The Great Summer Holiday Mystery

I wanted to tell you all about this great project being offered by Helen Stubbings of Hugs 'n Kisses. I had the opportunity to meet Helen last spring and immediately fell in love with her stitchery projects and unique Colourque technique she incorporates in her work. Colorque' is simply using colored pencils on fabric to get an applique effect. It really opens up a whole new world to explore, is a wonderful alternative to traditional applique and a whole lot of fun! Anyways, back to this mystery....

Beginning January 11th, yes, that's tomorrow, Helen will begin posting a step by step guide for The Great Summer Holiday Mystery quilt project from Hugs 'n Kisses. I know for those in the U.S. we may all be wondering - Summer?? But alas, over in Australia they are currently enjoying their warm summer weather and children are on summer break...thus a Summer Holiday project.

Join Helen as she takes you step by step through a simple traditional quilt making process. You will finish with a quilt with a finished size of 65 “x 65” (165cm X 165cm) - a nice lap quilt size.

This will be a great way for new or beginner quilters to work along with her, learning some new tips and skills while sharing your journey with everyone else in blogland...click here for Helen's blog and project instructions. Of course more experienced quilters are also welcome to join in as Helen is highlighting just the important bits for you so you don't have to scroll through all the extras.

If you are fairly new to quilting or extending yourself from simple stitcheries or other embroidery work to quilting, never fear - Helen is an excellent teacher and this mystery program has been designed with you in mind!

Helen's yardage suggestions for this project are as follows (this listing does not include backing), for a complete listing of supplies needed click here:

• 1 ⅔ yd (1.6m) light background fabric (FABRIC A)
• 1 ½ yd (1.4m) med/dk feature fabric - this could be a large floral or conversational fabric (FABRIC B)
• 1 ¼ yds (1.2m) Darkish fabric - needs to contrast with background fabric well (FABRIC C)
• ½ yd (50cm) medium fabric (FABRIC D)
• ⅔ yd (60cm) Dark contrast fabric (FABRIC E)

Other tidbits Helen had for how to select your fabrics included:

• the most important thing is that you can see contrasts between the fabrics so that the design will show up.

• you could use five different colours all of the same value - eg all brights

• you could choose five fabrics of one colour but with different values eg. pale blue, blue/white stripe, garter blue, navy blue, pale blue/navy blue spot... when you put them together you can easily see the contrast between them.

• you could choose several colours with lights, mediums and darks included.

We can all certainly live vicariously and I would love to feel some of that warm summer sun. I'm thinking some summer florals with coordinating blenders in polka dots or stripes for this project. I'm off to go see what I can find...this is an excellent project to work from your stash! I'll let you know what I find in mine:)

Pieceful Stitching to You!