fickle with fabric

 i don't know about you but every now and then a fabric collection comes out that blows me over and i can't imagine there ever being a more perfect fabric line...ever...

and then a different one comes out.

i know...i'm fickle.

i was blown over by cloud 9's simpatico and more recently rashida coleman-hale's tsuru for cloud 9, not to mention heather moore's cut out and keep. ok so i love cloud 9 fabrics (can't wait for Eloise's bark and branch and heather's up up and away) and it goes without saying that i adore everything lotta lansdotter has produced so far.

did i also mention my love for carolyn friedlander's architextures?

see...fickle.

but i think a collection has finally come along that couldn't possibly be more perfect. i don't think i will ever feel the same about another collection...ever.

have you seen tule by leah duncan? i have always been a fan of leah's and am absolutely wrapped at the thought of this collection and what i will do with it.

not only are the colours spot on but the entire collection is so fresh and contemporary yet classic.

i simply can not wait for it. 

and because i simply can not wait (it's out sometime this month for goodness sake) i had to buy these from a previous line of leah's.

i'm not even sure what i was thinking as i bought these on etsy to be delivered to my aunt's in USA...you know how i let her personally bring me over some fabrics to make her feel like she's being kind and doing me a favour (it's good to make people feel wanted). well that's all very well and good but she isn't coming until the end of october.

all very well and good scratching the leah-duncan-must-buy-fabric-now itch but i will be able to get my hands on tule way before i get the above.

still, you can never have too much of a good thing.

so we've established that i am fickle with fabric but think i may have found the one. do you have a collection that has blown you over way more than another? only to be usurped by the next collection on the block?

do tell.

a house full of lewis'...

 the bristol branch of the lewis's came to play this week...well 5/6 of them and since there are still only 4/5 of us until sam comes home on sunday after 3 1/2 weeks away (counting down the days? i think so!) we were down by 2, which only meant a little more room around the table at meal times.

i love my in laws...i really really do...and feel very lucky that people i would choose as my friends are my in laws.

and since top on their list of things to do whilst up with us was to do some screen printing, i love them even more!

even the boys wanted their turn. how cute are these despicable me characters?!

not only are they so lovely, they are a talented bunch my in laws.

my sis in law is just the best. 

i just wish she lived closer....it might just mean our timing would be better and we wouldn't look quite such unsynchronised non-starters in the photo booth.

imbetween all the over-excited jolliness there was a photo shoot for this thing that shall not be named yet. i packed the family off to bolton abbey for the day and temporarily got down to business.

yesterday was ruby's birthday and her choice of day trips was brimham rocks.

it's our absolute favouritest place ever and surprisingly we hadn't taken the bristol clan there before and so for those that don't have a fear of heights, an exhilerating time was had.

we didn't have to go too far to have fun with this lot...

a trip down to the park and a race on the field would all have ended happily if an over competitive mr leeds lewis hadn't got a little too enthusiastic and pulled a groin muscle all in the name of fun.

thankfully stopping for a swift pint on the way home seemed to make everything ok again.

last night was a tearful farewell after a really special week.

the only thing to cheer me up was a printing sesh today...which in itself was the start of something rather exciting.

ig/blog update...oh and a new pinnie

 thank you all for leaving your comments on the previous post. it was really interesting what came out of it and what i pretty much thought...

in an ideal world we would all love to sit down and read each others blogs on a daily basis and leave comments and interact.

and we do try and do this, particularly when there is an interesting process and project we would like to read more about.

in reality this doesn't always happen and IG (sorry, instagram...i apologise Su for being lazy and using the abbreviation) is certainly a way of keeping up even if in a somewhat transient kind of way.

what was also interesting was most comments were left by those of you that don't do instagram (am trying not to be lazy Su) and does that mean that instagrammers have on the whole ditched blogs?

some interesting things to come out of it but on the whole the feeling is we love blogs and hope they are here to stay.

and in the spirit of supporting blogs and giving more details behind the pics i'll leave you with a little extra blurb today...

as i have been hinting - and still can't really say too much about but not long now i promise - i am involved in a big exciting project. this project involves a photo shoot which is taking place on tuesday. in the name of presentation i needed a clean apron for this photo shoot so rather than idly lying in bed this jolly sunday morning i was up with the larks, hangover n all, making a new apron for the aforementioned event.

it's a great roomy cover all hardy kind of apron, with a nice big roomy pocket.

it should do the job rather nicely...well it is clean at least.

future of blogs...

 here's a thing...

do blogs have a future?

or have the likes of IG taken over?

i am a huge fan of IG and use it daily...several times a day...and as a consequence i feel that maybe we get all we need from sites like that. 

a quick fix of visual information. 

and when we blog we are repeating what we have posted there. or is that just me getting lazy? or am i over using and over posting on places like IG leaving nothing fresh for my blog?

take this quilt for example. those that follow me on IG have seen all these pics. so do you want to see them again here?

i have to admit that i do like my blogs to have pictures...pretty pictures and i think this is why IG works for me. i can see what people are up to and interact with them in real time.

IG generally gives me all i need and i think there are plenty of others like me about as it seems visitor numbers on blogs have dropped off as have comment postings.

what do you think? i'd love to know. do you still read blogs as avidly as you once did? or do other sites do it for you?

busy old week

 lots of activity at bp headquarters this week...

:: a rush on baby boy cards, altho sadly none for george alexander louis...

:: redesigning triangle mania image in an attempt to have it repeatable...that means larger fabric panels...that means excitement!

:: back to putting the advent calendar kits on a screen...apparently some people think it's time to start thinking about christmas...ugghhh...

:: however i am rather pleased with the 2013 update...a resting rudolph on xmas day!

:: a project half done...printed and all ready to sew...what will it be?

:: and even time spent on the glimma quilt...fmq'ed to an inch of its life and being bound as we speak...

:: i love weeks like this...constructive and fun and still 2 days left to get more ticked off...

smug? moi? no, just happy x

a little spot of dress making...

 i have been pretending that i'm a dress-maker this weekend.

seriously, i am such a novice dress maker that i have only ever tackled pjs and more recently the staple dress before.

but having searched the high street for summer dresses for ruby and finding nothing and then seeing the gorgeous charlotte sporting a beautiful make from the equally gorgeous Leila's pattern, with my limited dress making skills i thought "i can do that".

and apparently i can!...as long as you don't look too closely at the wibbly wobbly shirring.

next up, full of false confidence after the relative success of a let's face it a rectangular dress, i opened up my newly delivered washi dress pattern thinking i was up to the job.

well whatdya know i was!

the only thing disappointing about the outcome of this top is that i didn't opt to make the full length dress...next time.

having made and successfully being able to wear this item (it actually fits...bust seams n all!) i am now a newly converted dress maker. i'm hooked! 

i'm thinking i may even be up to tackling some of the pieces in the japanese books i have been collecting. 

how difficult can they be? 

over confident? moi?...

pretty practical...

 yesterday began with a quick much needed project.

the loo door is half glass and when we first moved in i put up a temporary scratty piece of fabric to tide us over...that was 9 years ago now...ahem...

every time i sat on the loo i was reminded that i really needed to rectify this.

9 years is obviously plenty of time to decide just what i wanted up there.

having played around with doily prints recently and having developed a recent penchant for this colour ways having been inspired by this print i put 2 and 2 together and whipped up this piece of fabric.

it was a case of layering up the colours using the lovely warm sunshine to speed up the drying process...

it started with pale pink...followed swiftly by some ochre...

and finally a splash of gunmetal grey.

4 stitched edges and an insert of ribbon and i'm wondering why it took my 9 years.

i'll have time now to think of other things while frequenting the littlest room in the house.