quilting magic...

Every now and then my fabrics have the opportunity to be turned into something magical by talented quilters.

This time the incredibly talented Jane of quiltjane has weaved her amazing magic with some scraps of my fabrics.

Take a look at what Jane did here...

...be prepared to be amazed.

In the meantime, for the opportunity to weave some magic of your own with Anna Maria Horner's Field Study, don't forget to enter my giveaway here.

what's new...Stateside...

Boy has Brenda been stocking up!

Pink Castle Fabrics is now stocked to the rafters with all the latest and best lines out there.

The Liberty has started rolling in and she expects to be fully stocked on that by the end of next month.

 Mama Said Sew has landed and as you would expect the texty prints are selling out fast. It's a great great line and if you haven't discovered it yet, you won't be letting this pass you by, trust me.

 You can find all the Robert Kaufman Spots on Dots collection...all 65 of them!

Then there's Melody Miller's Ruby Star Vinyl. What fun! Love them, particularly this print below.

Did I mention that all this week Brenda is doing 20% off of all precuts and bundles in the shop.  That includes FQ packs of full lines (and a little FQ pack of Liberty) ? No? Well I have now, so what are you waiting for??

Have a great weekend!

giveaway...and a weekend offer!

Unless you have been sleeping all summer, you will be as excited as I am to see the arrival of Anna Maria Horner's new collection Field Study in our stores.

 As ever, Anna Maria has given us yet another to-die-for collection and Field Study is no exception.

A sense of adventure and the idea of investigating the natural world up close and from afar was at the core of every print that Anna Maria Horner created for Field Study.

 Whilst there is something for everyone in this collection, it will come as no surprise that my favourites are Sundials and Corodinates, but I am rather drawn to Raindrops and Specimen. 

The question is, what are your favourites? And this is a decision you do need to make as my lovely sponsor M is for Make is offering a bundle of any 6 FQs of your choice to 1 lucky winner.

3 chances to win this fab prize...

1. leave a comment letting me know which design grabs you most...

2. sign up to Kate's newsletter (scroll down to the bottom here) and come back and let me know...

3. Follow Kate's blog and come back and let me know here.

Giveaway open (to UK residents only this time I'm afraid) until end of next week, Friday 5 Oct...oh and please make sure you have an email I can get you on, otherwise I will have to redraw. Bossy, I know, but needs must.

Other great news, Kate is offering 15% off everything over the weekend but is kindly opening that early to you lovely blog readers and is available now (now, I said, go, go, GO!). Simply enter Blueberry at the checkout any time from now until 8pm GMT Mon 1 Oct.

Good luck and happy shopping!

 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... ;-)

what's new...

It's that time of year when there are lots of new fabric lines entering our shops and The Village Haberdashery has some great new collections landing.

Storyboek Two, organic cottons from Birch fabric is just as whimsical and fun as the first and includes this very cute bunny and fox design. 

I am so excited about Oh Deer by Momo and can envisage plenty of Christmas related projects with the fabulous Deer in cherry.

For something a bit different go check out the sophisticated Indie from Art Gallery fabrics. I particularly love the Tapestry design which will be a fantastic blender in winter inspired projects.

To make way for all these delicious new fabrics, Annie has thrown even more fabrics into her Sale section...and boy what a sale section. There is 15% off summer hits including Crabtastic, Flea Market Fancy, Alegria, Happy Drawing and Hello Pilgrim. I have a feeling you will need to be quick to grab some of these as well as up to 20% on other lines too.



Head over to the sale section now and explore all the new lines too while you are there.
Happy shopping!

please welcome...oh and the winner is...

So, for the long-awaited, most delayed giveaway results ever, finally we have a winner...

and it is number 9...Gill! Gill has the pleasure of choosing which set of 3 pouches she would like. If you didn't win and would like to make your own pouches, or something else completely from this fab range, head over to Saints and Pinners to get yourself some of the fabric.

Other news today, in case you have been sleeping all weekend and haven't yet heard, is that the wonderful website to get all your Kona solids here in the UK - along with other lovely fabrics - has changed hands from Mandy to Justine.

This is a very exciting new venture for our lovely nurse, quilter, mother of 3 friend and I hope you will all give her a warm welcome.

Justine has big plans for Simply Solids. As well as continuing in Mandy's great footsteps, she has exciting new plans too, which will be revealed over time. Simply Solids offers free postage on every order over £15and Justine would love to hear from you if you would like certain colours stocking and other collections. Personally, I'm after her stocking Quilter's Linen...

To welcome Justine Lynne is doing a giveaway, so head over to her blog to read all about it and enter.

To celebrate the launch Justine is offering for this weekend only, every order will receive a free random FQ for every £10 spent in the shop. The offer will run from today thru to midnight on Monday 17th September!! What are you waiting for...GO!!

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!

weekend shopping...

Saturday morning, first weekend back at school and no lie in for me. I'm up early to get myself to The Makers' Fair in Saltaire. If you have nothing on today and you fancy a day out do come along. The Makers' Fair is an awesome event full of wonderful original work (crack on with early Christmas gifts, you'll be pleased you did!) and if you do come please do stop and say hi!

Just before you go I wanted to let you know of a couple of awesome sales with 2 of my sponsors for this weekend only. The nights are drawing in - hey, it's a fact, don't shoot the messenger - perfect opportunity to stock up with sewing needs.

First up Saints and Pinners are having a crazy flash sale...25% off everything! What are you waiting for?? (No code needed...works it out at the checkout)

Over in the US at Pink Castle Fabrics there's 25% off all Kokka fabrics.Now that is worth rushing over for. Just enter KOKKA25 at the checkout for that one. With that discount it's certainly worth having a bundle shipped over.

Hope you have a great weekend whatever you are doing x

the changing of minds...

 So, the Low Volume quilt for our bed has had various transformations while I searched for just the right block design.

You may remember it started life as a Log Cabin on Sunday...

 Early yesterday morning it had morphed into HSTs...

 And before the day was even out it had changed again into straight line piecing cut within an inch of its life. 

I woke up dreaming (yes, literally dreaming) of wonky windmill blocks, having gone to bed wowing at this beauty and finding this ace tutorial.

My Tuesday running buddy was coming round at 8.30 so I was hard pushed to do a trial block before then....I am seriously my own worst enemy.

That said, I am now 100% sure (yeah, right, until the next change of plan) that this is the block I am going to use. 

The log cabin would have been too busy, even if it is Low Volume...

the HST gorgeous, but too full-on for a king sized bed (yes, Charlotte, you were right...I do listen)...

as for the straight line piecing, I have no idea where that one was going.

I'm hoping the wonky windmills will be easy on the eye, be as asymmetric and random as I like and still be the one I love when it eventually gets onto the bed.

Now I have made a decision this will now have to be put on a shelf high up out of temptations way. I have a lot on. And I mean a lot. And if I'm good I'll let myself bring it down and do a few blocks for a while.

Ooh I'm so strict.

Summer of the Simpatico...

September already? Wow where did the summer go?

Amazingly for once I actually got a summer project finished. Well, if you exclude the fact that it isn't actually made into anything, but a completed thing none-the-less.

Summer 2012 will definitely be remembered as Summer of the Simpatico. I did a tutorial of my fold-over pouches for The Daily Stitch - Annie of The Village Haberdashery's blog in Simpatico and I had such a summery, fresh making time with them that I decided that I was going to use the collection for my summer of hexie fun. We spent a lot of time in the car this summer - London for the Olympics, Bristol for family birthdays, mid France via London (again) and Paris. I was in need of a good hand stitching project that could be done on the move as well as picked up in a shady place.

Perfect!

 I am not 100% sure what it will become - possibly a wall hanging, possibly a cushion, but definitely not a quilt! I really really loved sewing these little hexies (just over 1" across!) and loved sewing them together too, but the reality of now the summer is over that it will stay in a corner with all the other "i've-started-but-goodness-knows-when-i'll-ever-finish-it" projects is making me realise that I need to stop here.

Also, to be honest, I'm a tad disappointed with how I've pieced it. The flowers (top pic)  were so lovely when sewn individually but when I began piecing together they all got lost together and looks rather random instead. If I wasn't away and impatient about not wanting to wait to come home and finish (besides, we had a 600 mile journey - I needed some hexie-ness) I would probably have pieced the flowers with solids between so they would show up better. I may trying embroidering in coordinating floss around each flower. They may stand out a little clearer.

Either way Summer of the Simpatico was a very enjoyable one.

Now we are back I have started on the next project. This one may take a while. I have been wanting to make a quilt for our bed for a couple of years. I even started some blocks last year but I was never that enamoured and now I've gone right off them - too much yellow. Yes, you did here correctly. The wallpaper in our room is rather bold and I think what is needed is something a little more easy on the eye. I've been drawn to all the Low Volume creating going on at the moment and thought this was the way to go here. I am also tying my hands behind my back and not including any yellow but a little splash of red. You may remember the gorgeous pillow my lovely friend Kylie sent me at the beginning of this year. The splash of coral red works so beautifully in the room. I am not entirely sure where this quilt is going or where it will end up, but here is the start of Block 1.

I hope you have had a good creative summer (month for you Southern hemisphere peeps) and do link up to Lynne's Fresh sewing Day if you want to see what other people have been up to.