
First up - I got the binding on my Tilda Embroidery Flower quilt and it's complete! We even popped down to one of the local gardens for some photos. The gardens were full of beautiful irises - at alas they do not show up so well in the photo. Add in... Miss 16 and I, both of us on the shorter side of height, had a bit of a struggle holding up such a big quilt for photos. We did our best though! Here is the finished quilt!
β
I really enjoyed stitching this up as my slow-sew throughout 2026. The design wall is decidedly empty since finishing this, but I have lots of other plans on ways to fill it up. I have a secret squirrels project I'm working on with Ange of GnomeAngel, plus a new Block of the Month for next year. If someone could just tell me the secret to fitting in an extra few hours of sewing each day, that'd be great ;)
That brings us to part two of the flowery goodness! My lovely mum just celebrated her 75th birthday! There's a pic below of when I was teaching her how to use the longarm!
Mum learnt to quilt over the past few years (and yes, I did in fact teacher her to foundation piece), and loves trying new things. So in proper good quilter-daughter fashion, all her birthday gifts were sewing themed. A rainbow of threads for her embroidery machine, a Legit Kits quilt kit, and a lil handmade cushion from me. Mum's fave flower is the yellow rose - I just so happened to have a rose pattern in my current BOM, so well... it was an easy decision on what to make!
Our October flower just arrived to the Year of Flowers BOM but it's not too late to jump in and join us. You'll get the frame pattern that I used in the cushion, along with all the flower patterns, and assembly instructions for two versions of the the flowers quilt. Options my friends!
I love seeing what you guys are making with my patterns - combining them with others, using different colours or fabric placement. I mean have a look at this beautiful version of Arctic Winter that Kathy created!
β
Kathy chose to make the trees in colours to represent the northern lights. Isn't it a beauty! If you'd like to make your own version, the pattern is in the shop. It's all foundation paper pieced and comes in three sizes - 15", 16" and 18".
I made my version with shades of blues and greens. I love how different the same block can look with just a change in colours or fabrics!
β
What colours would you make yours? I mean you don't have to stop at just one! Make a version in every colour of the rainbow ;) but make sure to show me if you do! Live out my dreams for me!
We are coming to the very end of Make Modern! For those who might not know, I'm one of the three cofounders and owners of Make Modern magazine. We started the magazine 12 years ago, after a conversation in the carpark after quilt group. But after over a decade, we have decided to wrap up the magazine. Issue 73 coming out in November will be our final issue. But if you want to jump in and get our newest issue 72... now's the time!
Or if you'd like to make sure you don't run out of quilty inspiration for a very long time, you can buy the All-Access pass and get every single issue we've ever published! That'll give you over 700 patterns, hundreds of articles and columns and pages and pages of inspiration to keep you going.
Need a lil more quilty inspiration? Let me add to that by sharing some of the fun finds I've come across in my internet travels.
The Modern Botanical Sampler
Only available during September - this big collab sampler of a quilt is a pretty spectacular sew. Brought to you by 16 different designers (including me!) with a range of techniques included, you'll want to nab this limited edition bundle while you can!
Janelle of Tiny Quilt Swaps is hosting a fun swap - one with a bit of a difference! In Janelle's words: "You know those White Elephant gift exchanges, where everyone brings a present to the party and goes home with a surprise? Thatβs what weβre doing, with QUILTS!"
While this isn't a chicken photo to share, I thought you might be as taken with this beautiful bird as I was! Spotted this cheeky fellow when out at a cafe the other day. It's an Australian King Parrot and his colours are so vibrant and beautiful! Upon a little further research (as I'm no bird expert!), this is the male, the female is more green.
β
He flew off into the trees - and was such a bright splash of colour amongst the leaves. My partner joked I needed to stop filling up my phone with photos of this cutie, but I figure you'll appreciate the photo! ;)
I hope you are having a wonderful week, and find a bit of time to get creative and stitch up something that brings you joy.
Happy sewing!
β
A little note on affiliate links: some of the links included in this newsletter are affiliate links. It doesn't add anything to the cost of the item to you, but it helps me pay those upkeep bills on our high maintenance chickens ;)
Kristy Lea
Mama, Designer, Quilter, Lover of Rainbows, Foundation Paper Piecing Fanatic, Crazy Cat Lady, Part-time Chicken Wrangler
If you love modern quilting, particularly foundation paper piecing, this is the newsletter for you! You'll find a dose of rainbow, a little creative shenanigans and a bunch of quilty chatter coming your way each week.
Click here to view this email in your web browser Hey Reader! The other day I realised it's been a year since we built my studio! I've shifted things around, changed the setup a bit, added a longarm machine, and spent many, many hours playing with fabric, sewing and designing since then. Basically it's my happy space. For those who may not have seen it, I did a series of videos on YouTube showing the progress. This one's the big reveal when everything was all set up. Essentially we built a...
Click here to view this email in your web browser Hey Reader! Spring has arrived here in Australia and all the flowers are starting to bloom. Near where I live in Toowoomba, each year they have the Carnival of Flowers. Toowoomba is known as the Garden City, but it's next level when it's Carnival! It's a huge event with the stunning gardens and flowers as the centrepiece. With this happening, I figured it was an excellent time to get my Tilda Embroidery Flower quilt finished so that I could...
Click here to view this email in your web browser Hey Reader! Birthday weekend is now complete! I celebrated on Friday with morning tea with my wonderful family. I had grand plans for some serious sewing time in the arvo (translation: afternoon) with my new Featherweight machine (hello perfect birthday gift!), but it got slightly derailed. But by a good event. My youngest got her L's! For the non Aussies, that's the learner's licence. At 16, once they pass an online test, they can get their...
β