My first book revealed!

As I briefly mentioned in a previous post, my first book is coming out in a few months and I am so happy to finally be able to share some details with you!


Quilt Petite is all about small quilty things - mini quilts, cushions, table toppers, doll quilts, place mats, potholders, mug rugs, and more! I am so proud of every single project in the book - each has been designed and made with lots of love and care. I have also included pretty much every sewing technique I know in this book, with the possible exception of crochet! As well as traditional rotary cutting patchwork techniques there are projects featuring English paper piecing, foundation paper piecing, raw edge applique, hand and machine quilting, hand embroidery, and free motion applique to count a few. There is something in the book for all levels of sewists - easier projects for beginners who may also want to try some new techniques, and for advanced quilters who wish to practice more challenging ones.

My awesome publishers are Tuva Publishing, an international publishing house with designers such as Amy Sinibaldi, Kerri Horsley, and Agnieszka Strycharska in their portfolio of authors (to mention just a few!). I was so excited when they approached me to offer me a book deal - it was a match made in heaven as I am of Turkish background and Tuva are based in Turkey.

Quilt Petite is now available to pre-order on Amazon and Book Depository . Here are a few sneak peeks of what's included in the book to whet your appetite!


Crossroads Quilt Along: House Block

Ready, set, go! The Crossroads quilt-along hosted by Fat Quarter Shop benefiting March of Dimes has just kicked off, with the release of the first block pattern: the house block. You can download the pattern here.


As I mentioned in my first post, I am not making this quilt using a specific fabric collection, but instead mixing lots of pretty floral fabrics. I am going to keep this quilt for myself so I want to be in love with every single fabric that's in it! And the four fabrics I chose for my house blocks definitely fit that description.

Hope you like my House blocks! If you would like more inspiration check out the blogs / Instagram feeds of all the other designers participating in this quilt along!

Joanna of Fig Tree Quilts (@figtreequilts)
Pat Sloan (@quilterpatsloan)
April of Prairie Grass Patterns (@amrosenthal)
Tina of Emily Ann's Kloset (@emilyannskloset)
Melissa of Oh How Sweet (@ohhowsweet)
Angie of Gnome Angel (@gnomeangel)
Vanessa of Lella Boutique (@lellaboutique)
Melissa of Happy Quilting (@happyquiltingmc)
Erin of Why Not Sew (@whynotsewquilts)
Greg of Grey Dogwood Studio (@greydogwoodstudio)
Sondra of Out of the Blue Quilts (@sondradavison)
Sedef of Down Grapevine Lane (@downgrapevinelane)
Taunja of Carried Away Quilting (@taunjalynn)

Paperie Blog Tour

It's my stop today on the Paperie blog tour, celebrating the magical limited edition fabric line by Amy Sinibaldi for Art Gallery Fabrics. Thanks for stopping by!


Amy showcases her designs on her sweet blog, Nana Company. She has a very unique sewing style -pretty and feminine but also modern, and simply inspirational. So when I first heard she had a fabric line in the making I was so excited! I imagined it would be truly sensational, and boy was I right.


I love the pastel colours, the ethereal feel of the line, and the hand-drawn elements. Exquisite details and clever designs - it really doesn't look like someone's first fabric line, does it?! But then again, whatever Amy does she does so well, so it's no surprise that her fabric is no exception.  My only complaint about the line is that I wish there were more prints, I simply couldn't get enough of it!


So... what did I make? When I received my fabric bundle I literally had to drop everything and run to my sewing room to make these star and heart ornaments as 'warm up'. Then I sat down and designed a sweet doll quilt.


Lots of sweet elements in this doll quilt - ruffles, English paper pieced diamonds, and a little heart patch as a finishing touch. For me doll quilts are all about the 'cute'!  I designed it to fit Alice's IKEA doll bed and the colours work so well with her favourite doll 'baby' (made by the lovely Deb from Debs' Steiner Dolls). 'Baby' got a little pillow too. (Those curls? Can they be any cuter?!)



Did you like the doll quilt? I hope you did, as it's one of the designs from my upcoming book, which will be published in just a few months! There I said it, the cat's FINALLY out of the bag! This has been such an exciting few months, and I am so SO grateful to Tuva Publishing, for making this huge dream of mine come true. Incidentally, Tuva are also the publishers of Amy's book, Sweetly Stitched Handmades! I will be sharing more info about my book in the coming weeks, but hopefully you are liking what you've seen so far.


Last but not least, of course I will be giving away some lovely Paperie, courtesy of Amy! There is a giveaway running on my Instagram feed right now - go enter so you can win a fat eighth bundle for yourself and one more for a friend!

Here is a full list of all the designers taking part in the blog tour! Go check their amazing creations too!

January 25 ~ Heidi Staples of fabricmutt.blogspot.com
January 26 ~ Kerry Goulder of kidgiddy.com
January 27 ~ Cheri Lehnow of tinkerwiththis.blogspot.com
January 28 ~ Sharon Holland of SharonHollandDesigns.com
January 29 ~ Jemima Flendt of tiedwitharibbon.com
January 30 ~ Michelle Curtis of chellesquilts.com
February 1 ~ Christina Egner of onelittlepooh.net
February 2 ~ Ali Brorsen of BecauseofBrennaClothing.com
February 3 ~ Kristine Lempriere of townmouse.typepad.com
February 4 ~ Nicole Young of lillyella.com
February 5 ~ Lori Landenburger of sewpsyched.blogspot.com
February 6 ~ Jennifer Chon of sunnyincal.com
February 8 ~ Melissa LeRay of ohhowsweet.com
February 9 ~ Megan Jimanez of quiltstory.blogspot.com
February 10 ~ Faith Essenburg of saranaave.wordpress.com
February 11 ~ Renee Lange of sewnwithgrace.com
February 12 ~ Sedef Imer of downgrapevinelane.com
February 13 ~ Kristyne Czepuryk of prettybyhand.com
February 15 ~ Heather Andrus of quiltstory.blogspot.com
February 16 ~ Stacy Olson of stacyolsondesign.com
February 17 ~ Erin Cox of whynotsew.blogspot.com
February 18 ~ Amy Sinibaldi of nanaCompany.typepad.com

Introducing: 'Sweet Orchard'

I am so thrilled and excited to finally share the news that I am now officially a fabric designer for Riley Blake! It's a HUGE dream come true for me, in fact I am still having 'pinch me' moments, especially when I first wake up in the morning! When I bought my first sewing machine three and a half years ago if someone had told me that I would be working for an amazing company like Riley Blake and designing fabric, I would have laughed. Seriously, I couldn't even begin to fathom the idea of sewing with fabric that I have designed back then! And then in 2015 it became a reality. So many months of hard work going on behind the scenes, but so SO worth it.


Without further ado, I am so happy to present to you my first fabric line, 'Sweet Orchard'. It's a sweet floral and fruity line, mixed with bias stripes, dots, and text. It arrives in shops in August, with pre-sales in full swing already!


When designing this line I brought together all my favourite fabric elements that I couldn't easily find out there in the market. Fabric that brings flowers and fruit together, not just strawberries and cherries but other orchard fruit also - apples, oranges, and pears. Bias stripes (especially in pink, red, and grey) - the unicorn of blenders. Also random dots, and sweet text fabric - this line is truly my quilter's' dream come true!


You may have spotted that the line includes a cheater print in three colourways, with lots of fussy cutting potential. I received my first fabric samples of it this week and I love it so much already. I hope you do too! Also, a BIG thank you to everyone for sending me sweet notes of congratulations when I announced this news on my social media a few days ago - I am truly thankful for all your support.


Crossroads quilt along - are you ready?


Fat Quarter Shop's Crossroads Quilt Along is kicking off in a few weeks! This is a year-long charity quilt along in benefit of March of Dimes, an amazing organization whose mission is to prevent pre-mature births. The quilt blocks will be FREE to download on the Fat Quarter Shop's Crossroads quilt along page on the 15th of every month starting on 15 February 2016. Please consider donating just $5 to March of Dimes when you download the patterns.

Fat Quarter Shop have created a limited supply of quilt kits and pieced backing sets using the Strawberry Fields Revisited collection by Fig Tree Quilts for Moda Fabrics. If you want to use your own fabrics, the Fabric Requirements PDF is now available to download on the quilt along page.

I ummed and erred for a long time about my fabric selections for this quilt. In the end I couldn't pick a single fabric collection, so I decided to go completely the opposite way and make a super scrappy quilt using some of my all time favourite fabrics. This will be a quilt for me to curl under on the couch on cold days, so I'm going to use lots of mini florals, both retro and modern, mixed with natural Essex linen. Have you discovered the #tinyfloralsanonymous hashtag on Instagram yet? If not you should go check it out. That hashtag basically describes my concept for this quilt - pretty and feminine.

Here is a list of all the bloggers and designers taking part in this quilt along. Follow their progress on their blogs and Instagram feeds!

Joanna of Fig Tree Quilts (@figtreequilts)
Pat Sloan (@quilterpatsloan)
April of Prairie Grass Patterns (@amrosenthal)
Tina of Emily Ann's Kloset (@emilyannskloset)
Melissa of Oh How Sweet (@ohhowsweet)
Angie of Gnome Angel (@gnomeangel)
Vanessa of Lella Boutique (@lellaboutique)
Melissa of Happy Quilting (@happyquiltingmc)
Erin of Why Not Sew (@whynotsewquilts)
Greg of Grey Dogwood Studio (@greydogwoodstudio)
Sondra of Out of the Blue Quilts (@sondradavison)
Sedef of Down Grapevine Lane (@downgrapevinelane)
Taunja of Carried Away Quilting (@taunjalynn)

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