umbrellas and other quilt tops...

 is there any better sight than a pile of quilt tops?

 the only thing i can think of that is better is possibly a pile of completed quilts.

 january has seen me not only make 2 quilt tops from scratch but also finish off one from the WIP pile...big YAY!

 i jumped on the scrappy trip along bandwagon and made my first quilt top of the year.

 this was swiftly followed by making my Glimma quilt top...

and whilst the pressure of relative ease was still present business wise, i finished off my umbrella prints top.

i really love this top. 

the girls at umbrella prints are design geniuses and rank right up there with lotta jansdotter in my eyes (as does someone else who i'll tell you more about tomorrow).

i am hoping to tweak a little more time into my days to get these 3 quilted and bound before real work gets back to its crazy mayhem.

i'm not sure if i'll succeed but i think you will agree it's a damn good start to the year!

 This printing malarkey on white is such a breeze. I'm not sure why I didn't think of it earlier.

The only thing slowing me down at the moment is space for the fabric to dry.

I am on the lookout for something like this but they are so pricy that I just can't afford it right now.

 I definitely need a better system however as finding a solution in one area - printing in white - is now being hindered by another.

Maybe I should have a "drying rack pot"...

every time I sell fabric the earnings go into a pot to purchase my drying rack...shouldn't take too long!

...particularly when i am offering bundles of gorgeous colours like these at the bargain price of £20 a bundle! There's my Utility bundle at the top, followed by Frozen Berries and then Frozen Utility at the bottom - what happens when a little Berry mixes with Utility.

p.s. this wasn't supposed to turn into a sales pitch...I never know where my posts are going to end up when I start out...but if you are smitten please do head here to buy a bundle... ;-)

let normal service resume...temporarily...

So it's the first full week back into the routine and so far so good....if you don't count a few newby High School Girl tantrums...and that's just from me!

Actually, Ruby is doing brilliantly and coping amazingly with her dramatic change in life and with no old friends to hold hands with in an unfamiliar place.

I am having a very productive week (which is a good job as no sooner are we back to normal than the next 2 weeks are disrupted again for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur) and even had time for a little creativity with the stunning Elephants Love Water fabrics from the fantastic Umbrella Prints gals.

I started the week off at full speed, inspired after the great Makers' Fair last weekend and promised myself if I got everything done on this week's To Do List I could start thinking of what I was going to do with the fabrics. To be honest I cheated a little...let's face it I have more work than my little head can cope with with all that is to come...made it realistic in terms of what really had to be done this week...and consequently decided today was Play Day!

Oh boy is this fun to play with! With my new found favourite block, it was Wonky Windmills all the way when I paired Elephants Love Water with some coordinating Kona solids and navy Quilter's Linen. 6 blocks later and I'm in love! Ideally I would love this to be bed sized, but I think it may have to be satisfied with being lap sized...unless it wants to stay on the never-ending "there's no way I have time to finish this" pile.

Some time during the holiday I started this and didn't manage to show you the end results. Justine has saved me the trouble as she is explaining all about it over here. Go check it out...it may be worth your while!

Talking of giveaways (inadvertently), in amongst the holiday mayhem I never closed and drew a winner for this giveaway. Consequently your luck is in if you still want to enter as I am going to draw the winner on Sunday.

I'll be back on Sunday with a winner and then bear with me over the next few weeks. What with the Jewish New Year holidays and getting stock ready I have a feeling I may not be around very much, but hopefully enough to say hi at least...

Have a great weekend and good luck in the various giveaways!

Familiar colours...

It was back to the more familiar colours of yellow and grey today, with a little random orange and brown thrown in.

 Printing my triangle design in white on various coloured Konas had been on the To Do list for some time and was needed to be pushed up the pecking order with autumn/winter thoughts in mind.

 I love how the coloured fabrics have taken the white ink, altho when you compare the 2 ways below (white ink on coloured fabric or coloured ink on white fabric) I am not totally sure you can tell the difference with this design, can you?

What I think it does give me is the flexibility of colour. Paint colours are much more limiting than the huge array of choice of Kona solids, so printing in white ink does allow me to get the perfect colour. I mean who wants Tomato when you can get Tangerine? Seriously, who?

Being the impatient soul that I am I had to see if things would be any different when I made it up into products and again, I'm not totally convinced they are.

Along with the vast choice of colours with Kona, the other advantage of printing with white ink is I can print in lots of colours at once without having to wait for a screen to dry first. This has to be a big plus. 

So unless you have a huge problem with this set up, I think I will be printing with white ink for the foreseeable future.

I've been eyeing up my Kona chart today with the aim of working on some solid based pieces.

Sometimes when you look at the chart it is easy to get distracted by all the pretty colours but it is all the neutrals that I'm interested in at the moment, perhaps with a splash of tangerine and coral.

It's seems as though I'm still in my orange phase although I am also tempted by some teals and Caribbean blue...maybe I'll incorporate both.

The tricky bit however is trying to find a UK stockist that has these shades...so if you are one please do shout out!