Holiday opening hours

With school half term next week, I'll be taking a break and all orders placed between 24th and 30th May will be posted on 31st May. Have a good week!

Pins and tins and other things

The humble patchwork pin. Florence introduced me to these, and I'm so glad she did. My old pins were getting a bit blunt and prone to snagging threads when used, so the idea of something a bit finer and more friendly towards fabric was very appealing. These pins are finer, a bit longer and more flexible making them really easy to guide through layers of fabric. They have been wonderful for my medallion quilt.

The box they come in is a bit of a fiddle to open so when wandering around a new Paperchase at the weekend (one of my favourite shops being obsessed with stationary as I am) I found these tiny 'collectable' tins that are perfect for homing my lovely patchwork pins.

I do have a bit of a thing about haberdashery too, and have been using these great Clover wonder clips when sewing the binding on my quilt, they are so much easier than pinning like I usually do.

Binding is my favourite bit of making a quilt, or maybe choosing the fabrics, let's say both. I like the slow pace of binding, tidying up the rough edges and making it look perfect and finished. I like sitting under the new weight of it on my sofa, while it's still perfect and all mine.

Happy weekend

Happy Friday all, the weekend is around the corner, he's some random things I have been up to and that have caught my eye on the interwebs this week.

Feels like the weather to garden at last, I have been painting plant pots to match our front door; easy and fun. I love having a cheery plant to welcome us, I don't so much love trying to remember to water the poor thing.

There are some great tutorials over on the Art Gallery fabrics website, this sewing machine cover looks good.

I have been dreaming about fabric collections coming later this year, don't they look pretty together? these are Koi by Rashida Coleman-Hale for Cloud 9 Fabrics and Tule by Leah Duncan.

Happy to say I have got a fair bit of sewing done this week, I am finally quilting my medallion quilt. I intended to quilt in straight lines but took a wrong turn in the centre and now it's on diagonals, it looks much better. A happy accident.

My beloved sewing pals have been available throughout for feedback on the quilt's comfiness.

The kids and I watched all of the videos by the amazing CSA Astronaut Chris Hadfield this week, they are an absolute must see. Highlights include him wringing out a flannel (yes - really!) and watching him singing David Bowie's "Space Oddity" is an unexpectedly moving experience. If you have kids you must watch them all on YouTube, if you don't have kids, you must watch them all on YouTube.

Not quite so meaningful, but entertaining none the less, is watching someone try and feed Ryan Gosling cereal.

It's the Portland Quilt Market right now, I'll be following the pictures on Instagram to see glimpses of the beautiful booths and upcoming fabric collections. You can search for them all here.

So whether you are sewing, wringing out flannels in boring old gravity or actually feeding Ryan Gosling cereal (lucky you) - happy weekend!