Loving Lisa Leverton's Tula Pink Obsession at the Newark Quilt Show

Each January Newark holds the first quilt show of the year, this was my second year attending - and, what a difference a year makes. This year I went along on both days, once with people from my sewing group and then again with my SIL. Last year I went alone, and knew no one - it was still a great day out, but this year it was good to have company. I also bumped into people I’d met on workshops, more sewing group people and I even did a workshop too - though I haven’t picked that up since, oops!

One of the series of quilts I was keen to see, and I knew my SIL would be too, were the Tula Pink fabrics and patterns in Lisa Leverton’s quilts. I’ve been seriously influenced on Tula Pink by my SIL and my EPP hexi sewing machine mat uses her fabrics - though on a much smaller scale!

In the show notes Lisa said that she didn’t discover Tula Pink until 2019 and she’s been smitten ever since. It’s easy to see why as the fabrics and patterns are bright and vibrant and tend to focus on animals big and small, and there’s so much detail in them. Lisa said that during lockdown she found more like-minded quilters who loved Tula too - there’s quite a following, and she hopes to make a quilt from every one of the fabric collections.

What she has already is an amazing start, and each is stunningly beautiful, here I’m sharing some of my favourites.

SET SAIL QUILT - 2022, LISA LEVERTON

I love the diamonds and the colours of this one - and that how, the more you look, the more you see!

URBAN JUNGLE QUILT - 2019, LISA LEVERTON

The colours! The patterns! What’s not to like? This is Lisa’s first quilt in Tula Pink fabric - it’s easy to see why she’s smitten, but all the fussy cutting might have done me in!

MISDIRECTION QUILT - 2023, LISA LEVERTON

This is the one I’d happily put on my bed - and it’s contributing to how I see my flying geese turning out, though I won’t be using Tula Pink fabrics, or these colours, but it’s helping me form what I want along with one or two other designs I’ve seen.

HIBISCUS QUILT - 2022, LISA LEVERTON

Again it’s the graduating colours for me in this one, this time against a plain light background - but if you look closely, there’s plenty of fussy cutting again in those blocks.

It’s all about the detail

In this next series of photos, it’s all about the detail in the fabrics - the quilts are equally stunning and Lisa is clearly a very talented quilter - as is Tula a very talented designer.

PART OF THE BIG BANG QUILT - 2024, LISA LEVERTON

PART OF THE BUTTERFLY QUILT - 2022, LISA LIVERTON

I think what amazes me about the fabrics is how the designs and part-patterns meld together so well and can look completely different from what it did on the bolt, or the cutting table in front of you. I guess that’s true of all fabrics, but perhaps it’s the boldness of the Tula Pink designs which makes this more prominent.

PART OF THE SPOOLS OF LOVE QUILT - 2020, LISA LEVERTON

And one final quilt

Yes, I couldn’t resist sharing this one. Lisa says this is possibly her favourite quilt of the whole collection, which she made in 2020 and her first encounter of very tiny HSTs (Half Square Triangles). The show notes say that Lisa loves how the colours pop, and the big on-point squares with the fussy-cut animals.

OPENING NIGHT QUILT - 2020, LISA LEVERTON

There were so many more inspiring quilts at the show, and many more which I want to share - so there’ll be at least one or two more posts, so look out for those. But in the meantime, enjoy these quilting works of art.

Mostly gold interiors inspiration

Unbelievably it has taken me this long to get myself back to Margo & Plum, which I first visited back in 2022 when we were still checking out if this was somewhere we wanted to move to. In that time it looks as if they’ve made Bottesford their base, and added a cafe too. Yes, I don’t know why it took me so long either, but on a particularly cold and grey February day we headed the eleven miles for lunch, and a spot of interiors spotting of the more opulent kind.

I surprised MOH by falling for this monkey clutching a bottle of wine (sadly empty) - and he’s right it’s not my usual style, but I while I left it there for now, I can see this coming home with us at some point. I think it would look great in our hallway, which is also our wine store area, but we’ve a little more work to do planning out how we can use this area better, and we shouldn’t skip straight to the ‘making it fancy’ stage. We shouldn’t, which is a shame!

They had plenty of other ‘gold’ items that would go alongside these - and that’s part of the reason the monkey stayed on the shelf, as I think there might also be accompanying purchases when the time comes, just to make him feel at home of course.

Perhaps this pair of leopard candle holders?

Though I’d put these in our lounge, which incidentally is where my ornate green vase with exotic birds also lives. MOH bought the vase as a surprise birthday present a few years ago, and he did good. It was funny though as he remembered it, and how much I liked it, but couldn’t remember where we’d seen it and so spent hours internet searching - thing is, if he’d read my blog, he would have had his answer much more easily. Has he learned his lesson? Absolutely not!

Or perhaps a pineapple? Though I was torn between the gold metal and the green glass versions…

Or the bottle stop with extra bling? Though to be fair we don’t often have much use for a bottle stop, but I don’t see that as a reason not to have this bling-y one, as you never know when you’ll need one!

I didn’t leave completely empty handed though - the coasters under the bottle stop came home with us, along with some fake eucalyptus stems which I’m using in a vintage enamel jug along with fresh stems, to bulk them out a bit!

So not my usual style, but each of the things above would easily fit into our home alongside things we already have, and which we’ve bought to furnish our new home. MOH knows we’ll be back, it’s just a matter of when!

Lunch at the Margo & Plum cafe

Having the cafe is a real boon for the shop, and it was busy which is always a good sign - especially when it’s a little off the beaten track. It also provided an extended showroom space, showcasing how their items could be used, which is also clever.

But the star of the show was this fantastic jukebox.

Isn’t it great? And it was on ‘free play’ so even better - I think we’ll be back for this alone. Well, and the monkey and a slice of cake of course!

An embroidered heart

There was only one pouch in my pouch love series to share on Valentines Day wasn’t there? And from a simple printed heart it’s blossomed into a large and very beautiful pouch.

It’s hard to believe that this is how it started - a test print for some bunting I made to celebrate my dad’s 90th birthday last year. The bunting was simply embroidered but I wanted to explore the interlocking circles this time round.

Unusually I don’t have any photos of it ‘in progress’ and I’m not really sure why - it definitely came with me on our trip to Glasgow last September and has been on the train to London too. After outlining the heart and before exploring the inner circles, I added several coloured stripes across the fabric, which reminded me of a 1970s/80s tracksuit.

And then I braved the circles trying not to have two of the same colours next to each other, which just about works. Embroidering the circles with my beloved chain stitch was incredibly mindful and relaxing. Once the main emblem and its stripes were complete, I still felt that it needed more, and at the back of my mind I remembered a cream/beige embellished fabric which I picked up at a WI stash sale, which might work with this.

I knew I wanted to make this one into a pouch, and so finding the fabric to go alongside this in my stash was a complete win. That fabric I had in mind absolutely worked, and also encouraged me to add several rows of cream chain stitch stripes above and below the heart to tie it all together.

And this is how it ended:

What’s even better is the lining was also in my stash - and while dark orange skulls on an orange background might not have been the natural choice on paper, once I saw the colours together there was no other choice for me. To finish it off, of course I needed poppers, and as the fold over flap was relatively large, it needed more than one - and so unable to choose between pink, orange and red, I had one of each!

If my embroidered heart pouch reminded you of one I’d already made - you’re not wrong, it’s a much larger version of the baroque lady version which was the first one I made at the bag making sewing course.

I’m loving them both, and I’m pretty sure there’s plenty more pouches to come!