stocking up...

 It's all very well at this time of year focussing on gift buying and making that we all need to do, but are you remembering to look after Number 1 and making sure you have plenty of supplies to keep you occupied over the festive break??

First up, very exciting news, you can pop along to the imminently opening bricks and mortar The Village Haberdashery this weekend. How exciting is that?! From these sneak peak photos it looks delicious! I used to live at number 15...my hubs is quite relieved we are now over 200 miles away!

If you can't get down there Annie's online shop is still open for ordering all her usual scrummy stock including the fabulous new line Splendour. I quite fancy a bit of that.

Also out and about with new things to entice you for Christmas crafting is Aurifil threads at M is for Make. I am dying to try these wonder threads out that everyone is raving on about. Also newly in at HQ M is for Make is the new line from Birch Fabrics, Camp Modern. I just love the colourways of this collection and the designs. It shouts winter wonderland to me and if you haven't used these organic fabrics before, believe me you will love them. They are so crisp and a pleasure to sew with.

 Fancy a little dress making this holidays? Alice at Backstitch has a wonderful array of patterns newly in, including the fabulous Washi Dress which is at the top of my list. I'm also very keen to make the Briar Sweater and T Shirt. I think it will be one of those "have to have for every day of the week" tops. Alice has also just got in a couple of the new By Hand London patterns. The Elizalex dress looks perfect if you need to quickly rustle up a special little something. 

The latest collection in at Seamstar is Aneela Hoey's cuter than cute Sew Stitchy. Absolutely perfect for sewing up a few last minute forgotten gifts. Don't forget to check out  Courtney's Christmas Shop for other wonderful Christmassy fabrics and trimmings to dress your gifts.

wind down?

There has definitely been no wind down this week following the completion of Country Living but it has somehow been very relaxing in the process.

What there has been is that much needed time for attention on other things like commissioned orders, FLickr group swap makes, not to mention Chanukah and Christmas present makes.

Here is a look at just some of the things I have managed to tick off this week, clockwise from left to right:

1. Lavender bag sets for a shop order;

2. An Ayumi basket for my niece...to be filled with lots of sewing necessities;

3. a special zipper pouch for a special friend in need;

4. a commissioned wool and screen printed bag and

5. more commissioned work...soon to be pouches

It feel good, really good to get on top of things and have time for more than just CL makes.

Next week will be even better.

giveaway result and an overview...

I left you with a giveaway last week while I disappeared off to Harrogate for a few days for the Country Living Fair - more on that in a mo.

So were you lucky? Have you won your choice of Mimosa bundle?

Drum roll please...

 The lucky winner is Irene Garcia Diaz! (email me your address and your choice of Mimosa!)

If you weren't lucky enough to win a bundle, you can always go here and treat yourself to some anyway. You really will want to give it a try.

So Country Living Fair...how did it go?

It all started last Wednesday with my good friend Mr D helping me set up. His help was invaluable. The less said about Mr L having work commitments taking him to London, despite having it in his diary for months, the better.

Pretty swiftly we had it looking like this. All set and ready for the onslaught of predicted visitors.

Four effortful, exhausting days later and I rewarded myself with this...

quite honestly it wasn't really a question of reward...I wasn't capable of much else last night!

On balance I had a fantastic few days. I met up with a lot of buddies that I only see at fairs - Catherine and her lovely Mum were a couple of stands in one direction, Charlotte was a couple of stands the other way and Manda was diagonally opposite, although to be honest why the organisers put a stand in the way to block our immediate view I have no idea. We will have to have words. Rachelle and Tracy were a little far away for too many chats (more words needed) but it was definitely a highlight to finally meet this fab pair. Of course meeting up with the massive support network of the Soupers in person was fantastic too. As for all you wonderful peeps that were visiting and came by to say hi, bringing me cups of water, tea, loo breaks or just to introduce yourselves, I really appreciated it so thank you.

As for the fair itself as a business success? The jury is out as to whether it is an experience I will repeat. It is a very stressful time of year with busy online sales and keeping up with stockist top ups, not to mention remembering to say hi and feed my children. Getting ready for CL added to the stress at this time and I'm not convinced that the end result justified the chaos we have lived in over the last few weeks and indeed months.

Having said that, I'm very keen to look into Glasgow for next year...just shoot me now!

Giveaway...!

 This week's kind sponsor giveaway is from the lovely Alice of Backstitch. 

The fabric on offer is a bundle of 6 Mimosa Linen/Cotton blends in an array of beautiful colours.
Mimosa is a great value linen too. At just £10.50/m for a wider width of 136cm.

It is a lovely soft fabric with a fairly open weave and works really well for all manner of projects, from quilting to general craft to dress-making with it's lovely soft drape.

 The image above is a beautiful quilt Alice made. The jewelled colours are stunning and I bet the quilt is so cosy.

 Alice sent me a bundle of these colours above to have a play with and whilst I am itching to make a quilt myself out of the Mimosa, it just ain't happening this week!

Instead I made this little pinnie for the fair this week.

(The pattern is an adaptation from Aunty Cookie's pattern available here.) I teamed it with some of my Scruffy Daisy in Coral which matched perfectly.

I found the fabric to be perfect for this project. Being so soft, it's going to be dead comfy to wear.

If you would like the chance to get your hands on a bundle for free, Alice is offering one lucky UK/European reader the chance to win a bundle of 6 fabrics.

Head here to see which you would choose and come back and tell us which one!
And for a further 2 comments come back and tell me you follow Alice's blog and also follow her on Twitter. So 3 chances to win this!

The giveaway will be open until this time next week - Tuesday 4 December - which will give you all something to do while I'm here from tomorrow, which is set up day,  until Sunday. If you are in the vicinity I really hope you will manage to come and please do pop by Stand C60 to see all my creations and say hi. It would be so nice to see you!

ps please PLEASE make sure you leave an email address for me to contact you if you are a No Reply blogger.

007...or as near as dammit...

 A while ago I was involved in a very exciting top secret project that I can now scream from the rooftops about!

I was asked if I would like to produce something for a new company called Crafty Creatives that has recently been set up by 2 sisters, Claire and Isobel. You may have come across Crafty Creatives. You may have even already signed up to receive their boxes. Crafty Creatives is a craft club where members get a box crammed full of different crafty bits n bobs once a month.

This is only their 5th box and is already becoming extremely popular.

My input was some screen printed little patches. Each member received a row of 4. It really was fun to be involved in this project and to be a little part of Crafty Creatives.

It is also great fun to see my fabric popping up all over various blogs this week as people are receiving this month's box.

And it is crazily exciting to be side by side with Jo Askey, whose postcard is in the box too. I am a huge fan of Jo's work, so I was squealing like a child at Christmas when I saw this great capture on Janette's blog! (Go check out Janette's fab post if you want to see what else was in the box).

If you got the box, I hope you have lots of fun with it and would love to see what you decide to do with the fabric patches! And if you do make something, please feel free to post them here for all to see!

A winner and a sponsor offer...

First up the winner of the fabulous Green Bee pattern giveaway from Annie at The Village Haberdashery is...

Metro Quilter who would, like a lot of us, like to try out the Diamond Ring Pattern. Well done Metro Quilter and thank you all for entering and if, unlike Metro Quilter, you were unsuccessful, do go check out the patterns again and treat yourself to a little cheer-me-up purchase ;-)

Speaking of cheering up purchases - should you need a little excuse - Brenda at Pink Castle Fabrics is having a MAHOOSIVE Holiday Weekend sale on now and all over the weekend. There are some fantastic discounts...

25% off the fab Stamped by Ellen Luckett Baker. I just love this line and the colours are great too.

Another favourite with 25% off too is the whimsy fabrics from Yuwa. Some really cool ones.

 There is also 25% off Liberty fabrics and ALL Pre cuts and Bundles!

And if that's not enough, while you are there you can pick up notions and patterns for a 10% discount.

I am pretty sure that by now you hate me - or at least your bank manager does - but just to point out another reason to head over to Pink castle Fabrics...

Do you know about Stash Club? It's Pink castle Fabric's monthly subscription club where you receive a different colour stash of fabulous prints every month. You can choose the number of fabrics you receive and also the size pieces. Lots of options.  I am pretty sure it will be fantastic...so sign up here if you want a fabulous stash of fabric arriving through your door...

So that's it from me today...have a great day and happy shopping!

Thangles...

 Have you come across the wonders of Thangles yet?

If you have, I'm guessing I'm preaching to the converted.

My lovely sponsor Kate of M is for Make sent me a pack to try. Kate is well aware of my love for HSTs and having recently got into these herself knew I would love them.

And how right was she! Have you tried them? Have you??

 To be honest, I wasn't wholly sure that they'd offer me something that I needed. 

How wrong was I???

I absolutely love making HST quilts and to be honest they aren't the most complicated block on the block (see what I did there?!) but what Thangles do do is make a relatively easy block downright pips, cutting out all that boring mindless trimming after you have pieced them all. I mean, how tedious is that stage? 

 Thangles work by cutting the right strip pieces to begin with and then simply sewing along the dotted line and cutting along the solid lines.

THAT IS IT...perfect HSTs every time.

Honestly, to do just these 8 little HSTs trimmed in all their perfection would take unnecessary and tedious trimming time.

With Thangles there is none of that. 

The trickiest thing about working with Thangles is stopping! I've been at it for 2 minutes and already got 2 projects on the go. I started with piecing some LV with reds and secondly with greens. Greens? I don't do greens, but am rather finding that I do.

Anyway enough from me and the wonders of Thangles. Go see them for yourself. In fact go check out Kate's beautiful HST quilt she made for a wedding gift. Not only is it stunning, but I'm betting Kate enjoyed every second of creating it, thanks to Thangles.

Kate has packs to make HSTs from anything from 1" up to 4".

 I'm using 2.5" for these 2 projects but am thinking I'd like to make a larger quilt with 4" HSTs...

**pops off to purchase a couple of packs before Kate sells out...**

Oh and did I mention Kate is very kindly offering 10% off all purchases of Thangles before the end of November. Simply quote "thangle" at the checkout.

And one final thing...if you aren't signed up to Kate's Newsletter, then you must. She regularly has things you need to know about...including announcing her Black Friday Sale this weekend...you don't want to miss out on hearing about that! 
Go sign up at the bottom here!