Taking a break

Just to let you know that at the end of this week I'll be taking a break and all orders placed between 1st and 6th May will be posted on 7th May.

Happy Friday!

Friday is upon us again and here is a round up of news and what has caught my eye this week.

So much lovely new fabric arrived this week, seeing it all together (above) made me realise how pretty it looks, I definitely lean towards these colours at M is for make!

So after pondering it, I caught on the the Great British Sewing Bee this week and watched the final, whilst sewing myself. I really enjoyed the it, they made some amazing jackets and those dresses. I found it reassuring that years of experience won in the end - interesting that this was not the case for the Great British Bake Off where the young'uns did best. Also reassuring to see such experienced sewers making the odd silly mistake (albeit under great pressure and after working for hours on end!)

Head over to the Art Gallery Fabrics for this gorgeous Indian Summer mini quilt tutorial by Quilt Dad. Find Indian Summer here.

What's on my sewing machine this week: much the same as last week! hundreds of crosses... although with the end in in sight, I have been trying to squeeze in as much time as I can on this quilt.

It as left me thinking about the medallion at the centre of this quilt. When I was chosing the fabrics, I couldn't find the right print in the right colour for the greeny-yellow triangles in the centre. In the end I opted for the right print but keep looking at it wishing I had gone for something gold. When I have finished all the borders I am going to decided whether to replace them, as I wonder if I will always wish I had done otherwise.

I was very excited this week to see that one of my favourite artists: Leah Duncan will be bringing out a fabric collection with Art Gallery Fabrics, you can read more about it here, but a little taster for you, (I will be stocking it).

Book recommendations please: with a break coming up I'm looking for easy but good reads - I've been hitting the 99p section on Amazon lately for my Kindle. It's very satisfying buying such a cheap book, but they are not always the best quality read! So if you have read anything great lately - do let me know.

So ... back to my medallion crosses, wishing you a happy weekend!

New: 2wenty Thr3e and Basic Grey from Moda

New in: '2wenty Thr3e' from Moda fabrics.

and these pretty prints from 'Basic Grey'

Happy Friday!

before

It's been a busy few weeks round here, school Easter holidays which included half the family's birthdays and much baking, celebrating, eating and drinking. Happy birthday to my boys. 

after

• Spring has definitely been in the air this week and my thoughts have turned to growing stuff. I was given James Wong's Home Grown Revolution for Christmas. It's a really great book with some amazing plants that I have never heard of before.  Despite having a tiny, shady garden, I rushed out and bought some wonderful sounding seeds; Cucamelon, Tomatillo to name a few. Suttons seeds have a collection here. The book tells you about growing them, cooking them, after a few sightings of that glowing orb in the sky this week, it feels like time to get sowing. (These amazing raised borders are sadly not mine, but my mum's - I still had fun digging them though.)

 

Some great tutorials for you:

• Learn how to do a scalloped hem
• A great tutorial for a cute apron
• A gorgeous Starburst quilt pattern by Sukie

• What's on my sewing machine: heading towards the end of my medallion quilt. Still some work to go though as I have A LOT of these crosses to make, like most of the detail on this quilt, it never seems as tricky or repetitive as I expect when I actually get into it. I am very much looking forward to finishing this quilt but also a little sad about it too.
• The Great British Sewing Bee: tell me what you think. I have to admit, I have not been drawn into it the same way as I was with the Great British Bake off and after Tilly left, I have rather let episodes accumulate on the box. Are you enjoying it, should I give it a try? I would love to see more sewing on the TV, I did enjoy the Young Tailor of the year competition that was on some time ago. The skills and projects on show there were amazing.
• and finally, the obligatory pet picture, they made me do it.

Happy weekend all!

Yay Day in stock

Selected prints from 'Yay Day' as well as some re-stocked popular prints are now available here.

Indian Summer by Sarah Watson

New in: Indian Summer by Sarah Watson, you can find it here.

In the Forest now in stock (and holiday opening times update)

The gorgeous 'In the Forest' collection by Steffie Brocoli for Cloud 9 Fabrics has just arrived.

If you would like some inspiration on what to make from this wonderful fabric, then head over to the Cloud 9 fabrics blog.

In other news, as the Easter school holidays are here, I will be taking a break and all orders placed between the 4th and 10th April will be posted on the 11th. So if you need this fabric sooner rather then later, then head over to the shop!